Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell survey emailed to troops

By Julia Ziegler
Internet Editor
Federal News Radio

400,000 active-duty and reserve troops were e-mailed surveys about the military’s Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy on Wednesday. The survey is part of a special review being conducted by the Defense Department to determine the impact of repealing the policy.

The policy currently bans gays and lesbians from openly serving but legislation pending in Congress would change that.

“The voice of the service members is still vitally important,” Army Gen. Carter F. Ham told the American Forces Press Service. Ham heads the Pentagon’s review panel with Jeh Johnson, the Pentagon’s top lawyer. “This is draft regulation, it is not yet enacted into law, and there are several hurdles yet to come,” Ham said.

CNN reports the survey asks how unit morale could be affected if a commander is believed to be gay and how a repeal of the policy might affect a service member’s willingness to serve in the armed forces. Other questions aim to determine how gays and lesbians might be treated in war zones.

The troops who received the survey were selected based on a range of factors including their age, rank, service, component, military specialties, education, and marital status.

Service members who did not receive the survey via email can also provide input to the Defense Department’s review panel. Anyone wishing to participate is being asked to log in to an online inbox with their common access card. Members of the military wishing to offer their comments in confidentiality can do so by following specific directions once logging into the site.

The panel also plans to mail 150,000 surveys to military spouses by the end of July asking for their opinion.

In addition to the survey, the panel continues to meet directly with troops and their families serving in the U.S. and overseas.

“What these sessions do afford is an opportunity for Mr. Johnson and myself to speak directly to service members, 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,” Ham said. “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 service members feel about this.”

The panel’s final report is due December 1, 2010.

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