One of the things you learn in the military is to confront the reality of a situation head on and while you have the time and ability, to choose the best course of action for your unit – before a less than optimum course is chosen for you by your inaction.
The reality is that Don’t Ask Don’t Tell (DADT) is going to be repealed one way or another whether we like it or not. It can either be done in a manner that allows the military the time and room it needs to make the transition as painless as possible while it implements the new policy or it can be left up to the courts to act and repeal it instantly and without a care in the world for “transitions” or “time lines” for implementation.
The Pentagon’s recently published report concluded that, for the most part, members of the military really don’t care much whether gays are in the military and whether they serve openly. That sentiment pretty well reflects the sentiment of the country’s culture at large.
In fact, it seems this has been a made a much bigger issue than it really is. Dale Carpenter at the Volokh Conspiracy, a popular legal blog, discusses the phenomenon:
Yes there are going to be grumbles. Yes there are going to be those that leave the service over the issue or don’t join because of it. One has to wonder where they’ll go to work where they’ll escape having to associate with those who are openly gay working at the same place. But the point is the military will absorb this, most will salute and say ‘yes, sir’ and it will continue to function well.
And for most, it isn’t now nor has it ever been an issue of importance to them.
To paraphrase an NCO who once addressed it, he said that in his experience there were two kinds of soldiers – squared away and “dirt bags.” If a soldier was squared away, he wanted him and didn’t give a rip about his sexual orientation. If he was a “dirt bag” he wanted him gone, and again, that meant straight or gay.
That’s the dirty little secret that the military has kept under its hat for decades if not centuries – that is we who have held command in the military have pretty much done precisely what the NCO paraphrased above said. If you’ve been in the military for anytime at all, you’ve been in units in which gay soldiers served. You knew it. Everyone else knew it. They knew you knew. But as long as they showed up every day, in proper uniform, did their job to the utmost of their ability and weren’t a problem – i.e. “soldiered” – no one cared.
That should be the only standard by which we judge our soldiers, and we should make it the sole standard as soon as possible.
