he's not scared of guns and danger/his boyfriend is an army Ranger

[roo_ster]

What I'd like to see is all the sorry sacks of *expletive deleted* who pretended to be gay to get out, forced back in to finish their contract.

Or forced to prove it.   

That being said, James Fitzer is not an army of one. His view may not be all that prevalent.

Very few made it to my unit and those that did, didn't last long.  Usually got moved to the mech unit or another unit on base.

[Fitz]

That's the impression I get. As "homophobic" as I may be, even I am tired of hearing social conservatives spout off about this without caring to find out what the service-members think. Too many people have the mistaken impression that military personnel are all old-fashioned conservatives. Nonsense. If the soldiers are OK with open homo's serving with them, then I'm not sure I see a problem with it.

That being said, James Fitzer is not an army of one. His view may not be all that prevalent.

I had a lot of soldiers in my unit who made the blustery "Man, i ain't servin with no fags" type comments...

But, after leading these troops for a while, I know most of it is just that... blustery puffing-up.

I think the concerns about gays serving openly is overblown. My biggest evidence is this: They already serve, and everyone knows who the gay/lesbian soldiers in their units are.

A lot of opponents of the move say "But, now they can serve openly! They'll march in gay pride parades in uniform, and they'll dress fruity at the PX!"

Uniform regulations will still apply. You cannot demonstrate or march in uniform unless it's for a militarily sanctioned function, and you still have to dress in good taste within military guidelines.

If a soldier marches in a gay pride parade in uniform, you punish him the same as you would a soldier marching in any other partisan political rally in uniform.

[kgbsquirrel]

I had a lot of soldiers in my unit who made the blustery "Man, i ain't servin with no fags" type comments...

But, after leading these troops for a while, I know most of it is just that... blustery puffing-up.

I think the concerns about gays serving openly is overblown. My biggest evidence is this: They already serve, and everyone knows who the gay/lesbian soldiers in their units are.

A lot of opponents of the move say "But, now they can serve openly! They'll march in gay pride parades in uniform, and they'll dress fruity at the PX!"

Uniform regulations will still apply. You cannot demonstrate or march in uniform unless it's for a militarily sanctioned function, and you still have to dress in good taste within military guidelines.

If a soldier marches in a gay pride parade in uniform, you punish him the same as you would a soldier marching in any other partisan political rally in uniform.

^ This is spot on. Thanks for writing that up JF.

[AJ Dual]

I think the real trick here is to turn DADT into MYOB.

If we can do that, we'll be fine.

[Perd Hapley]

I think the concerns about gays serving openly is overblown.

I hate to say it, but I've already had to correct a friend of mine who was talking about "the homosexual U.S. military."

[Fitz]

Not sure i follow ya

[gunsmith]

I'm pretty certain that the first 2 or 3 years of implementation of the new policy, that  E1's thru E7's will be getting
in all kinds of trouble for uttering the wrong epithet at the wrong time.

I hate to say it, but I've already had to correct a friend of mine who was talking about "the homosexual U.S. military."

its quite a lot of fun! I wish I could track down my old friend the infantry Sgt, razz him & stuff. ... it would be a blast.

[Perd Hapley]

Not sure i follow ya

I was saying that some people seem to expect a stampede from the gay bars to the recruiter's office, or they think the military has "gone gay." It's not realistic, but it's also way off base to blame (or credit) the military for a decision made by the civilian leadership. 

[Fitz]

I getcha now

[MillCreek]

Ms. MillCreek 2.0 was a Navy lifer, retiring after 20 years as a Chief Corpsman.  She always said that military medicine had a disproportionately higher percentage of gays as compared to the rest of the Fleet, at least in terms of gay women, both enlisted and officers.  She said that other than other sailors automatically assuming she was gay, as a female corpsman, she never had any problem with the gay sailors that she led.  She said that as a general rule, they got into less trouble and caused less problems than the young straight male sailors.