Tag Archives: Pentagon

The Pentagon has made it official. There will be no more DADT-related discharges until the DOJ’s appeal of its overturn is resolved. This move was leaked earlier today on the Rachel Maddow Show blog. The below message has been posted to the DOD’s defense.gov website. Pending an appeal, the military services have halted discharges under the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” …

The Pentagon is furiously denying yesterday’s allegation by AmericaBlog’s John Aravosis that they are considering building separate living quarters for gay troops if DADT were to be repealed. According to Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morell, they were only talking about adding showing curtains. Morrell told Hotsheet that the suggestion the survey could lead to segregation is “absurd.” “No one is talking …

Via John Aravosis at AmericaBlog: The Pentagon confirmed on Friday that it is considering segregating gay troops, specifically with regards to creating separate showers and/or barracks for straight and gay troops. Advocate reporter Kerry Eleveld just transcribed the following quote from Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell at Friday’s briefing about the new “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” survey: “We think it would …

In a videotaped Memorial Day message to the nation’s soldiers, Defense Secretary Robert Gates urges his audience not to to “become distracted” over the possible repeal of DADT. Gates then asks that active duty soldiers participate in the repeal study so that “changes can be done right.”

Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Admiral Mike Mullen says that the proposed DADT compromise deal allows the military to decide whether the repeal will take place at all, regardless of how Congress votes. The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said yesterday that he’s comfortable with proposed legislation that seeks to repeal the law that bans gay men and …

The full repeal of DADT will take years, according to the Pentagon’s top brass. In fact, it will take a year just to plan on how to get started. In testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Michael Mullen also are expected to announce the creation of a group …

This just popped up on Marc Ambinder’s blog over on The Atlantic. This looks pretty major, folks. Before President Obama announced last night that he would work with Congress and the Pentagon to end the military’s ban on service by gays and lesbians, the White House consulted Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint …

UPDATE: For those of you saying that protocol demands that the Joint Chiefs remain passive and non-reactive during presidential speeches, here’s how they lept to their feet to applaud the president’s threat to stick it to Iran over their nuclear program.

Pentagon lawyers are recommending at least a year’s delay before beginning work on the repeal of DADT. That could push a vote by Congress back until the middle of the 2012 elections, a time when many would be hesitant to support the repeal. “Now is not the time,” the in-house legal counsel for Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint …

A report in the Pentagon’s Joint Force Quarterly strongly criticizes DADT and says the administration needs to implement its repeal. The views do not necessarily reflect those of Pentagon leaders, but their appearance in a publication billed as the Joint Chiefs’ “flagship’’ security studies journal signals that the top brass now welcomes a debate in the military over repealing the …

The Pentagon is considering banning the use and sale of tobacco products for U.S. soldiers. Pentagon health experts are urging Defense Secretary Robert Gates to ban the use of tobacco by troops and end its sale on military property, a change that could dramatically alter a culture intertwined with smoking. Jack Smith, head of the Pentagon’s office of clinical and …

In another dramatic reversal of the previous administration’s policy, the Pentagon has announced it will now all allow video and photo coverage of the return of dead U.S. soldiers to American soil. At his daily briefing, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said, “The president asked that the secretary of defense review our policy toward media and photos at Dover air …

The Pentagon has announced a program that will allow legal U.S. residents to earn full citizenship in as little as six months in return for military service. Stretched thin in Afghanistan and Iraq, the American military will begin recruiting skilled immigrants who are living in this country with temporary visas, offering them the chance to become United States citizens in …

I knew it. And you knew it. And now even the Pentagon has to admit that the speedboat incident is fishy. The list of those who are less than fully confident in the Pentagon’s video/audio mashup of aggressive maneuvers by Iranian boats near American warships in the Strait of Hormuz now includes the Pentagon itself. Unnamed Pentagon officials said on …