Quite from being detrimental to health, I would argue that given the operational stresses we are under now - as alluded to in the article - that alcohol can actually be beneficial to health.
At the end of my first tour in Iraq, my friends could see that all wasn't quite right. After a week or so at home, a couple of my closest friends took me to the bar and got me absolutley paralytic until I talked about what I had been through. This was before the days when troops were given decompression after a difficult tour. If my friends hadn't done what they did, I would have still been wound up tighter than a duck's arse and no doubt a basket case a year later. And I would put good money on a significant proportion of current serving personnel on this site using the bar for the same function after a difficult time.
Yes turning up half cut on a regular basis is not the best way to operate, but remember that this is more than a pure hard drinking culture. It is often a safety valve you can't get anywhere else.