Time to Get Rid of Don't Ask, Don't Tell

Barack Obama campaigned on a promise to eliminate the Don't Ask, Don't Tell (DADT) policy for the US military. The public doesn't want it, military leaders don't want it, there is simply no sense in getting rid of perfectly good soldiers because of their sexual orientation.

But in recent weeks the promises have been watered down. Now the administration talks about "changing" and not eliminating DADT, and it is frequently mentioned that there are a lot of other things to do, too, and this might not go first. Well, it is the most important thing to a lot of people, including a lot of people who are risking their lives to serve our country.

Aubrey Sarvis, Executive Director of the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, writes at Huffington Post:

New President. New Congress. No Change. Here is the latest evidence of what our country is losing under the law that prevents gay men and women from serving openly in the armed forces of the United States.

Lieutenant Colonel Victor J. Fehrenbach, a fighter weapons systems officer, has been flying the F-15E Strike Eagle since 1998. He has flown numerous missions against Taliban and al-Qaida targets, including the longest combat mission in his squadron's history. On that infamous September 11, 2001, Lt. Col. Fehrenbach was handpicked to fly sorties above the nation's capital. Later he flew combat missions in Iraq and Afghanistan. He has received at least 30 awards and decorations including nine air medals, one of them for heroism, as well as campaign medals for Kosovo, Afghanistan, and Iraq. He is now a flight instructor in Idaho, where he has passed on his skills to more than 300 future Navy, Marine Corps, and Air Force weapons systems officers.

Since 1987, when Fehrenbach entered Notre Dame on a full Air Force ROTC scholarship, the government has invested twenty-five million dollars in training and equipping him to serve his country, which he has done with what anyone would agree was great distinction. He comes from a military family. His father was a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel, his mother an Air Force nurse and captain. Lt. Col. Fehrenbach has honored that tradition.

And the Air Force is about to discharge this guy, a virtual poster boy for Air Force recruiting, because he is gay? Someone has to be kidding. This is sheer madness. Air Force Boots Their 25 Million Dollar Aviator (He's Gay) VIDEO

During the Bush years there was evidence that some parts of the military were being taken over by born-again Christian officers who proselytized on the battlefield and in training. It is time for that to come to a screeching halt, the religious practices and all that goes along with it. The military is no place for bigotry, and our country could be capitalizing on all its sources of talent, skill, and knowledge -- the last thing that should matter is an individual's romantic inclinations.

But Lt. Col. Fehrenbach does not have to be discharged. There is something the Pentagon can and should do now. Lt. Col. Fehrenbach's commanders and senior commanders can retain him in the service. Individual commanders are allowing many gays and lesbians to continue to serve openly in the armed forces. They are doing so because these are good service members who are doing their jobs. Lt. Col. Fehrenbach is no danger to unit cohesion, or to morale, or to good order and discipline. He goes to work every day, does a fantastic job for his country, has all the medals and job performance evaluations to prove it, and he should be allowed to serve.

Is the discharge of an officer with such critical and valuable skills, whom the government has spent millions training, is that really what Congress intended when it gave us "don't ask, don't tell"? Only last week, Defense Secretary Robert Gates told members of Congress, "If we don't get the people part of this business right, none of our other decisions will matter." Admiral Mike Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told Congress, "This is how we take care of our people."

He should have said, "This is how we take care of some of our people," because neither Secretary Gates nor Admiral Mullen could have been thinking of the 65,000 gays and lesbians in uniform today. Certainly they were not thinking of Lt. Col. Fehrenbach when they talked about "getting the people part right" because they got the "people part" wrong.

People are watching the new guy to see if he will keep his promises. A couple of things are giving cause for worry, and this is one of them. Don't Ask, Don't Tell simply needs to go. It might have been the best we could get in 1993 (being gay was not grounds for discharge in the US military until 1942), when attitudes were just beginning to shift, but everybody knows better now.

You should go read this article. It also has some video of Fehrenbach on the Rachel Maddow show.