DADT

[rmd]

great! now can we please GET BACK ALL THE FRACKING TRANSLATORS who got run out of the military for being gay?

Comments

[lyonesse.livejournal.com]

if you were one of them, would you go back?

[clauclauclaudia]

It depends.

[lyonesse.livejournal.com]

dare i ask on what?

[browngirl.livejournal.com]

For me, it would depend on whether I felt my country's need of my service outweighed the wrong they had done me.

As I am, I don't think I'd think the former outweighed the latter, but I can imagine someone deciding it did. And I'd be really impressed with them.

[lioritgioret.livejournal.com]

I'm thinking they're all making a lot more money someplace else now.

[rmd.livejournal.com]

Certainly there are a number of folks looking to re-enlist.

[clauclauclaudia]

Precisely my thought.

Details that might matter: am I an Arabic specialist who sees how desperate the need is? Am I asked nicely to return? Was I ever apologized to? Do I see public/military service as among the highest ideals? (Many weren't military as such, but elsewhere in the DoD.) Do I want to reward the system for finally getting it right?

I dunno, I'm not them. But I don't think there's a simple or obvious answer to the question.

[achinhibitor.livejournal.com]

A lot of them want to go back, and I'm sure that in a few weeks the recruiters will be dispatched lists of dischargees (is that a word?) to reel in. The services need them, the recruiters are heavily incentivized (ugh!) to get people to sign up, and at this point, I'm sure there are signing bonuses for, like, Arabic interpreters with demonstrated job skills.

As for apologies, I'm sure that they will be forthcoming in one way or another. Or as the military says, "There is no substitute for victory."