disclaimer: As a former petty officer in the United States Navy, and an Army brat/dependent for all of my life before that, these are just my thoughts and opinions. In no way to I mean to disparage anyone currently serving, or our veterans. My opinions on the status of military command structure are my own, and may be subject to my own misinterpretations. Nor do I hold any hostilities towards our elected leaders who have a difficult task of being both servants of our citizens in the moment and balancing the needs and realities of the future.
The Downpayment
DADT was an injustice both for the inequalities it enshrined and the failures of leadership it was designed to obscure. Now that that law has been repealed, the glaring failure of leadership within the military will now be exposed again and time will soon tell if the culture of the current generation of warriors, and it's leaders can move past the issue of accepting diversity within it's ranks, without falling prey to confusion.
"Non Conformists" are a threat to unit cohesion
As part of boot camp training, service members are taught to conform to an ideal value system and that everyone is taught, again and again, how to dress, communicate, and perform their duties so that in a time of crisis and chaos they can do their jobs without being distracted in the moment. Their job is to make war and kill our enemies and their ability to harm our citizens and national interests. They practice and prepare for it every day. At every level of responsibility there is continual training, testing, exercises, evolutions and drills. During all this preparation, if a unit fails because of the failure of an individual, it's often left up to the unit to bring that individual into the accepted norm to meet the conformist goal and ideal. Generally, peer mentoring and support creates more unit cohesion. But some people cannot be trained past a certain level of competence. There are differences that cannot be changed through will or effort or threat or bribe. They can only be hidden, obscured, avoided, and unmentioned or addressed. But that is a disaster waiting to happen. Because a failure in this line of work could mean that people die and wars and countries could be lost.
We are only as strong as our weakest link
As part of the accepted history of all militaries, the strength of the fighting unit was limited by how well the unit worked together. The chain of command is an unbroken line of authority that extends from the President of the United States and Command In Chief to the newest recruit that allows for the issuance of orders, the delegation of authority to commit resources and perform tasks, and it does not perform well as a management style when the fighting unit/team is confused or divided, or if the line of authority is not respected. Our warriors seldom receive training on how to be peaceful, humble, compassionate, thoughtful and respectful of differences unless it's part of their personal or professional development.
When these values are often learned as a consequences of failure once a individual has reached or passed their limit of competence, aptitude, or desire. Because the reliance on non-judicial punishments that are created at the discretion of the unit commander or even the solidarity of the unit, peer bullying is allowed to fester as an integral training style.
In boot camp, recruits are verbally, emotionally, mentally and physically challenged to break down their individuality so that they can be remade in the desired image of a United States Sailor, Marine, Airman or Soldier. While in training, company commanders, drill sergeants, are ever watchful for those individuals who struggle against these changes and make determinations as to whether they are capable - through aptitude, desire, and competence - to become a professional service member. Some people do not have what it takes. But within boot camp, company commanders, etc. have all received specialized training to push people to their limits, and help them recognize what those limits are. Boot Camp could seem like a bullying environment but it's a managed, practiced, and educated system of training.
After boot camp, units are training to perform according to their professional responsibility, and peer bullying, is still very fresh in peoples minds and it is a easy and sometimes even endorsed form of "peer management" for when the chain-of-command, bureaucracy, system, or trailing process fails.
So, when the unit/group/team is punished for the failure of an individual, it's up to the unit/group to "educate" that individual. These teams do not often have the specialized training of a company commander or drill sergeant, but they are emulating the style they perceived while in boot camp, and often take liberties with abuse that are neither ethical, legal, professional nor official endorsed. And subsequently, are often hushed up, covered up, or simply ignored as a course of doing business. Because that failure of the system is a detraction to the goal: To Make War and WIN.
DADT never FIXED anything. It just obscured the PROBLEM
Hopefully, before someone is promoted to the limit of, or beyond, their competence, or placed in a situation that is in conflict with who they are or are capable of being, the unit and it's leaders would have the opportunity to recognize and take responsible action and could transfer their weakest link rather than try and remediate it through the accepted culture of peer mentoring (as it may approach the limit of bullying). But in the heat of battle, when so many of us would so easily find our personal limits of competence, being smacked over the head with a club may be the only management feedback available and the quickest way to get someones head back in the game of War.
The question of how to resolve this fundamental flaw I perceive in the Chain of Command and the peer mentoring alternatives available is beyond my current understanding, but I do fear that it will soon move to the forefront of politics and news drama as young service members are abused, bullied, or even murdered "accidentally" by their peers for being a "non-conforming" heterosexual service member. And this is exactly the sort of thing than the elected leaders opposed to the repeal of DADT, and those who support them, will be tempted to use against this progressive change in military policy. Where the victimized service member becomes a justification or rallying point to support their beliefs that gay and lesbian service members are inherently unfit for duty.
The problem is not that a volunteer military service member was abused, bullied, or killed by their peers. The problem is that neither the Civilian or Military Leaders have ever figured out how to train people around their most basic, most primal prejudices - that after a certain age, are presumed to be almost hard-wired into the brain. And instead of focusing the discussion on solving that limit of competence and desire and basic threat to unit cohesion, we will again be caught up in the DISTRACTION of advertising subsidized newsworthiness, a debates over religion, re-election, fundraising, and broken promises, rather than address the PROBLEM.
We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insuredomestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.
NO WHERE IN THIS DOCUMENT DOES IT MAKE A DETERMINATION AS TO WHETHER THE SEXUAL ORIENTATION OF A CITIZEN LIMITS THE QUALITY OR QUANTITY OF THEIR PARTICIPATION IN THIS COVENANT.
Liberty includes the right to serve our country to protect the values we all hold most dear.
In so far as our professional military, a culture of highly trained, skilled warriors - we may find that compassionate, timely training and education are incongruous with the expediency required in an agile fighting force. But we must at least acknowledge that to move forward, ALL OF US TOGETHER, must recognize the common challenges that limit all of us, rather than just the few, the weak and abused, the neglected and bullied, the forgotten and left behind. Because if they are not free, then NONE OF US ARE.
Justice is a Process, Not an Event.
I hope and pray that our military service members are protected within the camaraderie of the peers and able to perform the tasks we the people ask of them. I hope and pray that acceptance of diversity will strengthen our military and allow them to overcome the obstacles that come their way.
God Bless Our Service Members for their have more challenges to take care of before breakfast than most people consider in their whole work-year. They need our support, or love, our compassion, and our humility as citizens. Because they are the both the Ultimate Price of Our Freedom, and the Proud Representatives of this great land.
Justice, Peace, and Pride
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