Unfriendly Fire

by Dr. Nathaniel Frank

  8. Walter Pincus and Dana Priest, “Bush Orders the CIA to Hire More Spies: Goss Told to Build Up Other Staffs, Too,” Washington Post, November 24, 2004; Susan Schmidt and Allan Lengel, “Help Still Wanted: Arabic Linguists; Agencies Rushed to Fill Void, but Found Screening New Hires Takes Time,” Washington Post, December 27, 2002; “Nominee Promises Tighter Control over U.S. Intelligence Agencies,” New York Times, April 13, 2005.

  9. Author interview with Ian Finkenbinder, September 5, 2003, and subsequent follow-up communications.

  10. Ibid.

  11. Ibid.

  12. The data are contained in two letters from David S. C. Chu, Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness, to the Honorable Marty Meehan, December 2, 2004, and May 3, 2005, in author’s possession.

  13. “Financial Costs and Loss of Critical Skills,” GAO, February 2005.

  14. Author interviews with Finkenbinder; author interviews with Alastair Gamble, October 24, 2002, and subsequent follow-up communications; Nathaniel Frank, “Stonewalled,” New Republic, January 24, 2005.

  15. “Financial Costs and Loss of Critical Skills,” GAO, February 2005; the figures come from government data and published sources aggregated with knowledge of additional discharges confirmed in personal interviews.

  16. Anne Hull, “How ‘Don’t Tell’ Translates,” Washington Post, December 3, 2003; Tyson, “Uzbek or Dari?”

  17. Author interviews with Gamble.

  18. Ibid.; author interview with Patricia Ramirez, October 25, 2002; Carl Nolte, “Wanted: Speakers of Arabic, Farsi; People Fluent in the Languages Are in Short Supply in the U.S.,” San Francisco Chronicle, September 19, 2001; National Commission, 9/11 Commission Report.

  19. Author interview with Ramirez; Lou Chibbaro, “Nine Arabic Linguists for Army Discharged for Being Gay,” Washington Blade, November 8, 2002.

  20. Author interview with Ramirez.

  21. Ibid.

  22. Ibid.

  23. Ibid.

  24. Ibid.

  25. Ibid.

  26. Ibid.

  27. Ibid.

  28. Ibid.

  29. Ibid.

  30. Ibid.

  31. Author interviews with Gamble; Nathaniel Frank, “Perverse: Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell v. the War on Terrorism,” New Republic, November 18, 2002.

  32. Ibid.

  33. Ibid.

  34. Ibid.

  35. Ibid.

  36. Margie Mason, “Military Boots 6 Gay Arabic Linguists Despite Shortage,” Associated Press, November 14, 2002.

  37. Author interviews with Gamble.

  38. Author interview with Harvey Perritt, October 30, 2002.

  39. Christopher Heredia, “Gay, Lesbian Troops Can Serve Openly—For Now,” San Francisco Chronicle, September 19, 2001.

  40. David Kirby, “Think Before You Tell,” The Advocate, December 4, 2001.

  41. Regulation 500-3-3, vol. 3, “Reserve Component Unit Commanders Handbook,” U.S. Army, 1999, Table 2.1: “Personnel Actions During the Mobilization Process,” in author’s possession.

  42. Lou Chibbaro, “Out Gay Soldiers Sent to Iraq,” Washington Blade, September 23, 2005.

  43. E-mail from Major Nate Flegler, Media Division, FORSCOM Public Aff airs, to author, October 6, 2005.

  44. Senate Committee on Armed Services, Policy Concerning Homosexuality, 1993, 17– 18.

  45. Joseph Giordono, “Discharged Gay Sailor Is Called Back to Active Duty,” Stars and Stripes, May 6, 2007; Joseph Giordono, “Navy Bars Outed Gay Sailor from Return to Service,” Stars and Stripes, June 10, 2007.

  46. Bryan Bender, “Military Retaining More Gays,” Boston Globe, March 19, 2006.

  47. Allan Bérubé, Coming Out Under Fire: The History of Gay Men and Women in World War Two (New York: Free Press, 1990), 172.

  48. Ibid., 262; Randy Shilts, Conduct Unbecoming: Gays and Lesbians in the U.S. Military (New York: Ballantine Books, 1994), 70.

  49. Randy Shilts, “Military May Defer Discharge of Gays,” San Francisco Chronicle, January 11, 1991.

  50. Randy Shilts, “Army Discharges Lesbian Who Challenged Ban,” San Francisco Chronicle, January 19, 1991; Wade Lambert and Stephanie Simon, “US Military Moves to Discharge Some Gay Veterans of Gulf War,” Wall Street Journal, July 30, 1991; Doug Grow, “Captain Did Her Duty, Despite Military’s Mixed Messages,” Minneapolis Star Tribune, March 16, 1993; Randy Shilts, “Gay Troops in the Gulf War Can’t Come Out,” San Francisco Chronicle, February 18, 1991; Shilts, Conduct Unbecoming, 735–38.

  51. Department of Defense, “Defense Language Transformation Roadmap,” report, January 2005.

  52. Ibid.

  53. Department of Defense, Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness, the National Language Conference, “A Call to Action for National Foreign Language Capabilities,” white paper, February 1, 2005; Department of Defense, “DoD Issues Call for National Foreign Language Capabilities,” press release, April 27, 2005.

  54. National Language Conference, “A Call to Action.”

  55. Ibid.

  56. Department of Defense, “DoD Issues Call”; Department of Defense, “DoD Announces Plan to Improve Foreign Language Expertise,” press release, March 30, 2005.

  57. Tim Weiner, “Titan Corp. to Pay $28.5 Million in Fines for Foreign Bribery,” New York Times, March 2, 2005; John Mintz, “Army Veteran, Arab Linguist Is Forced Out in Crossfire,” Washington Post, April 21, 2002.

  58. Senate Judiciary Committee Hearing, Subcommittee on Terrorism, Technology and Homeland Security, October 14, 2003; Peter Grier and Faye Bowers, “Guantánamo Probe Stirs Wider Security Concerns,” Christian Science Monitor, October 23, 2003; Nathaniel Frank, “Why We Need Gays in the Military,” New York Times, November 28, 2003.

  59. Duncan Mansfield, “Army Dismisses Gay Arabic Linguist,” Associated Press, July 27, 2006.

  60. Author interview with Stephen Benjamin, May 21, 2007; “U.S. Military Continues to Discharge Gay Arab Linguists,” Associated Press, May 23, 2007.

  61. Ibid.

  62. Ibid.

  63. Ibid.

  64. E-mail from Stephen Benjamin to author, May 22, 2007.

  65. Author interview with Jarrod Chlapowski, February 28, 2008; Ask Not, directed by Johnny Symons (Oakland, CA: Persistent Visions, 2008).

  66. Author interview with Chlapowski.

  10. GAYS OUT, EXCONVICTS IN

  1. Nathaniel Frank, “Revolving Door for Troops,” Washington Post, July 12, 2004.

  2. Senate Committee on Armed Services, Policy Concerning Homosexuality, 1993, 690–91.

  3. A 2005 GAO report states that “from the passage of the homosexual conduct policy statute, in fiscal year 1994, through fiscal year 2003 the military services separated about 9,500 servicemembers for homosexual conduct. This represents about 0.40 percent of the 2.37 million members separated for all reasons during this period”: “Financial Costs and Loss of Critical Skills,” GAO, February 2005; Charles Moskos writes that homosexual separations represent 0.1 percent of military personnel: Charles Moskos, “The Law Works—and Here’s Why,” Army Times, October 27, 2003, cited in David Burrelli and Charles Dale, “Homosexuals and U.S. Military Policy: Current Issues” Congressional Research Services Report, March 13, 2006, 8.

  4. “Military Reserves Falling Short in Finding Recruits,” New York Times, August 28, 2000.

  5. Justin Brown and Kent David-Packard, “Military Captures Recruits, at Last,” Christian Science Monitor, August 9, 2000; David Wood, “U.S. Military Engages in Dramatic Image Building,” Minneapolis Star Tribune, April 1, 2001; Tony Perry, “Aircraft Carrier Trolls for Future Navy Recruits,” Los Angeles Times, May 21, 2000; Dave Moniz, “ ‘Army of One’ Recruits a New Generation of Soldiers,” USA Today, January 10, 2001.

  6. Wood, “U.S. Military Engages in Dramatic Image Building”; Ron Hutcheson and Jonathan Landay, “Bush Urging Military Pay Raise,” Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, February, 13, 2001.

  7. “Attacks Inspire Ri
se in Army Recruits,” Boston Herald, September 22, 2001; “National Guard Triples Bonuses for Some Recruits,” USA Today, December 17, 2004.

  8. Jamie Wilson, “U.S. Army Lowers Standards in Recruitment Crisis,” The Guardian, June 4, 2005; “Applications Drop at Military Academies,” Reuters, June 14, 2005; Eric Schmitt, “Army Likely to Fall Short in Recruiting, General Says,” New York Times, July 24, 2005; “Conflict in Iraq Hampers Enlisting,” St. Petersburg Times, March 28, 2005; “For Recruiters, a Distant War Becomes a Tough Sell,” USA Today, April 6, 2005; “Military Offering More, and Bigger, Bonuses,” USA Today, February 21, 2005; Ann Scott Tyson, “Army Aims to Catch Up on Recruits in Summer,” Washington Post, June 11, 2005; James Gordon, “It’s Slim Pickin’s: War Forcing Army to Accept Less-Qualified Recruits,” Daily News, March 15, 2005.

  9. Author interview with Gary Gates, August 3, 2006; Gary Gates, “Lesbians and Gay Men in the U.S. Military: Estimates from Census 2000,” white paper, the Williams Institute, University of California, Los Angeles, October 2005; Gary Gates, “Effects of ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ on Retention Among Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Military Personnel,” research brief, Williams Institute, University of California, Los Angeles, October 2005.

  10. Schmitt, “Army Likely to Fall Short in Recruiting, General Says.”

  11. Ibid.; Dan Ephron, “Peter Pace Called Homosexual Acts ‘Immoral’ Last Week. It Wasn’t the First Time He’d Weighed In on the Matter,” Newsweek, March 26, 2007; Aamer Madhani, “Top General Calls Homosexuality ‘Immoral,’ ” Chicago Tribune, March 12, 2007; “Joint Chiefs Nominee Indicates It Is Appropriate for Congress to Revisit ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,’ ” PR Newswire, August 1, 2007.

  12. Damien Cave, “Army Recruiters Say They Feel Pressure to Bend Rules,” New York Times, May 3, 2005.

  13. Jim Dwyer and Robert Worth, “Accused G.I. Was Troubled Long Before Iraq,” New York Times, July 14, 2006; Michael Boucai, “Balancing Your Strengths Against Your Felonies: Considerations for Military Recruitment of Ex-Offenders,” white paper, Palm Center, University of California, Santa Barbara, September 2007.

  14. “U.S. Army, Marines Allow More Convicts to Enlist,” Reuters, April 21, 2008.

  15. Gordon, “It’s Slim Pickin’s”; Tom Bowman, “Army Worries About Quality: More High School Dropouts, Low Scores Recruited,” Baltimore Sun, March 7, 2005. The discharge figures are compiled by the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network from official Department of Defense and other government figures.

  16. Jamie Wilson, “U.S. Army Lowers Standards in Recruitment Crisis,” Guardian, June 4, 2005.

  17. See “Financial Costs and Loss of Critical Skills,” GAO, February 2005; Moskos, “The Law Works”; Wilson, “U.S. Army Lowers Standards in Recruitment Crisis”; Greg Jaffe, “To Fill Ranks, Army Acts to Retain Even Problem Enlistees,” Wall Street Journal, June 3, 2005; Phillip Carter and Owen West, “Dismissed! We Won’t Solve the Military Manpower Crisis by Retaining Our Worst Soldiers,” Slate, June 2, 2005.

  18. Bowman, “Army Worries About Quality”; Boucai, “Balancing Your Strengths”; “Military Recruiting: New Initiatives Could Improve Criminal History Screening,” GAO, February 1999.

  19. Suzanne Goldenberg, “Former U.S. Private Charged with Rape and Killing Victim’s Family in Iraq,” Guardian, July 4, 2006; Dwyer and Worth, “Accused G.I. Was Troubled.”

  20. Ibid.

  21. David Cloud, “Starkly Contrasting Portraits of G.I. in Iraqi Abuse Retrial,” New York Times, September 22, 2005; Eric Schmitt, “Officer in Charge of Questioning Iraqi Inmates Had No Interrogation Training,” New York Times, June 9, 2004; “Latest Report on Abu Ghraib: Abuses of Iraqi Prisoners ‘Are, Without Question, Criminal,’ ” New York Times, August 26, 2004.

  22. National Gang Intelligence Center, “Gang-Related Activity in the US Armed Forces Increasing,” intelligence assessment, January 12, 2007; Claudia Nôñez, “Gang Members Get Trained in the Army,” Opinión, March 9, 2008.

  23. Author interview with Derek Sparks, April 25, 2004.

  24. Author interview with Beth Schissel, November 27, 2005.

  25. Ibid.

  26. Christopher Bond and Patrick Leahy, “United States Senate National Guard Caucus: Report by Caucus Co-Chairs Senators Christopher S. Bond and Patrick J. Leahy on National Guard and Army Reservists on Medical Hold at Ft. Stewart, Georgia,” Senate report, October 24, 2003, http://leahy.senate.gov/press/200310/102403a.html (accessed May 12, 2008).

  27. Senate Appropriations Committee, Defense Subcommittee, Defense Subcommittee Hearing on the FY2006 Defense Medical Health Program, May 10, 2005.

  28. Ibid.

  29. “Military Personnel: DOD Needs Action Plan to Address Enlisted Personnel Recruitment and Retention Challenges,” GAO, November 2005; House Committee on Armed Services, Subcommittee on Military Personnel, Defense Health Programs Overview: Statement of Joseph G. Webb, Jr., Deputy Surgeon General, United States Army, 109th Cong., 1st sess., October 19, 2005; Bryan Bender, “U.S. Military Struggles to Recruit Medical Professionals,” Boston Globe, October 20, 2005.

  30. Frank, “Revolving Door for Troops”; also see Gregg Zoroya, “Army Allows Reserve Officers to Quit Rather Than Go to War,” USA Today, December 20, 2005.

  31. Frank, “Revolving Door for Troops”; figures are from Servicemembers Legal Defense Network; Rep. Marty Meehan quote contained in e-mail from Sandra Solstrum (December 22, 2005) in author’s possession.

  32. Author interview with Schissel.

  33. Scott Greenberger, “One Year Later, Nation Divided on Gay Marriage,” Boston Globe, May 15, 2005.

  34. Tim Reid, “From A-Bomb to Gay Bomb,” Times (London), June 14, 2007; U.S. Department of Defense, Physical Disability Evaluation, DOD Instruction 1332.38, November 14, 1996, certified current as of 2003.

  35. Keely Savoie, “Military Dumb in Any Language,” editorial, Charleston Gazette (West Virginia), December 8, 2002; “Anti-Gay Military Asks for Trouble,” Atlanta Journal-Constitution, June 25, 2004; “Let Gay Soldiers Serve Openly,” USA Today, April 28, 2005; Max Boot, “Gay or Female, Uncle Sam Should Want You,” Los Angeles Times, May 26, 2005.

  36. Senate Committee on Armed Services, Hearing on the Status of the U.S. Army and Marine Corps in Fighting the Global War on Terrorism, 109th Cong., 1st sess., June 30, 2005.

  37. Susan Milligan, “Military Recruiters Getting a Foot in Door: Federal Education Bill Requires High Schools to Share Student Data,” Boston Globe, November 21, 2002; Steven Carter, “Military Recruits in Schools, but It Gets No Welcome Mat,” Oregonian, December 18, 2003; Erika Hayasaki, “Districts Taking On Recruiters,” Los Angeles Times, February 13, 2003; author interview with anonymous staff member, House Armed Services Committee, 2001; “Easier Access for Military Recruiters,” Tampa Tribune, July 6, 2000; Aaron Belkin, “ ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’: Does the Gay Ban Undermine the Military’s Reputation?” Armed Forces & Society 34, no. 2 (January 2008): 276–91.

  38. House Committee on Armed Services, Report of the House Committee on Armed Services, National Defense Authorization Act for FY 2000, 106th Cong., 1st sess., May 24, 1999.

  39. Ibid.

  40. Congressional study cited in brief of Professors William Alford et al. in support of appellants and in support of reversal, Forum for Academic and Institutional Rights v. Rumsfeld, 390 F.3d 219.

  41. Ibid.

  42. Marcella Bombardieri, “Harvard Law Ends Its Ban on Military,” Boston Globe, August 27, 2002.

  43. Department of Defense, Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness, the National Language Conference, “A Call to Action for National Foreign Language Capabilities,” white paper, February 1, 2005; Department of Defense, “DoD Issues Call for National Foreign Language Capabilities,” press release, April 27, 2005.

  44. David Burrelli and Charles Dale, “Homosexuals and U.S. Military Policy: Current Issues,” Congressional Research Service Report, May 27, 2005.

  45. Ibid.

 
46. “Conference Report on H.R. 1119, National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 1998,” Congressional Record, 105th Cong., 2nd sess., October 23, 1997.

  47. Burrelli and Dale, “Homosexuals and U.S. Military Policy.”

  48. H. Con. Res. 36, 109th Cong., 1st sess., February 2, 2005.

  49. Burrelli and Dale, “Homosexuals and U.S. Military Policy.”

  50. Cave, “Army Recruiters Say They Feel Pressure”; Frank Main, “More Army Recruits Have Records,” Chicago Sun-Times, June 19, 2006.

  11. RAINBOW WARRIORS

  1. “Conduct Unbecoming: The Second Annual Report on ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,’ ” report, Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, 1996; Andrea Stone, “Many Troops Openly Gay, Group Says,” USA Today, January 8, 2008.

  2. Eric Schmitt, “Military Cites Wide Range of Reasons for Its Gay Ban,” New York Times, January 27, 1993; “Conduct Unbecoming: The Third Annual Report on ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,’ ” report, Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, 1997; “Conduct Unbecoming: The Tenth Annual Report on ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,’ ” report, Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, 2004.

  3. Margarethe Cammermeyer, Serving in Silence (New York: Penguin, 1994); Lincoln Caplan, “ ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’—Marine Style,” Newsweek, June 13, 1994; “Conduct Unbecoming: The Third Annual Report”; “Conduct Unbecoming: The Tenth Annual Report.”

  4. Author interview with Steve Clark Hall, Feburary 15, 2008; Steve Estes, Ask and Tell: Gay and Lesbian Veterans Speak Out (Durham: University of North Carolina Press, 2007), 107–9.

  5. Ibid.

  6. Ibid.

  7. Ibid.

  8. Nathaniel Frank, “Gays and Lesbians at War: Military Service in Iraq and Afghanistan Under ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,’ ” white paper, Palm Center, University of California, Santa Barbara, 2004; author interviews with anonymous, 2004.

  9. Author interview with Ian Finkenbinder, September 5, 2003, and subsequent follow-up communications; author interviews with anonymous, 2004; author interview with Austin Rooke, July 13, 2004: Rooke followed his statement with an indication that others had more trouble than he did: “However, I don’t think that’s the norm. I still come into contact with people in the military who have been in for years and are absolutely terrified” that they will be outed. Consistent with evidence reported earlier, the difficulty appears to result from the policy, rather than the presence of known gays; author interview with Wendy Biehl, April 28, 2004, and subsequent follow-up communications; observations are based on author field visits to various U.S. military installations.