Don’t tell or don’t fight, even if we need you

Josh Canel finds an NYT article pointing out one of the contributing elements to our military manpower shortage:

An analysis of Pentagon data reveals that the military is losing gay troops in the occupational areas where shortfalls are most dire. In addition to the “stop loss” orders that prompted last week’s lawsuit, the Pentagon has recalled thousands of former troops from civilian life to fill these gaps.

Many of these recalls would have been unnecessary if the military had not fired so many gay service members. This year the Pentagon approved the recall of 72 veterans in communication and navigation, but it has expelled 115 gay troops in that category since 1998; it recalled 33 in operational intelligence but has expelled 50 gays; in combat operations control, it recalled 33 but expelled 106.

Overall, the military has announced the recall of 5,674 veterans since June, but has discharged 6,416 soldiers under its “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy since 1998, including 1,655 since the wars in the Middle East began. The discharges covered people in 161 occupational specialties, including linguists; intelligence personnel; nuclear, biological and chemical warfare experts; artillery specialists; and missile guidance and control operators.

I had always believed that anti-gay policies in the US military were a luxury of peacetime, and would vanish in the face of any serious conflict. It’s possible that this will eventually be the case, but thus far I’m being proven wrong.