Army Trains For 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' Repeal

Source: Huffington Post

WASHINGTON — The Army's top general kicked off the service's training program Thursday on the new law allowing gays to serve openly in the military, and officials said they hope to have the whole force trained by mid-August.

The largest of the service branches, the Army plans to finish training the active duty force of 565,000 by mid-July and the 567,000 members of the Guard and Reserve by mid-August, officials said.

Gen. George Casey launched the effort with a slide presentation in the Pentagon for most of service's dozen four-star generals.

Mainly due to its size, the Army is scheduled to take longer to complete the training than the smaller services. The Defense Department has given the services a lot of leeway in determining how they conduct the training and on what schedule.

Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/02/18/army-trains-dont-ask-dont-tell-repeal_n_824923.html

It's also conflict resolution, what gets handled at the unit level, what bad behavior merits what punishment, how to handle complaints, etcetera.

So I envision a big chalkboard, with the word

ENEMY

Above it are figures - among them are a woman and man, each with the word "GAY" under them. And they have been crossed out.

--


"R-E-S-P-E-C-T. Find out what it means to me..."

That would go a long way toward conflict resolution.

-------------------------

I thought the military was all into this "following orders" thing :shrug:

but I guess I don't get why education is considered a bad thing in this area.

The entire country could use training in respect in a whole lot of areas.

Would you rather the military leave it up to the vagaries of upbringing or that they introduce those who might have extreme bias against gays to a counter viewpoint while also reminding them in formal training that those biases better remain inside?

Don't get the sarcasm at what is a very good thing.

All this training is just another way of putting this off. Meanwhile the rightwing vows to put DADT back in place.

JUST DO IT! :patriot:

That same training in respect would certainly help on DU... :shrug:

"You homos will be the first line of defense. Now go find those landmines."

:sarcasm:

The vast majority of US soldiers want DADT to go away, and soon. The US military is highly professional, and in many ways, more politically progressive and enlightened than the society it serves.

Your ignorance is showing. You clearly have no actual experience in the armed forces. It's usually those who know the least that offend the most.

Not bashing the service people, but the millitary is a breeding ground for right wing militias. The "cartoon mentality" you speak of, well, I may not have served, but I have friends who have. Out of all of them, only ONE maintained his progressive ideals. The rest were once progressive, then the next time I saw them, they were changed philsophically.

As in a gentle conversation encouraging those who are homophobic to leave.

If they allow rapists and racists to stay in, what makes you think they'll boot people for being anti-gay?

It is to inform service members of what the rules are and are not and the penalties for not following them. It will also be included in basic training, leadership courses, OCS, ROTC, and the service academies.

I see this as a good thing since it indicates the services are taking the change seriously and not just giving it lip service. There will be those who do not follow the new rules and some will be made examples of.

that it is being taken very seriously and quite frankly am taken aback by the sarcasm in this thread towards this.

I have children in the military and this is being taken very seriously. There will be holdouts and pockets of resistance, for such is human nature. After a few public discharges, those too will melt away. The reality is that there will always be some holdouts, for such is human nature, but I expect the new policies to be rigorously enforced.

And is no less ugly than any other bigotry, and a good deal more hypocritical, coming from those who profess to be oh so tolerant.

Hopefully they grow up soon.


As a member of the military, I know we have a way to go, and we're working on it. You don't just wave a magic wand and declare it to be done.

People are what they are.

The military is no different. There's good and bad.

The intolerance of some people here doesn't surprise me any more.

It's the ignorance coupled to the arrogance that amazes me.

Where do soldiers come from?

The idea that the military is going to change the minds of hundreds, if not thousands of human beings completely is dumbfounding. Look around this country and then tell me there's no bigotry. There's no sexism or racism. Yet,the military is expected to do what this Nation has not?

The vast majority of the people in uniform will comply with the regulations. Most will not have a problem with it because they don't have a problem with it now. Those on the fence will conform if they intend to stay in the military. And some dumb asses will get tossed out or leave. But, not all will go.

Should DADT be repealed? Sure.

Is it over due? Sure.

Are there gay's serving now? Sure.

Will it get better for them? I hope so.

instead of snark to this thread

The Air Force because it's filled with fundie-asshole brass, and the MArine Crotch because they are a hide-bound organization that dragged their feet on racial integration too.

What's to train? You either get it or you never will.

Oh, I get it. There is a government contract for many $$$$ to provide this training.

the training is provided by uniformed members for the most part.

What's to train? Are you serious? And let me make sure I understand your point, ignorance and prejudice cannot be unlearned or educated away, am I correct?

Sure education works on ignorance, but it is wasted effort when applied to stupidity.

AR 600-20 is The Army Equal Opportunity Program.

The big trick is going to be adding curricula to the NCO Education System and the officer professional development programs to help the leadership track down and remove the bigots from service. If they have any problems it's going to be in the combat arms; I really don't think the combat support guys (especially linguists) are going to be a problem as far as accepting gays in the ranks. If anything it'll be "you mean they're not going to throw out all the 3/3* linguists?"

* All Army linguists have to take the Defense Language Proficiency Test every year. You get two scores, one for reading, the other for listening. A 1 is "minimally proficient," 2 is "proficient" and 3 is "fluent." There's also a 4 and 5 but you have to be a native speaker to score that high. The Army requires its linguists to be at least 2/2. If you've got a 3/3 linguist in your battalion you guard that guy like a hawk because there aren't many of them--unless he was Serving While Gay before President Obama arm-twisted the Republicans, and then you tried to keep anyone from finding out he was gay.