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After a House oversight hearing on the repeal implementation of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," the Pentagon revealed that the discriminatory law won't be fully extinct until the end of summer, at the earliest. Details, after the jump.
According to Stars & Stripes:
The Defense Department expects by midsummer to have completed enough “don’t ask, don’t tell” repeal training that it can ask the president, defense secretary and chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to certify the results and begin the congressionally mandated 60-day countdown to full repeal.
Just 200,000 troops, about 9 percent of the force, have gone through the training so far, according to Vice Adm. William Gortney, director of the Joint Staff. But the first progress reports coming in from service commanders over the past six weeks show “no issues or problems,” said Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness Clifford Stanley.
“All is going well,” he told a House panel.
Though it seems like a long way off, the Servicemembers United is satisfied with the pace of implementation.
"Despite the transparent intentions behind the scheduling of today's oversight hearing on the progress toward 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' repeal, the hearing went very well and revealed smooth sailing for ongoing training and certification preparation," says Servicemembers United Executive Director Alexander Nicholson. "Under Secretary Stanley and Vice Admiral Gortney thoroughly answered all questions regarding the progress of repeal training, and opponents of repeal noticeably struggled to try to get in digs about this inevitable change in policy. Overall, the Department of Defense continues to do an admirable job in deliberately moving forward toward certification and finality on this issue."
(Via Towleroad)
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