Yesterday I hinted at the fact that the fix for passing the repeal of DADT was in since Defense Secretary Gates single-handedly ordered the report on it piecemealed to siepher out negative opinion. He was largely successful, except when it came to the Generals of the Army, Air Force, Marine Corps and upwards of 67 percent of active combat Marines who said that repealing the law would have a negative – repeat that – negative effect on operational readiness.

I’ve heard from several people with knowledge of how the survey was conducted that Gates personally ordered the report “sanitized” because, “This is important to the President”. From the Weekly Standard a few weeks ago:

“Early reports on the Pentagon’s survey of the troops on “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” were nothing but roses for repeal supporters, but the details of the survey complicate that narrative somewhat. While only 20% of troops who have never been deployed to a combat zone say that repeal of DADT would “very negatively” or “negatively” affect their “immediate unit’s effectiveness at completing its mission,” more than 44% of combat troops say repeal would have a negative impact on unit effectiveness:

An exception to the pattern was the response of Service members deployed to a combat zone now or in the past to the circumstance of being “in a field environment or out to sea.” Among all Service members in this group, 44.3% (and 59.4% of Marines—see Q71a in Appendix E) said performance would be “very negatively/negatively” affected in this situation. Of note, among all survey items related to the review’s major subject areas, this item had the highest percentage of Service members reporting negative perceptions about the impact of a repeal.

Update: The report also says that “67% of those in Marine combat arms units”–i.e. infantry, artillery, armor–”predict working alongside a gay man or lesbian will have a negative effect on their unit’s effectiveness in completing its mission ‘in a field environment or out at sea.’”

About 11% of all combat troops surveyed said repeal would “positively” or “very positively” affect performance, while 19% said repeal would have “no effect.” Another 26% of combat troops surveyed said repeal’s affect wold be “equally as positively as negatively.” These troops–who see both negative and positive effects of repeal–are lumped together with those who believe it will have “no effect” under the survey’s “neutral” category. “

As one who served two decades in the US Army I served with many men, women some of whom I knew were gay but it was a secret that no one spoke about, only suspected. Gays have been serving more than likely since the beginning of the armed services of the United States. So why the beef. Simply because what was known was known in secret.

Also what was known didn’t not constitute acceptance or even tolerance. Now that gays will be able to serve “openly”, what will actually happen will be widespread chaos and that’s what the majority of active combat service members stated would happen should DADT be repealed. What kind of chaos?

The devil is in the details of how this will be implemented once it’s signed by Obama. As the armed services attempt to implement programs, materials, and training basically telling straight troops that not only must they accept behavior in the most personal of quarters – barracks, showers, foxhole, they will have no recourse to address their rights.

That’s right – their rights. For the clueless that have never served in the military, specifically in the combat arms area, let’s look at a few scenarios that will play out. They may sound simplistic, even comical, but they are real.

In basic training, where all members of the services enter in, they are sequestered together in close quarters. They sleep side by side, and yes even shower together. I remember being in a shower with 20 other guys in basic training and actually feeling nothing of uncomfortableness. But then I wasn’t aware if in my midst there was anybody gay there with us. Again you may suspect, but you just didn’t know.

However I could tell you that if there had been and it been known, it wouldn’t have been pretty. PC aside, it’s just the fact of the situation. There would have been blood. True that was over thirty years ago and things have changed, but not by much. I can say that most soldiers I served with who thought another soldier was looking at their fanny would have clocked his ass.

Internals to the survey showed that much of the animosity hasn’t changed, and is unlikely to change even with forced training telling straight troops they MUST accept their gay counterparts. It’s NOT going to happen. Any troops reading this are welcome to comment, but I’m coming from 20 years of experience, it’s not going to happen.

Of course defenders will say “Tough! It’s the law now”. But no law is ever permanent. If the repeal leads to chaos DADT could well be made into law again in the name of national security. That’s doubtful, but what may also happen is that individuals discharged for failing to accept having homosexuals serve next to them could very well sue saying that their rights were trumped by the repeal.

One of the lies that the media and defenders put forward in getting the act repealed is by naming all the other countries which allow gays to serve openly. What they didn’t talk about is that in many of these countries there are numerous problems of discipline and for the most part it simply doesn’t work.

One of the areas not yet address apart from simple communing, is how the social strata will be implemented. For instance will homosexual marriage be accepted? Will gays be allowed the same base privileges of quarters, dependent military care? If so how will that impact the cost of running the armed forces? This was addressed in the study and obtained a negative rating, but was stripped from the final report as was anything that provided a negative light.

There will be much more coming on this in the weeks to come. But suffice for now that the American public, the media, and our elected officials were punked on the real effects of repealing DADT.