Don't Ask, Don't Tell. That was the United States Military's policy when it came to homosexuals in the Armed Forces. What that means is, you can be in the military if you are gay as long as nobody knows about it. You can't be asked if you are gay, and you are not allowed to tell anyone that you are gay. Don't Ask, Don't Tell. Get it? Well as of today, September 20th 2011, that policy is no more. Homosexuals are allowed to be open and up front with their sexual preference. This is a huge win for gay rights and should be celebrated. However, is this really the best thing for our military?
Equality should be universal and it's something that I support fully. What worries me about this policy coming to an end is human nature and overwhelming ignorance. In a perfect world, this policy ending will have no adverse effects and everyone will carry on like normal. Unfortunately, we are not in a perfect world and allowing gay service members to be out and honest about their sexual preference will have negative affects where we really don't need them. Right on the front lines.
I'm going to break down the military into three groups.
Infantry - these are the guys (females are not allowed to be in the infantry) that go on patrols, go behind enemy lines, look for the bad guys and do a majority of the fighting.
FOBbits - These are the men and women that stay on the FOB (Forward Operating Base) and do whatever their job might be in support of the soldiers going outside the wire.
Support and Security - These are the men and women that go outside the wire to provide support, security and various other duties that put them in harms way. Each of these groups have a very important job and cannot function without the other. They have been working together with minimal friction and with one goal in mind. WIN! Don't ask don't tell coming to an end will affect each group differently. Here's how.
I would like to emphasize that each of these groups will be talked about when they are in the war zone and under a great deal of pressure. Don't think because I call them FOBbits they are living on easy street and out of harms way. There is a constant risk of mortar attack or random gunfire that looms over everyone, all the time.
That being said, let's start with the FOBbits. If your job is a mechanic, a nurse, a cook, or any other job that keeps you on the FOB for a majority of your time, the end of don't ask don't tell won't have too much of an affect on you. For example, I was a member of the Electronics Section and spent a good deal of my time on the FOB fixing electronic equipment. I called my section Sergeant a fag all the time and if it turned out that he actually was gay, it wouldn't have changed how I did my job. For most of the FOBbits, their job is straight forward and the sexual orientation of their boss won't affect how well they perform. Whether they agree with that person's life choice is another story. But we are talking about the soldier's ability to effectively do their job. This policy ending will have minimal affects on the FOBbit group.
We are going to move to the Support and Security group. This group is made up of the Engineers that go out and fix roads and move rubble. They also provide security and do patrols. Another member of this group are the men and women pulled from other units to provide convoy security, drive trucks, help with detainees and whatever else might take them off the FOB. The soldiers in this group have more interaction with each other and that allows them to be more tolerant in general. However, when completing their task there is enormous pressure to follow commands and trust the person in charge. If you don't do what you're told when you're told to do it, somebody can get killed. That's a fact. All the time spent training and preparing for situations that might come up allow these soldiers to form a bond and build trust. If you don't trust the person who is in charge of you, it's going to be very difficult to follow them into harms way. This policy will directly affect these soldiers whether you like it or not. For every person out there that supports equality, there are probably two people that don't. The jobs performed by these soldiers are relatively straight forward and a particular soldier's responsibility is known with some gray areas to account for the unexpected. That makes it a little easier on the soldiers involved because they know what their job is and it's not going to change because their commanding officer is gay. It will affect them if shit hits the fan and there is a lack of trust. Why is there a lack of trust you ask? Because you've been training and working with the same people for a while and now you find out that one of them is gay. For most of us, it's no big deal. It's not the "most of us" I'm worried about. I'm worried about the few or more that are not comfortable with openly gay soldiers. With the don't ask don't tell policy, that never came up. Yes, you'd have your suspicions but without confirmation it wouldn't affect your day-to-day life. Allowing soldiers to be be openly gay
will affect the day-to-day life of a number of members of the military. It will be felt the most in the next group we talk about. The Infantry.
I'm not going to sugar coat this. Allowing infantry soldiers to be openly gay will have a negative affect on how well the job gets done. Period. You have to understand how the infantry works. These guys spend a ridiculous amount of time together. They eat together, they sleep together, they shower together, they train together and they fight together. They have a bond with each other that most of us can't even grasp. The level of trust between infantry guys is, and needs to be, very strong. And let's be honest; if you were showering with a guy for the past two years and now you find out he's gay, it's going to change things. How it changes things will vary from one soldier to the next but change is inevitable. More importantly, if you've perceived someone a certain way for a long time and built up a level of trust and respect, that will change when you find out they are gay. These infantry guys need to be able to trust each other without thinking about it. They need to know that what they are being told is the right thing to do without question. If they second guess it, someone could get killed. These guys are going to have the overall trust and bond they've built up over the years altered significantly. It sounds bad, and you can say it won't matter until you're blue in the face. And for you, it might not. But these units are big and we need to think about everyone this affects. Even the ignorant and intolerant. This is how the world works and that's just the way it is. I'd love to live in a Utopia where everything works out for the best. But we don't and we need to realize how this affects everybody, good and bad.
Now, a person being gay doesn't hinder their ability to do their job. Don't take this the wrong way. I'm not saying gay infantry soldiers are any less capable of performing on a high level, I'm saying that when they come out in the open about, it's going change how the entire unit operates. The reason is, there are just too many people out there that are not comfortable with homosexuals. Infantry guys, for the most part, are the gung-ho meat heads that fart on each other and wrestle. They don't have the exposure to the outside world that everyone else does. The close proximity that these guys live in will become very uncomfortable very quickly. It all comes down to trusting your battle buddy and I can't see how this policy coming to an end will do any good for the infantry guys on the front lines.
I want to reiterate the fact that a gay soldier is just as capable of doing their job than anyone else. When it comes to job performance and ability, being gay has nothing to do with it. I know a lot of soldiers that were gay and I would have them next to me in a fox-hole any day of the week because they were damn good soldiers. I support equality and feel that everyone has the right to live their life the way they want, with whoever they want. What I think we overlooked here is how different the military is from any other work place in the world. I understand that these soldiers want to be honest and open about who they are. What I also understand is that when you join the Armed Forces you take on a higher responsibility to your Country. I wouldn't be surprised if the gay soldiers serving in the Infantry remain unnoticed for the greater good of their unit and their country. I hope I'm wrong and everything carries on without issues.
Feel free to voice your opinions on this matter. I'm curious to know how people feel about this. And be honest, I was. Now I'm going to head down to the recruiters office with a Ham Sandwich and ask for and tell about the Hand-job I get for it.
