Sense of humour failure? In the event described that did not happen, at all, ever, the opinion of most was that the use of the .50 for this purpose was a marvellous act of masculinity in the finest military tradition, whilst the total lack of precautions was an act of sheer stupidity that, rumour has it, resulted in a shotgun marriage. Good drills.
Seriously though, when you put large numbers of young men and women in the same place, without much to do other than work, these things are bound to happen. I would say that it is unrealistic to expect soldiers even (or especially) on operations to remain wholly chaste, especially given the increasing tour lengths they are being asked to do.
However, I disagree with court-martialling pregnant female soldiers, for a two reasons. Firstly, contraception is the responsibility of both people involved, and I would be surprised to see a male soldier court-martialled for impregnating a female soldier. Secondly, what happens when a female soldier becomes pregnant at home before deployment, or on R&R during a deplyment? She still becomes non-deployable and someone else still has to cover for her, yet no-one has suggested courts-martial, or that people should seek permission from their chain of command to start families. Some form of action should be taken to discourage it, and contraception should be (and is) freely available.
Anyway, if, as was suggested, someone is willing to get themselves pregnant to get out of a deployment, are they really the kind of person that you want there in the first place?
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