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Weary of war but ready for action: American soldiers set their sights on delights of Rio

Beaches, bars and women draw rising numbers to Brazil By Tom Phillips*

It was just after 11pm on a Friday and First Lieutenant Brian Feldmayer, a baby-faced 25-year-old from the US army, was preparing to lead his troops into action.

He spirited his men out of the vehicle and swept towards the crowd, flanked by officers Mark Browne, a field artillery operator, and Kirk Bailey, a 25-year-old sharpshooter. The three glanced up and down the bustling street, then at each other, and began moving towards their target. Normally the setting would have been Iraq, where the men from Fort Collins, Colorado, have served since 2005..

But this was not Baghdad. It was the entrance to Baronetti, one of Rio de Janeiro's most exclusive nightclubs.

Just a few weeks ago Lt Feldmayer and his colleagues were hunting al-Qaida operatives in Balad, a town in the Sunni Triangle not far from where 10 British servicemen died when an RAF aircraft was shot down in 2005. Tonight the targets were of a different kind: scantily clad Brazilian women.

Rio has long been a tourist favourite, attracting around 2 million foreigners each year. But that number is now being bolstered by a growing number of war-weary North American servicemen keen to unwind. It is now the hot ticket for US soldiers and military contractors based in the most dangerous corners of the globe. According to the head of one US tour company that offers 10-day packages to Rio for around $3,000 (£1,520) and expects to bring around 300 soldiers and contractors to Brazil this year, the number of military customers has quadrupled since the beginning of the Iraq war.

"We're making up for lost time," said Lt Mark Browne, a tank operator with the trademark short-back-and-sides, as he prepared for his seventh consecutive night on the tiles after a year spent operating a Howitzer cannon in Iraq.

For Lt Feldmayer and his men the trip is part of 30 days' ordinary leave from the army after 12 months in the Middle East. Private security forces and contractors from companies such as Halliburton and Control Risks Group are also heading for the beaches of Rio in search of tender loving care.

Other US soldiers come as part of the Rest and Recuperation scheme, under which the US government allows up to 15 days' holiday, with transport paid for, intended to "provide respite from hostile fire and imminent danger areas".

Created in 2004, the scheme is geared towards soldiers involved in Operation Enduring Freedom or Operation Iraqi Freedom based in 16 countries, including Afghanistan, Iraq, Kuwait, Pakistan, Syria, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.

According to the army website, "the purpose is to provide relief to servicemen and women and DoD [Department of Defence] civilians and enable them to get away from the stress of the combat mission - if only for a little while".

Many R&R soldiers head home, while others make for government-run recreation centres in Germany, Korea, Orlando or Hawaii. For the remainder, Rio is now one of the top choices.

The heaving dance floor of Baronetti, a few blocks from Ipanema beach, is certainly a world away from the bloodshed of US "combat theatres". Tables here cost up to 1,500 Brazilian reals (£360), while the 30-metre bar is packed with hundreds of bottles of expensive whisky, champagne and vodka.

"You know, I don't really like to talk about it [the war]. But after the worst year of my life, this has made it one of the best," said Lt Feldmayer, sitting by a small table cluttered with cans of Red Bull, orange juice and two bottles of vodka. "Being in a situation where you're always worried about the road erupting underneath you is really not cool ... it's difficult, trying to keep yourself and the people around you alive all the time. For us, this trip was always the light at the end of the tunnel."

One of the companies behind this new influx to Brazil is Miami-based Tours Gone Wild, which promises customers the "vacation of a lifetime" in Rio. The TGW website features photo galleries of "Brazil Girl hotties" where busty and bronzed Brazilian women smile enticingly into the camera. It also presents a two-minute promotional video where muscle-bound men admire bottom-wiggling women in upmarket nightclubs.

"They [the military] kind of found us by accident," said Santiago Mejia, the company's co-founder. "At first it was crazy. These guys started emailing us from tents in Iraq. Now we get emails and calls ... from Afghanistan, Iraq, Germany and Kuwait."

Tour promoters say they operate a "don't ask, don't tell" policy about the excesses of clients' trips. "If they want to find Help, they're going to find it," said Mr Mejia, referring to Rio's most famous prostitution joint, in Copacabana.

The temptations of nocturnal Rio far outweigh the opportunity to visit Sugar Loaf mountain or tour one of the city's shantytowns ("I've seen enough of that in Iraq," says Lt Feldmayer on hearing that favela tours are popular among tourists in Rio).

As well as upmarket nightclubs in Rio's beachside districts, trips to the city's massage parlours are popular, although Tours Gone Wild's directors insist their guides are forbidden from taking their clients to such hangouts.

A top attraction on the military trail is the Termas Centaurus in Ipanema, where for a cover price of 320 Brazilian reals you are given a white dressing gown and the pick of its high-class call girls.

Mr Mejia said the tours had proved so successful that most of their military clients now came because of a colleague's recommendation.

"Some of my friends are nervous about coming to Rio," said Lt Feldmayer of his colleagues in Iraq. "They see the crime, they hear about the problems. But I'll tell all the guys about this trip. And I guarantee you that in the next two years, 65% of them will come and do the same thing."

In fact the seemingly non-stop hedonism seemed tempered by just one detail: the thought of returning to Iraq. "Do I want to be there? Do any of us want to be there?" said Lt Feldmayer who, after two strong vodka cocktails, was in reflective mood. "Of course not."

He looked across the dance floor. "But at least we are here now. This has really turned the year around."

Backstory

In the 1950s, during the Korean war, prostitutes known as "military comfort women" flocked to "rest and recreation" sites in South Korea to earn money from troops. During the Vietnam war, Bangkok was at the centre of a huge influx of soldiers, with troops dubbing rest and recreation excursions "intoxication and intercourse breaks". Saigon became a nightlife hotspot in the mid-1970s as GIs kicked back in bars and brothels, spawning huge prostitution and drugs industries. Little has been written about the sexual escapades of troops based in Iraq, although reports have emerged of at least one brothel in Baghdad's Green Zone. Some suggest that because Iraq is Islamic, and because of high danger levels outside camps, soldiers have looked to other regions. The increase in women soldiers is also cited as a reason for a decline in war zone "comfort stations".