VIDEO: Admr. Mullen speaks on Operation Odyssey Dawn's timeline

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

Adm. Mike Mullen talks about the future of DADT

Listen around the 4:20 mark

Adm. Mike Mullen, Robin McGehee and Me

Today, Admiral Mike Mullen held a townhall meeting on campus (University of Southern California).

He was here to talk about issues on Veterans and Military Families. After he was done, Adm. Mullen took questions from the audience. Frontiers News Editor, Karen Ocamb asked him about DADT.

I recorded his response. Sorry for the shaking, but it was hard to be cute and technical at the same time. Also in this clip, Robin McGehee, co-leader of GetEQUAL, talks about Adm. Mullen's answer. The cute part was when her friend recognized me from Twitter. (They retweeted something I said earlier) See here:

Robin and I talked briefly (off camera, sorry). I expressed my concerns about GetEQUAL and she understood my views. It was clear that we want the same things, we just have different ways of achieving them. Our discussion was civil and we actually embraced. I still hold my views, but it was nice to hear the other side directly from the source. I only have read Robin's opinions from other blogs or tweets, but to see her face to face, was good.

Robin said she would like to chat more and I would like that. I want to talk about what I think they (GetEQUAL) could be doing. Also I want to have a civil convo about where GetEQUAL is going.

As you can see in the clip, that wasn't the right time to chat, but one day I hope to sit down with Robin and talk about the LGBT community.

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Interesting Quote: Adm. Mike Mullen

“I have an expectation for zero hate crimes in the military. None. So as a platoon commander, your task is to make sure that that never happens in your platoon, no matter what happens, no matter what the policies and laws are. And certainly any change in the law is not an excuse for anything like that to ever happen. We are a disciplined force. We have standards. And maintaining those standards, sustaining that discipline is our charge, no matter what happens, quite frankly. Whether it’s combat or whether it’s back here, I have every expectation not only that we will do this but that we will lead in a way where it gets done.”

Adm. Mike Mullen telling his troops how it's going to be when DADT is repealed.


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Some progress on DADT

Some good news!!

Navy Adm. Michael Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was nearing the end of a 25-minute question and answer session with troops serving here when he raised a topic of his own: "No one's asked me about 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell,'" he said.

As it turned out, none of the two dozen or so men or women who met with Mullen at Marine House in the Jordanian capital Tuesday had any questions on the 17-year-old policy that bars gays and lesbians from serving openly in the military — or Mullen's public advocacy of its repeal.

fter Tuesday's question-and-answer session, Mullen told McClatchy that although he's held three town hall sessions with troops since his testimony, not a single service member has asked him about the issue.

At Tuesday's session, which included not only Marines, but members of the Army and the Air Force, both male and female service members explained why they were nonplussed by the issue: They'd already served with gays and lesbians, they accepted that some kind of change was imminent, and, they said, the nation was too engulfed in two wars for a prolonged debate about it.

That there's been so little reaction raises questions about how much study the issue needs and whether the Pentagon study is meant to pacify its concerns — or Congress'.

Okay we are moving in the right direction.

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DADT in 2012?

Military lawyers are saying that 2010 isn't a good year for a DADT repeal.

"Now is not the time," the in-house legal counsel for Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, wrote recently in a memorandum obtained by The Associated Press. "The importance of winning the wars we are in, along with the stress on the force, our body of knowledge and the number of unknowns, demand that we act with deliberation."

Joint Chiefs legal advisers recommended delaying the start of the repeal process into 2011, with the Pentagon sending a proposed replacement law to Congress by late summer of that year. That would be after the White House says it will begin bringing troops home from Afghanistan, and a few months before all U.S. forces are due to leave Iraq.

Congress would follow with debate lasting six months to a year, the legal advisers wrote, meaning repeal would be unlikely until 2012. The memo does not spell it out, but that is a presidential election year when Obama will presumably run for a second term. The calendar calculates that the Iraq war would be over and the Afghanistan war smaller before the ban is lifted.

Mullen and other military leaders cautioned last year that repeal of the law must be done carefully so as not to disrupt military cohesion in wartime. Last April, Defense Secretary Robert Gates indicated the process could take years - if it ever happens.

Mullen was unable to get the full backing of other senior uniformed leaders during an unusual meeting of the top officers from each branch of the military last week, U.S. officials said. He is expected to hold a follow-up session within days.

This is so complicated, but I guess when you are untying knots, you going to get kinks.

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Colin Powell says DADT needs to be Reviewed

Interesting