Myself, I would heed the wise council of my generals and officers in the field.
I know some politicians have caught heat for not doing so in the past.
Regardless of what I think, or anyone else for that matter, the priority, as I see it, is to maintain an efficient military and our national security. Politics and opinions and political correctness be damned.
The last I heard, the military big-wigs have said that today's military is far more tolerant towards gays than the miltary of the past.
I totally see where Navy is coming from in regard to the old school sailors, soldiers, marines, etc. There are many older "lifers" that I am certain take objection to gays serving openly. I am certain they will take exception to the change and quite possibly resign, retire or out right quit. We can only speculate.
Regardless of their piss-poor attitude towards change and the restricting of gays to openly serve, their experience and value to our military cannot be over-looked. One has to take that into consideration as it directly affects national security.
But, on the other hand, a more progressive approach towards this issue might be attractive to an equal percentage of prospective men and women willing to serve in uniform. It might take years to gain the valuable experience to replace those experienced military people, who adamently opposes the gay plight, but in time it will become a non-issue. Again, we can only speculate. The question is, with two wars going on, is this the time to chance losing these experienced military people?
I know of no factual statistics that either deny or validate the notion that if gays are allowed to openly serve, military personnel will quit in droves. If anyone has anything other than an opinion, I would very much be interested in their evidence.
Such decisions are far above my pay grade. I will put my faith in our commanders. And they say to tear down the gay wall.
Whether I like it or not is irrevelant.