Quote:
Originally Posted by american spirit
does that stuff really come up when your in basic training or under fire in the field. seems like it shouldn't be a big deal. i mean, all our armed forces are out there doing a job, not talking about their personal lives. maybe the military is filled with homophobes, i don't know. pretty lame stuff....if someone can do the job there should be no problem regardless of their background.
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"all our armed forces are out there doing a job, not talking about their personal lives"
I couldn't disagree more. In the service, I got to know my boys better, in a shorter period of time, then anyone else I ever met. You get to know each other in a very deep way.
"does that stuff really come up when your in basic training or under fire in the field"
Yes it does. I did have first-hand knowledge of an officer who had some kind of relationship with the wife of a guy under his command. As a result, the officer had no moral authority whatsoever to order that guy into harm's way (because maybe the officer wanted to get the guy killed so he could be with his wife), and it basically ended the officer's career as a combat commander, because none of his men respected his authority to give them dangerous orders. It's hard to explain, the fact that nothing works unless everyone has absolute, 100% confidence in the orders you get from above. One chink in that armor, and it falls apart.
"if someone can do the job there should be no problem"
I agree 100% with that. I just think that when sexuality is brought into this unique situation of combat, one's ability to "do their job" is potentially severely compromised.