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Defense Department Emails Out The Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell Surveys To The Troops

07/07/10-by Bridgette P. LaVictoire
At noon on 7 July, the Department of Defense emailed surveys to 400,000 servicemembers in order to assess their feelings regarding the potential repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, the law which bans lesbians and gays from serving openly.  This was an official announcement sent out by Army Sargent 1st Class Michael J. Carden.  This is a major component to the study that is ongoing with regards as how best to implement a repeal of the policy.

Army General Carter F. Ham, commander of the U.S. Army in Europe, and Pentagon lawyer Jeh Johnson are heading the review panel assessing the current law.  General Ham stated “The voice of the servicemembers is still vitally important.”  Despite a recent decision to pass an amendment that would repeal Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, that compromise legislative amendment will require the approval of Admiral Mike Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, and President Barack Obama.

“This is draft regulation, it is not yet enacted into law, and there are several hurdles yet to come,” General Ham is on record as saying.

The review group headed by Ham and Johnson has been meeting with troops and their families since the group started meeting in February.  The surveys are being distributed as part of this review because it is impractical financially and temporally to meet with every single member of the military and their families.  The surveys will give the panel a baseline idea of what the servicemembers and their families will feel.  This 400,000 will represent a little less than a quarter of the total 2.2 million servicemembers in the Armed Forces.

General Ham believes that it is vitally important to engage the soldiers now after the amendment was passed largely because so many may feel that their opinions may not matter anymore.  Half of the surveys went to the active-duty branches, and half were sent to the reserved, and those selected were chosen based upon a variety of factors including age, rank, service, component, military specialty, education, marital status and a few other factors which were deemed to be necessary to get a thorough batch of feedback data on the potential repeal.

General Ham and Jeh Johnson plan on continuing their meetings with the servicemembers and their families before 1 December, when the study is due to be completed.  “What these sessions do afford is an opportunity for Mr. Johnson and myself to speak directly to servicemembers, to hear in their own words what their assessment of the impact of repeal of the current law would
be should Congress decide to take that action.  Those sessions provide us context. They provide us substance to what we know we will get statistically from the survey and put it in real terms of
how real servicemembers feel about this,” Ham is on record as saying

The study group has set up a series of buffers to make sure that the information gathered from lesbian and gay servicemembers cannot be used later to force them out of the service.  “It is vitally important that servicemembers continue to be open and frank and totally honest with us in their feedback.  That certainly has been the case to date, whether it’s been a large-group session or a small group or the online inbox. The servicemembers and their families have been invaluable to Mr. Johnson and myself.  We need that to continue in order to do our jobs and be
representative of the force as we address the significant policy matters that would follow repeal of this law, if that is what Congress decides to do,” General Ham has said.

A further 150,000 surveys will be mailed to military spouses by 31 July.  The surveys should be back in within 45 days of receipt.