DA/DT Letter to Editor

I had a letter to the editor published today in The Dallas Morning News.  It was in response to this letter published last week:

... but one of honor


Before taking a position on the elimination of "don't ask, don't tell," self-appointed military experts should visit a Navy destroyer or fast attack submarine.


Spend a few days living in the crew's berthing compartment, sleeping head to toe. Get dressed while bumping into other sailors also trying to pull up their pants. Take a quick shower in a small stall with a clear plastic curtain while a room full of your towel-wrapped buddies brush their teeth, shave and await their turn in the "rain locker."


The chairman of the joint chiefs, Adm. Mike Mullen, says his views on gays serving openly now mirror those of the secretary of defense and the president. When Mullen was a young ensign just starting his career in the Navy, I was a chief petty officer on a cruiser in the Atlantic fleet. Had he been in need of advice, he likely would have come to someone like me. Were he to seek my advice today, I would tell him to speak the truth and resign.


The elimination of "don't ask, don't tell" is a mistake. An officer's honor has far more value than his position, and it is inexcusable to sacrifice the former to maintain the latter.

Jerry E. Deal, Dallas

I was angered by his tortured use of honor to justify ignorance and bigotry, so I replied. 

Here is my response (edited somewhat by the DMN):


Fear of gays shows ignorance

Re: "But one of honor," by Jerry E. Deal, Wednesday Letters.


In Deal's letter regarding "don't ask,don't tell," he attacked Adm. Mike Mullen's honor and explained the tight quarters of Navy ships.


Deal left it for the reader to imagine the supposed horrors of gay sailors in those quarters.


This fear of serving with gays is not honor. It's ignorance and exactly the sort of ignorance pandered to by this bankrupt law for too many years. I guarantee Mr. Deal served with gay sailors every day of his career.


I served as an Army officer and was one of countless gay service members who left voluntarily, because I could not live with the integrity compromises required of the gay ban.


I can't think of a better argument for repeal than Deal's letter.


Samuel Hawk, Dallas
 
If you click on the link, you can read the comments people have posted in response to my letter.  At least as of 1:15 PM, many of them were positive.