Millions of gays poised to solve our military manpower shortages
Oh, wait, we don’t have a military manpower shortage, do we? But the New York Times, in a link sent by TSO seems to think that there are “hundreds” of gays just waiting for Don’t Ask, Don’t tell to end;
Yet despite their bitter partings with the armed forces, many gay men and lesbians who were discharged under the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy say they want to rejoin the service, drawn by a life they miss or stable pay and benefits they could not find in civilian life.
By some estimates, hundreds of gay men and lesbians among the more than 13,000 who were discharged under the policy have contacted recruiters or advocacy groups saying they want to re-enlist after the policy is repealed on Sept. 20.
And then they go on to give us five examples. One was outed with an anonymous email to his commander. Whoever did that was a chickenshit and the commander probably shouldn’t have discharged him based on a clearly vindictive email, another admitted he was outwardly gay among his unit. WIth the exception of the guy who was outed, the others who outed themselves shouldn’t be allowed back in the military because if they violated that policy, which was clearly in their favor if they were so excited to be in the military, who knows what policy they’ll violate next time because they disagree with it.
I have nothing against gays being the military, I was opposed to people who can’t abide by the policy, any policy, serving. Dan Choi brought his troubles on himself, and he was obviously against all policies that restricted him from serving the way he saw fit…and he saw fit to punch a subordinate in the chest years before he decided that DADT was wrong. So allowing activists like Choi wear the uniform again goes against everything that holds the military together, in my view.
Category: Military issues
Apparently these folks, along with the NY Times, forgot to read the part of the UCMJ and the various service regs that deal with, (Altogether now!) “prejudicial to good order and discipline.”
And I’m not talking Choi’s idea of discipline, either.
I only sent this because it is quite possibly the most idiotic article in the Pantheon of Idiotic Articles ever written by NYT.
I don’t have a problem with openly gay men and women serving, but you abide by the policies in effect.
My guess is that Choi wouldn’t go back in, even if he was invited to. He’s getting the attention he wants being out — and yes, I mean that both ways. Where he is now, he’s a pampered darling, who might get arrested on a bad day. If he goes back into the military, he’ll be expected to hold up his end of the stick, he won’t be pampered at all, and it’s possible he could be maimed or killed on a bad day. Being Choi, which do you think he’ll choose?
I don’t think you’ll see a whole lot of gay activists signing up. They already have other things to do.
Quoting the article:”Michael Almy is another. When the Air Force began its investigation into whether he was gay, it suspended his security clearance and relieved him of his command. On his final day in service in 2006, police officers escorted him to the gate. “It left kind of a bitter taste,” he said. ”
WTF? In my unit we had two druggies and a dude who was court martial-ed. They were escorted by NCO’s. I sense stolen valor or Mr. Almy is only telling half the truth.
If he was being chaptered, *as an officer* shouldn’t he have just been escorted by another officer? Or maybe outprocessed himself?
If he is telling the truth…I suspect he did something boneheaded and DADT was the only thing his command could make stick.
It’s all Liberace’s fault.
Last I saw somebody being discharged for DADT they weren’t escorted at all. They outprocessed just like anybody else getting out after they served their first year. Of course he is going to beef it up because they still want to make the military look like a bunch of homophobic cavemen.
Wait, Liberace was gay?
from ribbons to bows in one generation
This is one of the few things I disagree with on your blog, John.
Equality before the law for gays and lesbians is sad joke.
PD–horseshit. You saying that gays and lesbians were somehow persecuted during DADT, or before?
I’m here to tell you, as have most of us here, that we’ve ALL known at least one person who was gay/lesbian or at the very least bisexual. One guy in my division on my first boat was bi. Nicest guy you’d ever want to meet, but swung both ways and everyone knew it (this was pre-DADT.)
And yet the guy did his job, didn’t make an issue of his sexuality, and moved on. The only reason he didn’t retire or go back to the boat is he became HIV-positive.
So please, spare us the fucking histrionics. Most of the discharges under DADT are people who “discovered” they were gay/lesbian when it was convenient for them to do so; i.e., you mean I’m gonna have to deploy? Oh, shit!
#11
I was in ’72-75, while away at TI and Oaknoll Naval Hospital because of a fucked up knee a, 2nd class (E-5) was driven insane by fire rooms 1 & 2. What was the guys great crime? A shemale hooker had gone down on him and he told somebody about it.
What do you think they did to actual gays?
#12 PD: in 99.999% of the cases of real homosexuals, not a damned thing. They were chaptered out using a generic term such as ‘incompatibility with military service’ and so on. It’s the 0.001% that makes the press, the rest is urban legend.
After DADT was implemented, the public conveniently forgot the third “D” of DADT: Don’t Pursue (DADTDP). If the a commander received an anonymous tip that one of his/her SM was gay, the tip was (by law) tossed out. Now if the SM was caught by police doing something illegal, or through notification of positive HIV results, or addressed the CO directly and without coercion or by being questioned by the CO. I went through that briefing and had to deal with it with a couple of my soldiers.
What about the thousands RIF’d who had done nothing wrong besides being in the wrong year group & rank due to manpower reductions? Do they get to join back up too?
and seriously–nobody’s picking up on this quote:
“It left kind of a bitter taste,” he said. ” Hah..that IS what he said.
There may be “hundreds” willing to serve, but maybe 10 of them are actually qualified.
For those wanting to come back in? If they’re unwilling to come in at the rank of E4, tough shit.