Don't Ask Don't Tell

Service Chiefs: Pro- Or Anti-Repeal, They Say The Military Can Do It

Rachel Slajda | December 3, 2010, 11:36AM

Chief of Staff of the Army Gen. George Casey, Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Gary Roughead, and vice chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff Marine Gen. James E. Cartwright

The day after Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Joint Chiefs Chairman Adm. Michael Mullen again called for Congress to repeal Don't Ask, Don't Tell, the joint chiefs themselves testified on Capitol Hill and, as promised, were "less sanguine" about repeal than their bosses.

But whether for or against repeal, they all said their branch could and would implement it.

"At the end of the day, we are Marines," said Gen. James Amos, the commandant of the Marine Corps, in his testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee. "Should Congress change the law, then our nation's Marine Corps will faithfully support the law."

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Don't Ask Don't Tell

Excuses, Excuses: Why Top GOPers Say They Can't Vote For DADT Repeal

Rachel Slajda | December 2, 2010, 3:06PM

Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Michael Mullen, Department of Defense General Counsel Jeh C. Johnson, and U.S. Army Gen. Carter Ham

In his opening statement at a Don't Ask, Don't Tell hearing today, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Mike Mullen systematically blew apart the classic attacks on repeal.

"Repeal of the law will not prove an unacceptable risk to military readiness. Unit cohesion will not suffer," Mullen said. "And families will not encourage their loved ones to leave the service in droves."

"And I find the argument that war is not the time to change to be antithetical with our own experience since 2001," he said. "War does not stifle change; it demands it."

He destroyed Sen. John McCain's suggestion that the opinions of the service chiefs were more important than those of Mullen. McCain had said Mullen "is not directly in charge of the troops."

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John McCain

The DADT Review Has Apparently Not Changed McCain's Mind

Rachel Slajda | December 2, 2010, 11:39AM

Sen. John McCan (R-AZ)

At today's hearing on the Pentagon's Don't Ask, Don't Tell review, Sen. John McCain made it clear that the Pentagon's review of the policy has not changed his mind.

McCain, the ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, started saying last Sunday that the review itself wasn't done correctly, nine months after it was announced and two days before he would see the report.

Now that he's seen the report -- which concludes that repealing DADT would not harm the military's effectiveness or unit cohesion -- McCain has apparently not changed his mind.

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Don't Ask Don't Tell

Eyes On The Clock For DADT Repeal Advocates After Pentagon Report

Rachel Slajda | December 1, 2010, 10:45AM

A crowd protests "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" outside the White House

The release of the Pentagon's Don't Ask, Don't Tell review yesterday brought a collective sigh of relief from the gay advocacy and progressive organizations lobbying for the policy's repeal. Now, they say, they can zero in on the senators who told them this summer that they couldn't vote for repeal until the review was done.

"It's probably one of the best tools repeal advocates can us in the Senate lame duck session," Aubrey Sarvis, the head of the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, said yesterday.

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Don't Ask Don't Tell

Pentagon: No Separate Facilities For Gay Servicemembers

Rachel Slajda | November 30, 2010, 5:15PM

Marines aboard the USS Blue Ridge

One of the more contentious points of the Don't Ask, Don't Tell debate was whether the Pentagon was considering building separate barracks and showers for gay servicemembers, with some fearing a "separate but equal" mandate.

But the Pentagon report on how best to repeal the policy, released today, recommends no separate facilities, saying such a move would "wrongly isolate and stigmatize" gay troops.

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Don't Ask Don't Tell

Responding To Pressure, Pentagon Will Release DADT Report One Day Early

Rachel Slajda | November 22, 2010, 10:38AM

Sec. of Defense Robert Gates

Responding to pressure from pro-repeal senators and gay groups, the Pentagon is releasing its study on how to repeal Don't Ask Don't Tell before its Dec. 1 deadline -- one day before.

The Washington Post reports that Defense Secretary Robert Gates has ordered the report be released on Nov. 30.

"He wants to ensure members of the Armed Services Committee are able to read and consider the complex, lengthy report before holding hearings with its authors and the Joint Chiefs of Staff," Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said in a statement.

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Don't Ask Don't Tell

Gates Calls For DADT Repeal In Lame Duck As Levin And McCain Discuss Stripping It

Rachel Slajda | November 8, 2010, 9:40AM

Secretary of Defense Robert Gates

Defense Secretary Robert Gates told reporters in Australia on Sunday that he would like to see Don't Ask, Don't Tell repealed in the lame duck session of Congress.

Asked if he saw any prospect for repeal of the policy in the lame duck, Gates replied, "I would like to see the repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell, but I'm not sure what the prospects for that are and we'll just have to see."

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Don't Ask Don't Tell

The 'New' DADT Enforcement Rules Ensare A Sailor Who Wasn't Asked And Didn't Tell

Megan Carpentier | August 31, 2010, 9:30AM

On April 28, Jarod Mcintosh went to work on the nuclear submarine the USS Wyoming -- where he served as a cook -- with one extra disallowed piece of equipment in tow: his G-1 phone from T-Mobile. By the end of the day, the presence of his phone set into motion of a chain of events that will result in Mcintosh's general discharge from the U.S. Navy under Defense Secretary Gates' much-vaunted new rules for Don't Ask Don't Tell enforcement. Those rules, of course, were supposed to protect service members from being outed by third parties and in the course of other investigations -- but, in Mcintosh's case, they didn't work that way.

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Military Contractors

Gates Announces Big Cuts To Contractor Funding

Rachel Slajda | August 9, 2010, 3:59PM

Secretary of Defense Robert Gates

Defense Secretary Robert Gates, in announcing new cost-saving measures for the Pentagon, said the DOD will dramatically cut funding for service support contractors, by 10 percent each year for the next three years.

He cited a "dramatic increase in the use of service support and advisory contractors" over the last 10 years -- from 26 percent of workforce spending in 2000 to 39 percent last year. And that's "not counting contractors supporting the war effort in Iraq and Afghanistan."

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Robert Gates

Gates And Mullen: Wikileaks Might Already Have Blood On Their Hands

Jillian Rayfield | July 29, 2010, 3:43PM

Defense Secretary Robert Gates

Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Admiral Mike Mullen held a press conference today to address the leak of 92,000 documents about the Afghanistan War by the website Wikileaks. Gates condemned the leaks, warning "the battlefield consequences" are "potentially severe and dangerous for our troops."

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Military Contractors

Cashing In: Ex-Officers Double As Paid Military 'Mentors' And Contractor Consultants

Justin Elliott | December 30, 2009, 9:35AM

Former Air Force Chief of Staff and Durango Group Founder Gen. Ron Fogleman

Under a newly revealed arrangement that makes the famous "revolving door" seem quaint, retired military officers are simultaneously drawing paychecks both from the government and from private sector businesses gunning for Pentagon contracts, according to a USA Today investigation.

A defense consulting firm out in Colorado called Durango Group, which helps companies obtain DOD contracts, sits at the center of this lucrative arrangement.

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