Missouri base leads nation in "don't ask" discharges

[cboy4]

SUMMARY: Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri discharged 60 soldiers last year alone under the Pentagon's "don't ask" policy, more than any U.S. military installation.

An Army base in Missouri used the "don't ask, don't tell" policy to kick out more soldiers than any other military installation last year, followed by an Army base on the Kentucky-Tennessee border and a naval base in Virginia.

Sixty people were dismissed last year from Fort Leonard Wood, Mo., according to Defense Department documents revealed by the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network.

(ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH)
http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/stlouiscitycounty/story/1FC47F71EC5F92FC862571CB000F2990?OpenDocument



AND THEN THERE'S THIS:

More soldiers accused of harassment in Missouri

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Four more soldiers have been suspended and face courts martial on charges of improper personal relationships with trainees at the U.S. Army's Fort Leonard Wood in Missouri, officials said.
http://www.cnn.com/US/9611/15/briefs.pm/army.sex.html

=================
No offense to people in Missouri, but if I was based at effing Fort Leonard Wood....I'd probably feel like I'd won the lottery if I got kicked out!
Sounds like a hell hole.

[Broken_Hero]

1. This doesn't surprise me

but again, the homophobia of this country is widespread, not just in Missouri, nor in the military, its everywhere. I am so saddened by this, but again, its a reminder of what we(dems/glbt) are fighting against.

[Broken_Hero]

2. btw

I'm in the bottom, left part of the state, extreme bottom, bordering, ks/ok/arkansas....:) This county is uber red, hence why the article in question, I mentioned "I'm not surprised"....

[cboy4]

3. I have no idea why so many more people get kicked out

of this particular base, do you?

Lets face it....most bases are considered "red" areas.

But you're correct.....it can happen anywhere. And does.

[shain from kane]

4. Fort Leonard Wood is largely used for basic training. I'm sure that

there is some screening, including observation of behavior, to separate gays and others from military service before the Army invests too much money in their training.

[cboy4]

6. Observation of behavior? Hey Shain, how do you distinguish between a gay

service member and a straight service member via observation?

I'm dying to know!

[shain from kane]

7. It's the military. Maybe they use gaydar, WTF? I'm just trying to convey

some information about Fort Leonard Wood, and the use of screening at an early date, and you are trying to turn it into an attack on me.

[cboy4]

8. Hey bud. You're the one who said you're sure there is screening, including

the observation of behavior.

You seem to be an intelligent, articulate member of DU, and you seem to have some knowledge of Ft. Leonard Wood.

I'm simply asking you what some of the characteristics are that you've heard they look out for to try to weed out the gays.

I'm trying to learn and understand.

Absolutely no attack on my part..............................yet. ;)

[shain from kane]

9. There's been a saying around as long as there's been an Army: there's the

Army's way to do things and then there's the right way.

[cboy4]

12. Shain, focus buddy!! Could you please address my specific question?

What behavior do they look out for so they can "screen" and separate gays??

You must have some idea/knowledge!

[shain from kane]

17. I don't have any experience in that area, except for anecdotes and

rumors that I have heard in the past that were discussed when the Clinton change in policy was proposed.
In basic training, a person is placed in a unit with all kinds of people from different parts of the country, along with their views and prejudices. If they witness or suspect homosexual behavior in the unit, the rumor mill is stated, and moves up the command.

Here is a reference to a specific case, if you are interested. I also have other incidents that were revealed to me at the time, but I can not verify them in any manner, that were not very pleasant. I'm sure that you have heard of lynching, fragging, and Code Red, for instance, from the movie "A Few Good Men." I actually think that the accidental death in that movie portrayed as retaliation on a recruit being a slow runner was supposedly based on a actual event, but was due to something else, but I have no proof.

http://www.gaymilitary.ucsb.edu/ResearchResources/PressClips/news2_27_00.htm

Here's another reference that may upset you.

http://hrw.org/reports/2003/usa0103/USA0103FINAL-05.htm

Edited to add second reference.

[Touchdown]

18. Backing him up a bit. The fort is called...

Fort Lost in the Woods for a reason. It's isolated out in the middle of a forest in the Ozark mountains. The closest city with any discrenable gay community is Springfield, which is fundy Hell. As was said before, it's an initial (Basic) training facility, which brings in thousands of recruits a year, and all don't know how to behave, shut their mouths and pretend to be something they're not. Not to defend DADT, I hate it, and forcing people to hide who they are is mental abuse, but when the choice is made to enter the Army, survival in it requires just that.

Army forts are generally isolated politically from the states they're in. Most base commanders are not from the States that those forts are in, and 90% of the personnel are from elsewhere too. It's the nature of the military. You get sent where your told, not close to home. I surmise that Lost-in-the-Wood's high number of discharges are more about the isolation from a large city to escape to and be gay in (Like San Diego, Atlanta, Seattle, Norfolk, Chicago, San Antonio, etc) than the fact that it's in Missouri, which aside from the two big cities, KC and St.L, is also homophobic. The other fort, between the borders of Tn and Ky is Ft. Campbell Ky supports my conclusion, as there's no large city near it either, Nashville being about 90 minutes away.

With no large city to blend into and lose the prying eyes of overzealous officers, where does one gay person go to be with others, or be intimate? Either in the small towns (with small town busybodiness and gossip) that cater to the base, or on the base itself, especially with new recruits, since they are not allowed off base for at least 8 weeks.

Another factor about it being a training base is buyer's remorse. A kid gets in, finds out it sucks, hates it, and tells people he's gay so they'll let him out of his enlistment. It happens all the time, although it was better in the 80s (when I was in, during the outright ban) to admit to drugs than to say your gay. They used to send gay soldiers for "extra training" in 6 week fuck-with-you camps before they discharged you.

[wakeme2008]

5. Grrrr.... Fort Leonard Wood.... M16s ...one week .. winter........

Scored Expert before my trip to Sunny South Vietnam.

OT but I do not have great memories of that place......

[elliswyatt]

10. Don't Ask, Don't Tell can suck it!

I promise, wait until this WWIII thing comes that Repubs are hoping for. They will put the gays together in their own squads and send them out first. The religious right has been looking for a way to exterminate homosexuals for a long time. This will be there way. Pay attention, and beware.

[Occulus]

14. Fine. I'll go... and murder them.

Seriously.

This military does NOT want to hand me a gun, oir access to one.

I'll start blowing people away. Immediately.

[cboy4]

16. . . . . . . .>

:spray:

Believe me, I understand your anger.

[Occulus]

15. Fine. I'll go... and murder them.

Seriously.

This military does NOT want to hand me a gun, or access to one.

I'll start blowing people away. Immediately.

[sui generis]

11. isn't it funny how the army is so much MORE

homophobic than the navy? Wonder why that is?

I could care less. I'm big and evil and would drop a marine in half a second and hand him his rectum if I thought he was being a dick to me. Some poor little neurotic army dude; tsk tsk.

Better run tell, and then hide. They don't like us because they think we're weak? (mirth) I think they don't like us because we make them look bad. At everything.

[sui generis]

13. edited belatedly

to add the "they" are just the homophobes, not everyone else in the military.