Disclaimer- This is my PERSONAL perspective based on my career and my own knowledge…
Since this is obviously a hot topic both in and out of the military, and has been the subject of a number of blogs including THIS POST from Atomic Nerds, and today’s Stars and Stripes (EUR edition) featured a column by Kathleen Parker HERE on page 17. And watching two military lesbians at breakfast (one in uniform, one not; but not hiding their status) kinda kicked this off…
In part, Ms. Parker did allude to a couple of what I consider critical points…
The military is not now, and has never been a democracy; nor is not allowing gays and lesbians to be ‘open’ a violation of their civil rights…
She also alludes to the real motivations for the people pushing this- e.g. real military imperatives or civilian imperatives…
Her closing statement is correct- “Be all that you can be” was a nice recruiting slogan, but the military really is not about you. And the right to serve belongs to no one.
This also brings to mind the arguments raised by the whole WIN thing back in the 70-80’s about women serving in combat billets in the Navy. I served with women in one of the first deployed unit in 1976-77. The CO held an all hands meeting on the hangar deck and said point blank, he ONLY considered us Navy Blue, not by gender, ethnicity, religion or any thing else; he also stated he would NOT tolerate ANY deviations from this. We had no problems…
But women were raising hell about “women” being sent overseas/on ship with ‘their’ men…
A few points-
Make no mistake, gays and lesbians HAVE served with distinction in the military for years. I have served with people whom I’m pretty sure were gays and lesbians, but I didn’t ask and they didn’t tell me. The large majority NEVER came out during their careers, and many of those now “protesting in uniform” are in fact retirees or those who resigned for other reasons.
For those who have served, either on ship or in combat (or both), unit cohesion is a CRITICAL part of that unit’s success or failure. Anything that degrades that cohesion (and/or morale) WILL impact that unit negatively. Also, many cannot understand the rigors of deployment, nor the impact of combat operations.
Try living for 6-8 months in a 20X50 space with 50 other bodies, sharing limited showers, toilets and sinks; and working 12-18 hours a day for days on end. Stress brings out the best/worst in people, ANY personality flaws tend to be magnified (cleanliness, work ethic, morality, religion, drugs/drinking, mental stability, etc.), I’m not JUST talking about men here, women also suffer under the same stressors.
The same occurs in battle- your foxhole buddy is your best friend as long as s/he’s keeping the bad guy off your back…
Just for clarity sake, I also served with a pedophile (whom I helped send to prison when I found out), a murderer (who killed his wife a week after getting a medal for superior performance), and a drug dealer (who is still doing time in Leavenworth).
I have relatives who are both gay and lesbian, and have lived next door to and been friends with a gay couple in San Jose.
I have no problem with people living their own lifestyles, as long as it doesnāt DIRECTLY impact me, or they try to force that lifestyle on me; AND they do their jobs…
People WILL use anything they can get up on somebody else, be it rank, threat of ‘exposure’, or bad performance ratings to “trade” for sex from either side…
A couple of examples of the ‘negatives’ I’ve observed-
This male had hidden his orientation for almost 4 years, but on a detachment to Kodiak (where I was the OIC), he got drunk and literally put the make on another crew member in a bar. When he was refused, he begged that no one be told. I was notified that night by the mission commander, and brought the individual in to discuss the situation. He at that point acknowledged his position and requested removal from the crew and to be sent home since he was now āuncomfortableā with the situationā¦
I refused, and forced him to continue to fly for the remainder of the det, I also refused his request to be segregated. The crew he flew on did NOT handle the situation well, and crew cooperation degraded seriously over the remainder of the det, but operational requirements precluded replacing himā¦
Upon return, I turned over my report to his CO, he was subsequently transferred to another command pending separation. At that command, he used his rank to solicit sex from numerous very junior enlisted men, and was totally unrepentant when he was once again caught. He was separated from the service within about a year, and later sued (with the support of the California alternative lifestyle alliance) to return to active duty.
That single individualās actions caused a number of problems over at least the next three years (Iām aware of), as he kept attempting to āoutā individuals he āsuspectedā to be gay within the military community via the local papers and TV. His vindictiveness was amazing!
One of my āfellowā officers on a staff (an intelligence officer) was lesbian, and also used her position once she was on shore duty to solicit sex from junior enlisted females in both our command and others. She was courts martialed and received a BCD.
I also had a situation when I was an LPO where two females were caught in the barracks and brought up on charges. They lied to investigators, even when confronted with pictorial evidence, and tried to burn down the NCIS offices to destroy the evidence.
In the bigger picture, Gay/lesbian lifestyles āmayā work in some militaries, but even in those āacceptingā it; e.g. the Dutch, there is still a wariness and desire from most officers and enlisteds NOT to serve in close working environments with gay or lesbians.
One of the commenters on the Nerds brought up that assholes will be assholes- This is a true statement…
This is a LIST of the punitive articles of the UCMJ. You DO give up a lot of rights when you come into the military, and you CAN be tried for conduct unbecoming (Art 133) or the general (Art 134) depending on what you’ve done, in addition to other specific articles…
My bottom line- What ever decision gets made, it needs to made with an eye on what is BEST for the military, NOT what is best for a particular set of individuals…
If you take the money, you should do your best to give an honest days work; you should also ‘play’ by the rules… If you can’t, don’t join…
EDIT- Gay Cynic (who commented earliers) has put up a post discussing DADT HERE with an interesting set of options…
