VIDEO: Defense Secretary Robert Gates talks to Troops about the DADT Repeal

Gates wants a DADT Repeal Plan by Next Week

Defense Secretary Robert Gates said he needs the repeal plan developed and rett to go by February the 4th.

Washington Blade reports:

In a five-page memorandum dated Jan. 28 and obtained by the Blade, Gates tasks Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel & Readiness Clifford Stanley with devising a strategy to “facilitate the timely and orderly realization” of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” repeal by next Friday.


Gates emphasizes that open service will be implemented throughout the services at the same time, squelching concerns about whether repeal would happen in the military in a graduated process.


“This is not, however, a change that should be done incrementally,” Gates writes. “The steps leading to certification and the actual repeal must be accomplished across the entire Department at the same time, and consistent with the standards of military readiness, military effectiveness, unit cohesion, and recruiting and retention of the Armed Forces.”


President Obama on Dec. 22 signed legislation allowing for repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” but open service won’t take effect until he, the defense secretary and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff certify that the U.S. military is ready. After certification takes place, a 60-day waiting period must pass before gays can serve openly without fear of discharge.

Please read the memo below
Implementation of Repeal from DADT

Robert Gates: Get DADT Done!

Robert wants the DADT process to hurry up and move on

The DADT Survey Results will be discussed with Congress Today

The DADT survey results will be the topic of discussion in Congress today. Adm Mullen and Robert Gates will bring the findings to Capitol Hill, hoping to move the repeal of DADT forward.

Here's more:

Officials familiar with the 10-month study's results have said a clear majority of respondents don't care if gays serve openly, with 70 percent predicting that lifting the ban would have positive, mixed or no results. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the findings hadn't been released.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Mike Mullen, who have both said they support repealing the law, were scheduled to discuss the findings with Congress Tuesday morning and with reporters Tuesday afternoon.

Republicans, led by Sen. John McCain of Arizona, have mostly opposed repealing the law because they say efforts to do so are politically driven and dangerous at a time of two wars.
"This was a political promise made by an inexperienced president or candidate for presidency of the United States," McCain told CNN's "State of the Union" last weekend.

"The military is at its highest point in recruitment and retention and professionalism and capability, so to somehow allege that this policy has been damaging the military is simply false," McCain said.
Democrats and gay rights groups counter that the study finally proves what they've known anecdotally for years: Most troops would accept an openly gay person in their units.

"It's what we expected. The atmosphere in the active-duty has changed," said a gay Air Force officer and co-founder of the advocacy group OutServe. The officer uses the pseudonym "JD Smith" to protect his identity.

The survey is based on responses by some 115,000 troops and 44,200 military spouses to more than a half million questionnaires distributed last summer. The study group, led by Pentagon General Counsel Jeh Johnson and Army Gen. Carter Ham, also visited various military bases and held town hall-style meetings with service members.

I will have more as the day unfolds

READ John McCain's Letter, urging Robert Gates to Modify the DADT Study

In September, John McCain sent Robert Gates a letter, trying change the format of the DADT study
Index
Well Gates responded saying:

I instructed the working group to obtain the input of Servicemembers so that the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and I, as well as the Service Chiefs, can more fully understand how a change in the DADT policy may impact unit cohesion, military readiness and effectiveness, recruiting and retention and family readiness. [...] 

The Chairman and I fully support the approach and the efforts of the working group, as do the Service Chiefs. We are confident that the working group’s report will provide us with the information we need to appropriately advise the President, and, if requested to do so, to provide our fully informed views to Congress as it considers legislative action.

Good for Gates for holding it down, but John still wasn't hearing it. However, I find this very interesting how far McCain is willing to go on this. He was against DADT before, what made him change?

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Robert Gates moves up release of the DADT Report by One Day

Interesting DADT news! Robert Gates will move up the DADT results a day early

Secretary of Defense Robert Gates has agreed to move up by one day the release of a Pentagon report on implementing a repeal of the "don't ask, don't tell" policy that has governed the military for 17 years, a spokesman said Sunday night.

"Secretary Gates is pushing all involved in the Comprehensive Review Working Group's report to have it ready for public release on November 30th in order to accommodate the desire of the Senate Armed Services Committee to hold hearings as soon as possible," Pentagon Press Secretary Geoff Morrell said in a statement e-mailed to reporters.

The November 30th date amounts to a one day acceleration of the report, which had initially been planned for release in early December. Last week, the Pentagon committed to a December 1 release. However, gay rights groups and several senators who support repeal of the congressionally-mandated ban on openly gay servicemembers had asked Gates to get the report out as quickly as possible. Until Sunday, the Pentagon had rebuffed those requests.

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Defense Secretary Robert Gates Says Congress should act Quickly on DADT

Robert Gates said Congress should move forward with DADT, before the new Congressmen take their seats.
 Here's more:

He, however, did not sound optimistic that the current Congress would use a brief postelection session to get rid of the law known as "don't ask, don't tell."

"I would like to see the repeal of "don't ask, don't tell" but I'm not sure what the prospects for that are," Gates said Saturday, as he traveled to defense and diplomatic meetings in Australia.
Unless the lame-duck Congress acts, the repeal effort is considered dead for now.

The current, Democratic-controlled Congress has not acted to lift the ban, which President Barack Obama promised to eliminate. In his postelection news conference Wednesday, Obama said there would be time to repeal the ban in December or early January, after the military completes a study of the effects of repeal on the front lines and at home.

With Republicans taking control of the House in January, and with larger margins in the Senate, supporters of lifting the ban predict it will be much more difficult.
Gates also urged the Senate to ratify a stalled arms control treaty with Russia before the end of the current legislative session in January.

The defense chief said the huge midterm gains for Republicans will not set back Obama's strategy for the war in Afghanistan. Obama wants to begin pulling U.S. forces home next summer, so long as security conditions allow it.

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Defense Secretary Robert Gates Says Courts shouldn't set policy on Gays

This is heating up! Defense Secretary Robert Gates said that abruptly ending DADT could have big consequences.

"I feel strongly this is an action that needs to be taken by the Congress and that it is an action that requires careful preparation, and a lot of training," said Gates. "It has enormous consequences for our troops."

The defense secretary said that besides the changes in training, regulations will need revisions and changes may be necessary to benefits and Defense Department buildings.

The battle in the courts over gays in the military may be far from over. The Justice Department is considering whether to appeal the court ruling and its first response may well be another trip to the courtroom of U.S. District Judge Virginia Phillips in Riverside, Calif., to seek a stay, or temporary freeze, of her ruling. If Phillips turns down the request, the Justice Department would likely turn to the federal appeals court in California.

It was unclear whether Phillips' injunction against the 17-year-old policy on gays in the military would affect any ongoing cases.

I see what he's saying, but are they working on processes to protect gay and lesbian soldiers? We need to hear about the processes and details to assist our fam in the military. 

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