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UPDATE: Gates, Mullen, Johnson, Ham All Push Back on McCain in U.S. Senate Hearing

UPDATE: GATES, MULLEN, JOHNSON, HAM ALL PUSH BACK ON MCCAIN IN U.S. SENATE HEARING

“Today was a bad day for John McCain. No one made a more powerful argument for repeal today than Admiral Mullen. In a measured, methodical fashion Admiral Mullen addressed and destroyed each one of McCain’s irrational fears about open service. McCain continues to ignore the findings of the report that showed 92% of troops are fine working with gay service members. As witnessed in today’s hearing, McCain is growing more and more out of touch with the military’s top leadership as well as a majority of the force. It is now painfully transparent that for McCain, it’s all politics. If Senator McCain was putting the military and national security first, he’d follow the recommendations of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs as well as the Defense Secretary. Rather than putting troops on the ground and the mission first, McCain is marching in lock step, not with Mullen and Gates, but with his caucus to extend the Bush era tax cuts. Now, there is no place for McCain, or any other senator who supports open service, to hide. Repeal advocates should be pressing their senators, especially those Republican senators who say they want repeal to step up this month and pass legislation repealing ‘Don’t Ask’ before Congress goes home for the year,” said Aubrey Sarvis, Army veteran and executive director for Servicemembers Legal Defense Network.

STATEMENT FROM 10:15 AM:

BREAKING: GATES, MULLEN, JOHNSON, HAM ALL PUSH BACK ON MCCAIN IN U.S. SENATE HEARING

ADMIRAL MULLEN: “I would not recommend repeal of this law if I did not believe in my soul that it was the right thing to do for our military, for our nation and for our collective honor.”

“John McCain's demeanor throughout the testimony of Secretary Gates, Admiral Mullen, General Ham and Mr. Johnson, was entirely dismissive bordering on disrespect. In the testimony, no one made a more powerful argument for repeal today than Admiral Mullen. In a measured, methodical fashion, Admiral Mullen addressed and destroyed each one of McCain's irrational fears about open service. McCain continues to ignore the findings of the report that showed 92% of troops are fine working with gay service members,” said Aubrey Sarvis, Army veteran and executive director for Servicemembers Legal Defense Network.

LIVE TWEETING FROM THE HEARING: @FreedomToServe

ABOUT SLDN: SLDN was established in 1993 when “Don’t Ask” originally passed. In addition to working on repeal, SLDN offers free, confidential legal services to those impacted by DADT; this year the organization received its 10,000th call for assistance to its legal hotline.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: December 2, 2010

Trevor Thomas: (616) 430-2030 or trevor@sldn.org
Paul DeMiglio: (202) 621-5408 or paul@sldn.org

SERVICE MEMBERS ATTENDING THE HEARING:

• Former Specialist 4th Class Aubrey Sarvis, USA; served during the 1960s when homosexuality was still a criminal offense in the military. He now serves as executive director of Servicemembers Legal Defense Network (SLDN). Sarvis is the former chief counsel for the Senate Commerce Committee and later served as executive vice president of Verizon Communications. MARKET: WASHINGTON, DC. BOOKING: trevor@sldn.org

• Lt. Col. Victor Fehrenbach, USAF (Active Duty); a decorated aviator and was notified that his commander was seeking to discharge him under “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” in September 2008. Lt. Col. Fehrenbach is only 10 months from reaching his 20-year retirement in September 2011. Throughout his distinguished service he has attained nine Air Medals and currently works on desk duty at Mountain Home Air Force Base in Idaho awaiting the results of more than two years of investigations and discharge proceedings. MARKET: WASHINGTON, DC. BOOKING: trevor@sldn.org

• Former Major Mike Almy, USAF; a decorated service member who testified before the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee about his discharge in 2006. If “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” (DADT) ended today, he’d re-enlist tomorrow. The military searched his personal emails while deployed in Iraq during a routine computer maintenance check. Almy’s command asked him his sexual orientation based on content from the emails. Per the investigation, Almy made no statement of his homosexuality – even after being asked by his superiors. He is one of six officers selected from the entire Air force to attend Professional Military Education at Quantico, Virginia. Deployed to the Middle East four times. In last deployment, I led a team of nearly 200 men and women to operate and maintain the systems used to control the air space over Iraq; the unit came under daily mortar attacks. MARKET: WASHINGTON, DC / VIRGINIA. BOOKING: trevor@sldn.org

• Former Captain Thomas T. Carpenter, USMC; a distinguished military graduate of the class of 1970 of the U.S. Naval Academy. After completing infantry training at The Basic School in 1971, he was assigned to the Naval Aviation Training Command and later designated a Naval Aviator. While on active duty he accumulated over 2500 hours in the A-4 Skyhawk. Carpenter resigned his commission in 1976, at the rank of Captain and later joined the Marine Reserves. From 1978 through 1983, Tom was a pilot for Continental Airlines, flying the Boeing 727. MARKET: LOS ANGELES, CA. BOOKING: trevor@sldn.org

• Former Captain Anthony Woods, USA; a graduate of West Point and Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, Woods deployed to Iraq twice as a platoon leader between 2004 and 2006 where he earned the Bronze Star for his service. In 2008, Anthony informed his chain of command he wanted to continue serving in the military but no longer intended to abide by the discriminatory "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy. After a six-month investigation, Anthony was discharged from the military in December of 2008 for violating the law. Since then, Anthony has run for an open U.S. House seat in a special election from his home district in California. MARKET: WASHINGTON, DC / VIRGINIA. BOOKING: trevor@sldn.org

• Former Air Force Staff Sergeant David Hall, USAF; a decorated service member who served five years enlisted in the United States Air Force. He was selected as a Distinguished Graduate from Airman Leadership School before he attended AFROTC at the University of Alaska, Anchorage. He was dis-enrolled from AFROTC after a female cadet went to his commander and told them he was gay. Hall was ranked first in his class and had received a pilot slot when he was discharged in August 2002. MARKET: WASHINGTON, DC. Booking: trevor@sldn.org

KEY PENTAGON REPORT POINTS:

• When asked about the actual experience of serving in a unit with a co-worker who they believed was gay or lesbian, 92% stated that the unit’s “ability to work together” was “very good,” “good,” or “neither good nor poor.”

o 89% for those in ARMY combat arms units and 84% for those in MARINE combat arms units.

• When asked about how having a service member in their immediate unit who said he or she is gay would affect the unit’s ability to “work together to get the job done,” 70% of Service members predicted it would have a positive, mixed, or no effect.

• When asked “in your career, have you ever worked in a unit with a co-worker that you believed to be homosexual,” 69% of Service members reported that they had.

• In communications with gay and lesbian current and former service members, the Comprehensive Review Working Group (CRWG) repeatedly heard a patriotic desire to serve and defend the Nation, subject to the same rules as everyone else.

• The CRWG is convinced that our military can do this, even during this time of war. They do not underestimate the challenges in implementing a change in the law, but neither should we underestimate the ability of our extraordinarily dedicated Service men and women to adapt to such change and continue to provide our Nation with the military capability to accomplish any mission.

• The CRWG found “the risk of repeal of don’t ask, don’t tell to overall military effectiveness is low.”

• The CRWG believes this to be the “largest, most Comprehensive review of a personnel policy matter which the department of defense has ever undertaken.”

UPDATED LIST: KEY SENATORS WHO NEED TO HEAR FROM REPEAL SUPPORTERS NOW:

--Susan Collins (R-ME);
--Olympia Snowe (R-ME);
--Mark Pryor (D-AR.);
--Blanche Lincoln (D-AR)
--Richard Lugar (R-IN);
--Judd Gregg (R-NH);
--Scott Brown (R-MA)
--George Voinovich (R-OH);
--Kit Bond (R-MO);
--Joe Manchin (D-WV)
--Lisa Murkowski (R-AK)
--Mark Kirk (R-IL)
--James Webb (D-VA)

ACTION ALERT BY REPEAL ADVOCATES: http://bit.ly/dBKRcd

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SLDN FREE HOTLINE: Gay and lesbian service members with questions on repeal are urged to contact the SLDN hotline to speak with a staff attorney: 202-328-3244 x100.

Servicemembers Legal Defense Network (www.sldn.org) is a national, non-profit legal services and policy organization dedicated to ending “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” A journalists’ guide is available here.

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