So, most of us know that Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell got repealed. A great victory for human rights. Not being military, though, I’ve never experienced the real effects of DADT. Thankfully, I just found a blogger who did experience it, and has a great story to tell.
Four parts, read them all for full effect.
Have a nice day, everyone.
Having been a Marine and continuing my service on deployments as a reservist I understand the confusion for civilians and many soldiers like the captain mentioned in your article link. DADT or its repeal was never the issue for the military…civilians make the rules we live by to a certain point…if the politics requires it the president sets the standard and we follow through. Many of the problems in the military have nothing to do with whether someone was gay or not…everyone always new in our units or as in the captain’s case…we knew when they were as well..you can’t really hide the proclivity of your natural sexual needs. In the military so long as it’s not through in our face…so to speak…we ignore and have friendships just like anyone else.
The standard is not to fraternize with our fellow soldiers..male or female….we all have the stress of attraction at times…but if you are going to be a marine..you set the standard with discipline and wait or get out as the case may be.
Certainly there are always some..especially young marines who take awhile to learn the standard of sexual discipline required by the corps…who lack such control..they are appropriately dealt with within the UCMJ
DADT…we got use to..we’ll get use to the way it is now…but you cannot change or litigate sexual mores…nor the discipline it takes to focus on the mission at hand.
In the military having a standard policy that applies across the board..gay, straight, male female is the goal. DADT or without will not change what most of us have always done…give respect to those around us…their sexual proclivities were never a problem accept those with agenda’s driving the rules in contradiction to what had already been accomplished through the natural transformation of civilians who make the military a career.
In the military the mission comes first, if it does not it will cost lives, changing anything in the flavor of manning and logistics will always cause a disruption in this…the more force beyond it the greater the disruption…hence the General’s effort to slow down the change. It had nothing to do with being gay in the military or not…but everything to do with mission focus.
Today the biggest problem in the military is the lack of sexual discipline between male and female soldiers and yes male and male or female and female soldiers. You cannot run an organization like ours if the cross over of lovers within the same units or across authority lines of officer and enlisted without it detracting from the mission focus.
In the civilian areas we are constantly bombarded with the negative coercive problems of sex in the workplace…..why is this not understood for the military as well is what I do not understand.
Mr Campbell, thank you for stopping by and adding your insights. I’m not military, though I have family, we’ve never had to face this particular policy, or the situation you describe. Your logic sounds right to me, though, since I am from a business background where nepotism is to be avoided at all costs.