Don't Ask, Don't Tell 'Cause it's None of My Business

OK ... the Senate has gone and done it, and perhaps we'll all survive. But kindly allow me to weigh in on the matter, and to opine on why doing away with Don't Ask Don't Tell is not such a great idea after all.

To all my liberal friends, please do me the dual courtesies of believing that I'm a good person at heart, willing to listen to a good argument, and that I have what I believe are the best interests of our Armed Forces at heart.

Settle in... this is gonna' take a moment.

We in the Service (notice my use of that word ... we almost never say we're in "the Military"...) live in each other's hip pockets. When we enlist or join, we voluntarily sign away some of our constitutional rights. The right to privacy, the right to peaceably assemble and petittion for redress of grievances, the right to a trial by a jury of our peers, freedom of speech, all become parts of our civilian pasts when we join up. We know this going in and are OK with it, mostly, because we believe our civilian leaders won't use and abuse us ... and we believe(d) that MOST of them have shared our uniformed lot in life once or twice in their non-political pasts.

OK ... that last one has already gone by the boards. A vanishingly tiny percentage of our political leaders have ever worn their country's uniform, probably have NEVER slept in a barracks or berthing compartment aboard ship, and have NO idea what our lives are like. And yet they loudly proclaim that they know what is best for uniformed service members.

Let's take that last idea and explore it, shall we?

On some ships and in some posts, we live in open-bay compartments, crammed cheek-by-jowl ... 50 men to a room. We live together, we eat together, we shower together. We have utterly surrendered any expectations of privacy in government quarters. (Our lockers can be opened by any officer on duty who feels an inspection is in order.) Some barracks don't even have doors on the toilets! The very LAST private facet of our lives that we don't surrender is our sexual identity.

Yet we find ways to make this fishbowl existence work. We don't look, and we hope no one is looking back.

Ever been to Japan? It may surprise some to know that in such a conservative country, they nevertheless practice communal bathing. They make it work, I am told, by drawing a mental curtain of privacy about themselves and telling themselves, "It's OK ... no one is looking." Life in a barracks MUST of necessity be like that! It only works when you can tell yourself "No one is looking."

Repealing D.A.D.T. tears that mental curtain asunder.

Next, to those who say America's Armed Forces must reflect American Society, I agree ... BUT, I remind you that the American military is NOT some sort of social laboratory! We exist outside of society's norms and outside of part of the constitutional rights you all take for granted. (Right to trial by a jury of your peers? HAH! Ever look at the composition of a Court Martial? Those colonels and generals sitting in judgement are hardly the peers of the corporals and sergeants in the dock!) We fight when we must (mostly) for each other! Anything that in any way hinders or curtails that unit cohesion must also curtail that unit's fighting ability.

Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, D.A.N.T. is a working principle! At no time has our national ability to wage war ever been hindered by this! (I don't doubt that we've lost some good soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines due to this over the years, but our national warfighting ability has remained solid.)

And to my gay friends in uniform, whose identities I never knew, I honor your service. But can't you see that the moment you stand up and say, "Look at me! I'm gay. I serve in uniform and it's OK" you commit the cardinal (military) sin of taking everyone's eyes OFF the unit and the mission and calling attention to yourself? THAT VERY ACT CURTAILS UNIT COHESION!

I remember when women were first being recruited into the Navy in once-male career fields, such as aviation electronics and engine mechanics. I remember walking around my squadron's hangar, seeing all the Playboy and Penthouse centerfolds hanging on office and maintenance bay walls, and wondering, "Hmmm, now that women are here, aren't we all going to have to keep our sex lives more private?"

And so it came to pass. Sexuality (rightly) has no place in a hangar, on a ship, in a squad bay or in any sort of military environment anymore.

Keeping your sexuality -- straight or gay -- to yourself is just good manners in a crowded barracks ... NOT the same as "living a lie."

So, just as my sexuality is none of your business, yours is none of mine. Don't ask ... Don't tell.