"DON'T ASK, DON'T TELL" STUDY HEARINGS

On 30 November 2010, the Pentagon released the Report of the Comprehensive Review of the Issues Associated with a Repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.”

Key figures…

From the bottom of Page 3/top of Page 4 of the report:

The results of the survey are best represented by the answers to three questions:

When asked about how having a Service member in their immediate unit who said he or she is gay would affect the unit’s ability to “work together to get the job done,” 70% of Service members predicted it would have a positive, mixed, or no effect.

When asked “in your career, have you ever worked in a unit with a co-worker that you believed to be homosexual,” 69% of Service members reported that they had.

When asked about the actual experience of serving in a unit with a co-worker who they believed was gay or lesbian, 92% stated that the unit’s “ability to work together” was “very good,” “good,” or “neither good nor poor.”

This was followed by two days of hearings in front of the Senate Armed Service Committee.

No surprise… Senator John McCain (R-AZ) is against repeal.

In fact he had the gall to say this about Admiral Mike Mullen and SECDEF Robert Gates and their qualification to serve in their leadership roles:

"I'm paying attention to the commandant of the Marine Corps. I'm paying attention to the other three service chiefs who have serious concerns. They are the four guys who are directly in charge. In all due respect, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs is not directly in charge of the troops. The Secretary of Defense is a political appointee who's never been in the military."

First, let’s review a list of commands that Admiral Mullen has held:

USS Noxubee (AOG-56)

USS Goldsborough (DDG-20)

USS Yorktown (CG-48)

George Washington Battle Group

Cruiser-Destroyer Group Two

NATO Striking Fleet Atlantic

US Second Fleet

Allied Joint Force Command Naples

U.S. Naval Forces Europe

Chief of Naval Operations

Other roles he has held in the Navy: Company Officer at Annapolis, Bureau of Naval Personnel as Director, Chief of Planning and Provisions, and Surface Officer Distribution

It sounds like to me someone has experience commanding troops and recognizes that his decisions have an impact on the people that he leads.

I also believe that having Chief of Naval Operations on your resumé speaks volumes about being able to command ALL of our Sailors and Marines.

Oh… Mr. Gates served in the Air Force as a Second Lieutenant from 1967-69. Even though it is not a requirement to have been in the military for Defense Secretary, McCain’s statement that Mr. Gates did not serve is grossly blatantly false.

Do you think that Admiral Mullen reads the papers and watches television and it led him to retort with this statement during the hearings on December 2?

At the end of the clip, Mr. Gates makes a good point about how this study was not a referendum asking the troops opinions. Again… some words of wisdom that I got while I was in the service:

“We’re here to defend democracy; not practice it.”

As I have stated before in a previous rant (scroll down a while to find it), I do not recall there being a study group or the Captain asking when would be a good time to deploy to the Middle East when I was on the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson (CVN-70). (If there was, I must have been given special liberty). You may have one policy one day and then suddenly Chief comes down without warning and implements a new policy and you follow it. And if you don’t like it…. You still follow it!

Fellow veterans and I have this specific issue with this whole repeal process of DADT: Do our elected officials, specifically those of the Republican Party, believe that our military cannot follow orders? We have heard all the reasons why DADT should stay in place, and all of them do not make any sense at all.

I am certain that if our armed forces can carry out a complex order such as deploying overseas, then they certainly can carry out the order of “The policy of DADT is repealed.”

The brass provided their answer when Senator Mark Udall (D-CO) asked the question in this clip:

To me this sounds like the brass saying they would get in line if the Senate repeals DADT.

Old Man McCain’s rebuttal….

Wait… that was McCain

In 2006….

Okay… here is McCain in 2010:

Reason finally prevails in this hearing. Both Senators Evan Bayh (D-IN) and Claire McGaskil (D-MO) state very good points, but the one that stood out the most was from Senator Scott Brown (R-MA).

Not only is Senator Brown the junior Senator from Massachusetts but he is also a Lieutenant Colonel in the US Army National Guard serving as a JAG Lawyer.

“I've had the opportunity to visit Walter Reed. And you know, I still can't get out of my mind the one time I saw a soldier who lost both his legs, lost an arm and lost most of another arm, doing crunches, you know, to try to get his torso strengthened enough so he could still have a viable, you know, and fulfilling life; and seeing many other injured men and women, you know, who've not only given their lives -- their limbs, but their lives. And I've been to many funerals, unfortunately, in my home state, for those soldiers. And one thing I never asked was: Are they -- are they gay or straight? It never even crossed my mind, to be honest with you. I just wanted to know if they -- if they gave their limb or their life, you know, with pride and with honor for our country.”

Senator Brown is right. There was a man who did sacrifice and did with it with that honor and pride that the Senator did talk about.

Those who stand in the way of Repeal of DADT, it is time to face reality:

It is over!