Relatively unsurprising. Most servicemen that I’ve spoken with assumed that the policy was one Democratic administration away from being abolished. And with a gay man leading the pack for the Secretary of the Navy position, there was little doubt as to the direction that new administration was pointing the US Armed Forces. I’ve heard mixed reactions to Mr. Obama’s plan. Junior officers and NCOs -products of a generation where homosexuality was largely tolerated- are mostly apathetic. With their older counterparts, the opposite. All seem to frown on the annoying liberal habit of using the military as a social petri dish, claiming -correctly- that the Pentagon has more important battles to fight. A side note: Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell affects different military units in different ways. A nuclear missileer for example, who spends days locked in a small alert facility 100ft underground with another officer, might have stronger objections to gays openly serving than, say, an Army clerk. The same goes for service members who serve in tanks, submarines, the infantry, etc. Tampering with the military can be a dangerous game. So if the policy is to be repealed, Mr. Obama would be wise to consider an evolutionary -not revolutionary- approach.
