Judson Smith Speaks Out
Sarah Overstreet, a columnist at the Springfield, Missouri, News-Leader, has a piece in this morning's paper about SLDN client Judson Smith (pictured), an Honor Graduate of the United States Air Force Basic Military Training and the Louis F. Garland Fire Academy who was later stationed Patrick AFB with the 45th Space Wing Space Shuttle Support Team as a Firefighter/Paramedic.
"Judson Smith loved the military. Not liked — loved — the military," Overstreet writes in today's paper. But, she notes, "Our government booted him out of the job he loved under the 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell, Don't Pursue, Don't Harass,' federal law, 10 U.S.C. 654."
Smith, as Overstreet points out, was outed by an email sent to his command. He never told, kept his end of the "Don't Tell" deal, but when his command asked about his sexual orientation, he felt compelled to be honest in his answer.
"Did I think about lying?" Smith asked himself. "Sure I did; I love what I do. But that's not who I am. The Air Force (core values are) 'Integrity first, service before self and excellence in all we do.' If I lied, how could I have integrity about being who I am?"
Now, Smith is one of more than 12,000 men and women who have been discharged under the law. And Overstreet is not pleased.
"No part of this cockamamie law makes sense," she writes. "Don't tell? Of course people tell, especially if it will get someone else in trouble. Don't ask? The military is breaking the law consistently by asking."
"Our legislators pushed through a law whereby our military takes people and trains them to do the most difficult, professional, needed jobs we have to do — in the middle of a war, for crying out loud — then boots them and throws our tax dollars down a rathole," Overstreet says. "Then we get to pay again to train other people to do the jobs."
As for Smith, he's ready and willing to return to service when the ban is lifted. ""I would love to go back in the military if I could," he tells the News-Leader. If this law is repealed, everyone they kicked out will be able to re-enlist."
You can read Sarah Overstreet's full column online here.
- Steve RallsLabels: in the news, sldn clients
-----11-28-07
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