CHRIS JOHNSON

Reichen Lehmkuhl, a gay former Air Force captain and author of ‘Here’s What We’ll Say,’ a book about his experience in the U.S. Air Force Academy, denounced the findings of a recent survey that explored ways of boosting troop levels. (Photo by Peter Kramer/AP)

Despite recruitment challenges plaguing the U.S. military, the majority of high-ranking military officers do not favor allowing gays to serve openly in the military as a means to increase troop numbers, according to a recent survey.

Conducted by the Center for a New American Security and released in the March/April edition of Foreign Policy, the survey found that only 22 percent of officers support eliminating “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” as a means to increase recruitment.

The Center gave the survey to 3,400 military officers with a rank of major or lieutenant commander and above — top brass in the U.S. military.

Retired Navy Capt. Joan Darrah, a former intelligence officer and lesbian, downplayed the results of the survey because it was given to officers of high rank who tend to be in an older demographic. She said this demographic “is absolutely out of touch” and has “no idea that the studies show [how many] gay people don’t re-enlist because they are tired of living under ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.’”

Men made up 97 percent of responders for the survey; 72 percent of responders were at least 61 years of age.

Darrah said considering their age, it was actually “pretty good” if 22 percent of responders believe in allowing gays to serve openly.

When asked about other ways to increase recruitment, 78 percent favored trading citizenship to immigrants for service, 58 percent favored lowering education standards and 38 percent favored reinstating the draft. Seven percent favored the increased use of criminal and health waivers.

To demonstrate the recruitment problems the military has faced in recent years, Foreign Policy notes that last year the Army had a shortage of 3,000 captains and majors and that this deficit is expected to double by 2010.

Victor Maldonado, spokesperson for Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, said the Center for a New American Security consulted older officers who tend to be “slightly more conservative than their younger peers.”

Maldonado also said the survey is “at odds with the positive data” on gays serving openly. He pointed to a May 2007 poll indicating that 79 percent of Americans believe that openly gay people should be allowed to serve in the military.

Darrah also took issue with how the Center gathered its information through a survey and not a poll. She said gathering information through a survey means “you send it out to a bunch of people and some people answer and some people don’t, so it’s totally unscientific.”

Reichen Lehmkuhl, a gay former Air Force captain and author of “Here’s What We’ll Say,” a book recounting his experience in the U.S. Air Force Academy, said the survey had “no-better-than deplorable” results. He said he does not believe the survey accurately reflects what officers think.

Lehmkuhl said he is involved in a study that is examining the views of 40 straight military officers and their views of gays in the military. The officers are almost unanimously for the integration of openly gay service members as long as sexual conduct is kept to the standards of professionalism, he said.

A gay active duty junior naval officer, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said he believes that allowing gays to serve openly “is the right thing to do,” but added that he thinks that not enough gays are willing to serve to make a difference in recruitment.

“All the people that say, ‘Hey, let’s allow gays in the military,’ who wouldn’t serve in the military themselves and the type of people that do serve in the military don’t necessarily care that they serve openly or not,” he said.

The junior naval officer also said if he were given the survey, he would have answered that gays should be allowed to serve openly, but he would secretly think it would not “make an effective difference” in increasing recruitment.

Gary Gates, a research fellow at the law school at the University of California in Los Angeles, estimated in a 2005 study that 41,000 men would be available for service if the military lifted “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” Gates said the number is based on the assumption that gay men would enlist in the military in the same proportion as straight men.

Gates estimates that about 14,500 gay men already serve in the military, or about 1.2 percent of men in active duty. Lesbians already serve in the military in a higher proportion than straight women, Gates said.

Rep. Ellen Tauscher (D-Calif.), the lead sponsor of a bill that would repeal “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” said she was “not surprised” with the results of the survey because responders “were promoted in the last eight years by ultra-conservatives like President [George] Bush and [former Defense Secretary] Donald Rumsfeld.” Tauscher added that “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” hurts retention and discourages “some of the best and brightest” from joining the military.

“The American people are for repealing this policy and those who are behind the times on this issue should understand that this type of bigotry cannot stand in America, and certainly not in the American Armed Forces,” she said.

Darrah said she served in the Navy for more than 29 years while remaining quiet about her sexual orientation.

“I … lived under ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ and don’t know how I did it,” she said.

She said she would never encourage anyone who’s gay, no matter how capable, to join the military and live under the policy.

The junior naval officer said if the military changed its policy, openly gay troops would initially face hostility.

“You’re going to get a lot of discrimination, you’re going to get beatings, [and] you’re going to get harassment,” he said. “I think it’ll eventually go away and diminish down to nothing, but in the immediate future … you’d have some major problems.”

The junior naval officer said his inability to serve openly makes no difference in his job.

“I think ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ is discriminatory, but I don’t have any problem with it,” he said.

Some of his colleagues know his sexual orientation, he said.

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