Don't Ask, Don't Tell and Don't Change a Damn Thing!

As a former sailor, I thought I would weigh-in on the recent decision to overhaul the DADT policy for the military. I signed up under Reagan who was trying to build a 600 ship Navy. As a microcosm of the U.S. population, we had the same problems you find in the civilian world when it came to societal issues like race, sexism and the like. The difference was in our propensity to be headline news. (Did you ever see an article about an accused rapist that starts "John Doe, manager of the local Sears store, was arrested...etc. No, but you will always see "John Doe, local sailor onboard USS Umptysquat, was arrested...etc.) And naturally we had incidents of gay bashing, just like in the rest of the country. The incidents were few and far between and generally kept as quiet as humanly possible. Did I serve with gay people? Probably. Did I know it? Nope! Did I care? Not really.
After Clinton took office, he wanted to make good on a campaign promise to allow gays to serve openly in the military. After much balking from the leadership, he compromised and signed off on the DADT policy. Did anything really change? Not in the view of the average sailor. It was business as usual for us all and for all we knew there were more gays than ever serving amongst us. We just didn't know it because they could not flaunt it. Doing so could get you tossed out. (Which became a much-storied way to get a quick end to a long enlistment should you suddenly decide to leave. Better than smoking some dope.) My point, though, is that it worked at least from a straight man's view. We didn't ask and they didn't tell. Most gay folk in the civilian world don't openly flaunt being gay (at least not where I live and work) and I doubt that it would be any different in the military. Most folks feel their sexual orientation is their own business and leave strangers to decide for themselves. By repealing DADT, servicemembers could openly flaunt their sexual preferences and I believe that will open the door to more problems than leaving it in place. All the "experts" aside, until you have spent 6 months on a Navy ship in a compartment of 4 to 60 men or women, I doubt you can appreciate the unique nature and closeness of shipboard life. Introducing openly gay service members will be detrimental to good order and discipline simply by making some people uncomfortable. You can say "wah" all you like, but if you have to make rack assignments and watchbills and work around this issue, that is just one more fly in the ointment. For the record, after you call me a hater and a homophobe, you can also call me a sexist because I don't feel women should serve on Navy vessels either.
Plenty of folk whom have never served in the military are pooh-poohing the policy by calling it archaic. They say the world has changed plenty and that peoples attitudes towards gays serving have changed. I doubt it. I believe people have become afraid of being labeled if they give their true feelings and do not want to appear 'unhip' or homophobic. The truth is that while several states do allow gay marriage, none of them passed it by popular vote. Re: Prop 8 in California. As "progressive" as that state is, they still could not get half of the population to vote for allowing gay marriage. I believe military folk are the same way. They fear telling the truth about how they feel about gays serving openly will hurt their careers, so they will be the ones pretending to be someone they are not. I believe most people processed out under DADT policies WANTED to leave the military and used it as an instrument to get out.
The highest morale and the least amount of problems I could find at sea came on the ships with all male crews and no known gay members. What folks did on their own time was their business. The services already bend over backwards to try and please every little minority wish, be it wearing religious articles of clothing in conjunction with a uniform or ethnic observances that may interfere with normal duty. (Not to mention good order and discipline.) I was never comfortable with the Navy having a Muslim priest and I still am not. Call me whatever you want, but the difference between me and others is that I am not afraid to say it. Political correctness has turned us all into wimpy liars and enough is enough! Throwing openly gay members into the mix will only make it worse. The military has enough to deal with. DADT is still relevent and it works!