Repeal DADT Process & Challenge

Secretary of Defense Robert Gates in a Pentagon press conference revealed a three-step plan:

Finalize changes in related regulations and policies & get clearer definitions on benefits
Prepare training materials for chaplains, lawyers, commanders and troops
Begin to train servicemembers worldwide.

“We’re trying to get the first two phases of that process done as quickly as possible,” Gates said, adding he has instructed Undersecretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness Clifford Stanley to accelerate his efforts. “My hope is that it can be done within a matter of a very few weeks so that we can then move on to what is the real challenge, which is providing training to 2.2 million people. And we will do that as expeditiously as we can.”

Bottom line: First 2 parts of process done in weeks, but the most important piece the third part there is no time line. It could be done very quickly or it could take a very long time. This brief process should have been provided prior to now; since it should have only taken 30 seconds to construct.

We should view the third part of this process with concern unless it is done simultaneously by Commanding Officers throughout the DOD in a matter of weeks.

Department of Defense still Excludes Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender (LGBT) from all of its diversity events.

Simultaneously there is a move to reinstate DADT. However it most likely will not go any further than the House of Representatives:

Rep. Joe Wilson, R-S.C., who became the personnel subcommittee chairman on Wednesday when the 112th Congress convened, said it was “irresponsible” for Congress to repeal the ban on openly gay service members without giving the House of Representatives time to hold hearings into what is involved in changing the law and how the change might effect current and future service members.

Wilson said he wants the service chiefs to testify before the armed services committee about how they plan to repeal the ban. Rep. Howard “Buck” McKeon, R-Calif., chairman of the full armed services committee, said battlefield commanders, down to the battalion level, might be called to testify about whether lifting the ban will hurt morale and readiness.

Wilson said he personally believes that lifting the ban “will hurt unit cohesion” and that he “would support the repeal of the repeal” if House Republican leaders take on that fight.