Get rid of DADT… NOW!

(9 am. – promoted by ek hornbeck)

What IS the impact of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell?  How did it impact us out in the field?  Exactly WHY should it finally be repealed?

I’ll tell you after the fold…

When I was deployed inside of Iraq in 1991, I experienced many different situations where “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” has been trotted out by GOP homophobes.

As an Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) specialist, we dispatched two-man hum-vee’s into the surrounding countryside on a daily basis.  It was you and one other guy, or woman.  Nobody else.  No security forces were out there protecting you.  Do you think our first thoughts were, “is this guy gay?”  Do you think, while we were wondering if we’d come under fire, only two of us out there to defend ourselves, that we were wondering, “is this guy checking me out?”  NO.  Our one and only thought was, “can I depend on this person if the shit hits the fan?”  Not ONCE did we ever wonder about they person’s sexuality.

When our unit dispatched a two-man EOD team to support the Army’s 18th Brigade, 325 C company, outside of Dohuk, I spent three weeks with them — the longest of any of our techs.  The two of us lived out of our hum-vee, sleeping on cots next to the vehicle, showering under a nearby tree using an empty water-bottle as a water “spout”.  Our mission was to support the Army with surrounding minefields.  In my three weeks, I walked three separate minefields a total of five times with my team member.  Do you think, as we walked into the minefield with grass up to our asses, that our first thoughts were, “is he gay?”  NO.  Our one and only thought was getting in, doing our job, and getting out alive.

When the Army got intelligence that the Company was going to be overrun and we hit the foxholes, do you think that I looked over and wondered, “is he going to try and kiss me?”  NO.  All we were concerned about was if we could depend on each other during the coming firefight.

As a veteran who has been deployed during wartime, I have already been in the situations that homophobes cry are the times when being gay will cause the mission to break down if the persons sexual orientation is known.  Not ONCE did a persons sexual orientation ever become a factor to me, or, to those I was deployed with.  What we WERE focused on?

1) Is this person competent in their job?

2) Can I depend on this person to watch my back while I watch theirs?

3) Our we both going to get out this alive?

Anyone who is serving now in our military, or has in the past, knows that you shower in community showers with those you serve with, whether they are secretly gay/lesbian or not.  You work beside them, whether you know it or not.  You put your trust into them, whether you know it or not.  In the past, you simply didn’t know.  What you DID know was that somewhere, whether in your own unit, or during wartime, there WERE gays and lesbians serving beside you.  You simply didn’t CARE if the person could do their job, do it competently, and you kept each other alive.  The “catch”, these people say, is that once you KNOW the person is gay or lesbian, suddenly, that is ALL you will care about.  That is horseshit.

Females in our military have a far higher risk of being sexually harassed or raped by male military members then a homosexual assault or harassment.  With the advent of civilian contractors, such as KBR, that risk went up exponentially.  I won’t even link to the known rape of females to prove this point vs the allegation of homosexual harassment.

Because our military, and our current law, does not allow gays or lesbians to be “out” as they serve, and if they do come out they will be discharged, our military readiness has been seriously diminished.

It is hard enough for our military to go to war.  You are separated from your family, your wife/husband, and your children.  You see things, do things, that few can ever understand, even those in your own field if they have never been in that particular situation.  

After I left Iraq in 1991, and returned stateside, my old boss and I, who spent time in those minefields in Iraq together, were reunited when his new unit came down to the unit I had been stationed at.  He and I sat in the bar, watching all the young EOD techs strut around, looking at each other, knowing that they would never understand what he and I had been through — what we had LIVED through.  That is a bond built through relying on each other during a war.  It is the same bond that an untold number of our veterans have formed, and, even more untold numbers of our active duty have formed.    

Do you really believe that sexual orientation was even considered?  Whether it was World War II, where some veterans who returned started the gay biker clubs that eventually evolved into the gay male leather lifestyle of today?  Or Korean War veterans?  Or Vietnam War veterans?  Or Gulf War veterans?  Or the veterans of today?

In every conflict we have ever fought there were homosexual men, and later, lesbian women serving our nation.  Yet, even today, they cannot serve honorably without lying about who and what they are without fear of retaliation.

A few months ago, I was in a Wal-Mart and there was a young, female, private who was just finishing bootcamp in line in front of me in uniform.  Having been to Iraq for my second time in 2006, I knew what she was about to experience for herself.  The difference was, I am a veteran and have been to a warzone before and she was an 18-year-old raw recruit.  

I didn’t warn her of lesbians over there just waiting to hit on her.  I warned her of her male counterparts, because that was where her true risk came from being a young female deploying into a warzone.

Some of us old vet’s wished we could go back, just to help season the young kids.  Others wouldn’t, or couldn’t, ever go back to a warzone.  But, it never was about those darned homosexuals or lesbians who could be serving next to you.

It was simply war is hell…