Q: Good morning, Sir. In the last couple of weeks, I've read a couple articles regrading your views on "Don't Ask, Don;t Tell." And being a public affairs officer, I'm not sure that I believe everything I read. So I'd like to know what your position is. Where you see the policy changes going in DOD? And do you think it's going to affect the Marine Corps? And if so, how?
CMC: I was really afraid that question wasn't going to come up (laughter). Thanks, Kathy. (Laughter). Ladies and Gentlemen, our president has spoken. Our Commander in Chief has said that he wants to have this law repealed by the Congress. And I think it's important that we all understand, and I suspect this audience does, there is a law; there is the DOD policy - an agreed-upon compromise by President Clinton, the Congress, and DOD in 1993. And the policy falls under the overall tent of the law.
When asked the question by the Congress to give a personal opinion - we are compelled to do that - and my comments to them were essentially, let's please stay focused on the important aspects of change and let's ask ourselves, as we view from the efforts of the working group going about, are we creating a better military able to fight the nation's wars? That's why we have a U.S. military. And in my belief, any change made ought to prosper that, not in some way detriment that. So I'll simply ask that that be our primary focus as we go downrange.
I was asked my personal opinion. I said, my personal opinion is that the current law works. I'm absolutely certain that we have young, homosexual men and women in the United States Marine Corps today who are doing a fantastic job. No one knows their proclivity because they have chosen to keep it private, as we keep private a lot of other things in our daily lives. And they're serving well and faithfully and will be very proud of having been a Marine as they leave the force.
But at this point, I will say that we await the results of the working group. I think it's going to be out some time towards the end of the year. And I think this will be a much more exhaustive and comprehensive study of the issue than has ever been conducted before. And we allw ill learn, I think, the results, really, across all the services of what they have to offer.
Secretary Gates has said he believes that if the evidence is compelling, and there are significant issues with it, that we will have opportunity to sit down with the President and give him our best military advice. And he, then, will decide either to continue to push or to say, okay, I see an issue here perhaps I didn't completely understand before based upon the effects of the working group. So that's where we are.