Don't Ask, Don't Tell: Time To Take Another Look
http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2006/02/02/waivers/
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It's now been 12 years since President Clinton signed into law the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy. It's been reported that since that time nearly 10,000 servicemen and servicewomen have been discharged through this policy, based on their sexual orientation. These soldiers have come from all branches of service and a wide range of occupational specialties.
There was recently a study at the University of California Santa Barbara research center focusing on whether these discharges have resulted in "hampering military readiness".
According to the university's Center for the Study of Sexual Minorities in the Military (CSSMM), 244 medical specialists who had publicly disclosed their homosexuality were let go during the first decade that the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy was used by the Pentagon. The policy was implemented as a compromise in 1993 at the beginning of the Clinton administration. Link
The reasons are debatable, but there's little doubt that the military has been struggling lately to meet recruiting goals. The Army recently raised the maximum enlistment age from 35 to 39. There are rumors circulating that the max age will soon be raised up to 42. It has also recently been reported that the army has issued in 2005 alone an excess of 20,000 waivers to soldiers who would have previously been ineligible for service. That equates to roughly 17% of all the 2005 recruits. Many of these waivers have been on "moral standards" issues. Moral standards, in most cases refers to criminal convictions.
Salon recently did an article which featured the story of one such soldier who received a waiver on the basis of moral standards;
It was about 10 p.m. on Sept. 1, 2002, when a drug deal was arranged in the parking lot of a mini-mall in Newark, Del. The car with the drugs, driven by a man who would become a recruit for the Delaware Air National Guard, pulled up next to a parked car that was waiting for the exchange. Everything was going smoothly until the cops arrived.
"I parked and walked over to his car and got in and we were talking," the future Air Guardsman later wrote. "He asked if I had any marijuana and I said yes, that I bought some in Wilmington, Del., earlier that day. He said he wanted some." The drug dealer went on to recount in a Jan. 11, 2005, statement written to win admission into the military, "I walked back to my car [and] as soon as I got in my car an officer put his flashlight in the window and arrested me."
Under Air National Guard rules, the dealer had committed a "major offense" that would bar him from military service. Air National Guard recruits, like other members of the military, cannot have drug convictions on their record. But on Feb. 2, 2005, the applicant who had been arrested in the mini-mall was admitted into the Delaware Air National Guard. How? Through the use of a little-known, but increasingly important, escape clause known as a waiver. Waivers, which are generally approved at the Pentagon, allow recruiters to sign up men and women who otherwise would be ineligible for service because of legal convictions, medical problems or other reasons preventing them from meeting minimum standards.
The story of that unnamed Air National Guard recruit (whose name is blacked out in his statement) is based on documents obtained by Salon under the Freedom of Information Act. It illustrates one of the tactics that the military is using in its uphill battle to meet recruiting targets during the Iraq war. The personnel problems are acute. The Air National Guard, for example, missed its recruiting target by 14 percent last year. And the regular Army missed its goal by 8 percent, its largest recruiting shortfall since 1979.
Last year, 37 percent of the Army's waivers (about 8,000 soldiers) were based on moral grounds. Like waivers as a whole, these waivers are proliferating -- they're 32 percent higher than in the prewar year of 2000. As a result, the odds are going up that the soldiers fighting and taking the casualties in Iraq entered the Army with a criminal record.
Even without the waivers, the Army has lowered its standards for enlistees. The Army has eased restrictions on recruiting high school dropouts. It also raised the maximum recruitment age from 35 to 39. Moreover, last fall the Army announced that it would be doubling the number of soldiers that it admits who score near the bottom on a military aptitude test.
Link
Salon also printed the following quote from the President on 1-26-06;
We're transforming our military. The things I look for are the following: morale, retention, and recruitment. And retention is high, recruitment is meeting goals, and people are feeling strong about the mission.
Is this really the type of transformation we need?
# After his parents filed a domestic-abuse complaint against him in 2000, a recruit in Rhode Island was sentenced to one year of probation, ordered to have "no contact" with his parents, and required to undergo counseling and to pay court costs. Air National Guard rules say domestic violence convictions make recruits ineligible -- no exceptions granted. But the records show that the recruiter in this case brought the issue to an Air Guard staff judge advocate, who reviewed the file and determined that the offense did not "meet the domestic violence crime criteria." As a result of this waiver, the recruit was admitted to his state's Air Guard on May 3, 2005.
# A recruit with DWI violations in June 2001 and April 2002 received a waiver to enter the Iowa Air National Guard on July 15, 2005. The waiver request from the Iowa Guard to the Pentagon declares that the recruit "realizes that he made the wrong decision to drink and drive."
# Another recruit for the Rhode Island Air National Guard finished five years of probation in 2002 for breaking and entering, apparently into his girlfriend's house. A waiver got him into the Guard in June 2005.
# A recruit convicted in January 2004 for possession of marijuana, drug paraphernalia and stolen license-plate tags got into the Hawaii Air National Guard with a waiver little more than a year later, on March 3, 2005.
Please don't get me wrong, I have no problem with the army using these waivers, but in these desperate times, is a gay soldier lacking in moral standards more than a drug dealer, just based on his/her sexual orientation? I believe that with the current levels of recruiting, it may be time to take another look at this policy. The pentagon doesn't necessarily have to give a full blessing to gays, but perhaps look at what benefit a person may bring to a unit as a soldier, rather than summarily dismissing them solely based on who they prefer to have sex with.
There was recently a study at the University of California Santa Barbara research center focusing on whether these discharges have resulted in "hampering military readiness".
According to the university's Center for the Study of Sexual Minorities in the Military (CSSMM), 244 medical specialists who had publicly disclosed their homosexuality were let go during the first decade that the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy was used by the Pentagon. The policy was implemented as a compromise in 1993 at the beginning of the Clinton administration. Link
The reasons are debatable, but there's little doubt that the military has been struggling lately to meet recruiting goals. The Army recently raised the maximum enlistment age from 35 to 39. There are rumors circulating that the max age will soon be raised up to 42. It has also recently been reported that the army has issued in 2005 alone an excess of 20,000 waivers to soldiers who would have previously been ineligible for service. That equates to roughly 17% of all the 2005 recruits. Many of these waivers have been on "moral standards" issues. Moral standards, in most cases refers to criminal convictions.
Salon recently did an article which featured the story of one such soldier who received a waiver on the basis of moral standards;
It was about 10 p.m. on Sept. 1, 2002, when a drug deal was arranged in the parking lot of a mini-mall in Newark, Del. The car with the drugs, driven by a man who would become a recruit for the Delaware Air National Guard, pulled up next to a parked car that was waiting for the exchange. Everything was going smoothly until the cops arrived.
"I parked and walked over to his car and got in and we were talking," the future Air Guardsman later wrote. "He asked if I had any marijuana and I said yes, that I bought some in Wilmington, Del., earlier that day. He said he wanted some." The drug dealer went on to recount in a Jan. 11, 2005, statement written to win admission into the military, "I walked back to my car [and] as soon as I got in my car an officer put his flashlight in the window and arrested me."
Under Air National Guard rules, the dealer had committed a "major offense" that would bar him from military service. Air National Guard recruits, like other members of the military, cannot have drug convictions on their record. But on Feb. 2, 2005, the applicant who had been arrested in the mini-mall was admitted into the Delaware Air National Guard. How? Through the use of a little-known, but increasingly important, escape clause known as a waiver. Waivers, which are generally approved at the Pentagon, allow recruiters to sign up men and women who otherwise would be ineligible for service because of legal convictions, medical problems or other reasons preventing them from meeting minimum standards.
The story of that unnamed Air National Guard recruit (whose name is blacked out in his statement) is based on documents obtained by Salon under the Freedom of Information Act. It illustrates one of the tactics that the military is using in its uphill battle to meet recruiting targets during the Iraq war. The personnel problems are acute. The Air National Guard, for example, missed its recruiting target by 14 percent last year. And the regular Army missed its goal by 8 percent, its largest recruiting shortfall since 1979.
Last year, 37 percent of the Army's waivers (about 8,000 soldiers) were based on moral grounds. Like waivers as a whole, these waivers are proliferating -- they're 32 percent higher than in the prewar year of 2000. As a result, the odds are going up that the soldiers fighting and taking the casualties in Iraq entered the Army with a criminal record.
Even without the waivers, the Army has lowered its standards for enlistees. The Army has eased restrictions on recruiting high school dropouts. It also raised the maximum recruitment age from 35 to 39. Moreover, last fall the Army announced that it would be doubling the number of soldiers that it admits who score near the bottom on a military aptitude test.
Link
Salon also printed the following quote from the President on 1-26-06;
We're transforming our military. The things I look for are the following: morale, retention, and recruitment. And retention is high, recruitment is meeting goals, and people are feeling strong about the mission.
Is this really the type of transformation we need?
# After his parents filed a domestic-abuse complaint against him in 2000, a recruit in Rhode Island was sentenced to one year of probation, ordered to have "no contact" with his parents, and required to undergo counseling and to pay court costs. Air National Guard rules say domestic violence convictions make recruits ineligible -- no exceptions granted. But the records show that the recruiter in this case brought the issue to an Air Guard staff judge advocate, who reviewed the file and determined that the offense did not "meet the domestic violence crime criteria." As a result of this waiver, the recruit was admitted to his state's Air Guard on May 3, 2005.
# A recruit with DWI violations in June 2001 and April 2002 received a waiver to enter the Iowa Air National Guard on July 15, 2005. The waiver request from the Iowa Guard to the Pentagon declares that the recruit "realizes that he made the wrong decision to drink and drive."
# Another recruit for the Rhode Island Air National Guard finished five years of probation in 2002 for breaking and entering, apparently into his girlfriend's house. A waiver got him into the Guard in June 2005.
# A recruit convicted in January 2004 for possession of marijuana, drug paraphernalia and stolen license-plate tags got into the Hawaii Air National Guard with a waiver little more than a year later, on March 3, 2005.
Please don't get me wrong, I have no problem with the army using these waivers, but in these desperate times, is a gay soldier lacking in moral standards more than a drug dealer, just based on his/her sexual orientation? I believe that with the current levels of recruiting, it may be time to take another look at this policy. The pentagon doesn't necessarily have to give a full blessing to gays, but perhaps look at what benefit a person may bring to a unit as a soldier, rather than summarily dismissing them solely based on who they prefer to have sex with.
