DADT....a Personal Introduction to this Policy

This week marks the repeal of Don't Ask Don't Tell.  While many have very strong opinions either for or against, our prayer is for a safe and peaceful transition that the military and its members are going to have to face as a society that was once so strongly opposed.  Through the years, my engineer and I have lived in a society that we were thankful our homosexual friends did not have to contend with.  

My first glimpse of DADT came while we were living in the Orient.  We had recently arrived, and everything was so foreign to us.  Having left the Great White North's frigid winter (a whopping -65 with windchill), we were physically shocked by the balmy 78 degrees that welcomed us in the Orient.  After spending 4 days waiting for a home, we had moved in and started the next chapter in our lives.  My engineer started work and life was good.

One day, my engineer came home, obviously baffled by something that was happening at work.  That was when he told me about something that has not left my mind since.

There was a lot of foot traffic passing in front of my engineer's office.  Realizing that something was up, he had asked his MSgt about it.  There had been a DADT violation, and the service member being kept in the office across the hall was waiting for the final decision to come down from on high.  

That was when the story unfolded.  The service member had been carrying on an affair with, not one gardener, but two. One of the gardeners became jealous upon discovering this as a result of looking through the service member's video tape collection.  In a rage, the gardener had taken one of the tapes and had dropped it off in the Shoppette's movie rental return box.  In an attempt to identify the unmarked movie, the staff had played it in the store's video player.  I don't think I have to go any further.  You are bound to have a very strong imagination.

Unfortunately, the service member was living in a tight knit community and was easily identified.  What followed was a swift decision and a discharge.  Now, if this situation did not smack so strongly of exploitation of a poorer people, I would simply say that guy had a social situation on his hands.  

However, after having lived there for two years and understanding the desperate divide that existed between the haves and the have nots, I feel that his actions were more predatory than relational. In this case, if the sexual orientation was different, I feel the same outcome would have been appropriate.  

What are my personal thoughts on this repeal?  It was only a matter of time.  While some may think and argue it in the ivory towers, my chief and foremost concern is for the safety of our service members.  I know that my heart will break with each story that comes out of infractions committed.