Cultural Survival Skills

Openly Gay Military! What’s Your Vote?

A USA Today February 3, 2010 article (p. 6A) presented the following:

“Repealing the policy against openly Gay men and Lesbians in the military ‘would be the right thing to do’.” This is according to the Nations top uniformed military officer, Admiral Michael Mullen, Chairman of the Join Chiefs of staff.

He went on to say, “ However, eliminating the current ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ policy will cause some disruption in the force.”

Admiral Mullen further stated: “Allowing Lesbians and Gay men to serve openly is an issue of integrity–theirs as individuals and ours as an institution. I also believe that great young men and women of our military can and would accommodate such a change”.

Senator John McCain’s response was the following: “At this moment of immense hardship for our armed services we should not be seeking to overturn the ‘don’t ask, don’t tell policy’.”

So there is the issue. You can decide as you wish. But, I have long ago made my decision and it is not favorable to this primarily political movement which threatens the strength of our military. 
I believe that I am qualified to speak to this issue in many ways because I have had a good amount of experience with Gay and Lesbian individuals and issues. As a psychotherapist, I have done my best to help them and their families cope with the many social problems associated with this way of life and I have felt great compassion for all concerned. I have happily worked with, liked and respected, many Gays and Lesbians in numerous professional venues. Finally, and most relevant to the present issue, I was accused of being Gay and investigated by an agency of the federal government when I was in the Navy.

Here’s my story. 

In 1960 they were building my submarine. It was a brand new Fleet Ballistic nuclear powered  submarine. It was armed with 16 multiple nuclear war-headed missiles. Our submarine played an important role in the “cold war” against Russia. The strategy was one of “Mutually Assured Destruction”. If they destroyed us, they knew for certain that we would destroy them and nothing could stop us. Those were the “good ol’ days”. Mutually assured destruction would appear to be irrelevant to our new mortal enemies who’s God handsomely rewards their self-destruction in the service of His goals.

While our submarine was being built our crew lived ashore for a while. A new shipmate invited my best friend and I to share his apartment. It was our second night there when my buddy shook me awake in the early morning. He was in a panic: “Moe! X grabbed my ‘cock’ last night! I’m getting out of here! We immediately left to look for another apartment.

The Gay sailor was a higher rank than we were, we were just 19 yrs. of age and did not know what to do. Should we tell? What will happen to us? Do we keep our mouths shut? We were pretty shook-up. Regrettably, we made the wrong decision and we kept quiet.

The Gay guy did the same thing to another sailor, of equal rank, and that sailor told an officer about the incident. Soon my best buddy and I were under suspicion and investigation for being homosexuals (the term used in that day). We were scared to death.

My heart was in my throat as the intimidating men in civilian suits interrogated me. All I could do is what my parents taught me: I anxiously told the truth. One of the men leaned into my face and aggressively accused me of “corn-holing” my buddy. My fear turned to anger and indignation as I raised my voice and profanely corrected the man’s point of view. I was dismissed shortly after that. I never hear another word about the incident, except from my shipmates. They sometimes teased my buddy and I about the incident, but they all knew the truth—we were “pitifully trapped” in our heterosexuality.

Our homosexual shipmate simply vanished, to our great relief.

Looking back, from my perspective of 69 years of age, I do not hate or despise my short-term homosexual shipmate. He was a young man driven to desperation by his ungoverned sexuality. I hope he lived happily ever-after. He simply had no business on my submarine, or in any other branch of our military.

I am in favor of the current “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy.

If we choose to do the “Openly Gay” social experiment in the United States Military it will be increasingly burdened with new social, ethical, administrative, logistical, investigative and legal entanglements. At just the moment when our military can least afford such distractions.

As Admiral Mullen stated: “Allowing Lesbians and Gay men to serve openly is an issue of integrity…..”. Of course, it is a matter of integrity during a time of  war when our military must remain the most fierce and effective fighting force in the world— or all may be lost. It is a matter of Admiral Mullen’s integrity, which he has surrendered to the Obama administration’s mad dash to impose as many self-defeating progressive policies on this Nation as he can, before he loses the power of the Presidency.

I would like to see Admiral Mullen’s resignation.

Good Luck America!

V. Thomas Mawhinney, Ph.D.
2/14/10