GOP Candidate Who Was In The Military: Gays ‘Were Taken Care Of In Ways I Can’t Describe To You'

[Are_grits_groceries]

Last week, Republican candidates in Tennessee’s “8th Congressional District made candid comments about gays at a “Tea Party forum that included discussion about the military’s ‘don’t ask don’t tell’ policy,” the Associated Press reports. Ron Kirkland, George Flinn and Randy Smith criticized President Obama for trying to lift the ban, arguing that it would add “unnecessary” stress the military. Then, Kirkland re-called how gay servicemembers were treated during his time in the military:

Kirkland, a Vietnam veteran, said of his time in the military: “I can tell you if there were any homosexuals in that group, they were taken care of in ways I can’t describe to you.”

Smith, who served in the first Iraqi war, added: “I definitely wouldn’t want to share a shower with a homosexual. We took care of that kind of stuff, just like (Kirkland) said.”

Kirkland later clarified his remarks, telling a reporter from the Jackson Sun that he was joking. “It’s a joke,” he said, stressing that he didn’t mean to invite violence against gay servicemembers. “Things don’t go well in military barracks when you have 50 guys sleeping on top of each other.” “It was just the reality of the way things were,” he said. “It’d be the same as having men and women in the same barracks.”

Smith, meanwhile, admitted that has friends who were quietly gay while serving in the military. “He claimed to be mainly concerned about increased hazing and violence perpetuated by a ‘bad element’ that he thinks could come with a repeal of ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.’”
http://thinkprogress.org/

Yeah. I'm sure he was joking and concerned with hazing.:sarcasm:

[lazarus]

1. he's a liar

I had my first gay experience in the military. We all knew who the gays were, and nobody gave a damn except a few witch hunters.

I know someone who retired out of the Navy, and she says the same thing applied there that applied to my experience in the Air Force: The gays tended to be much better sailors/airmen, and everyone respected them. Except for a few close minded mouthbreathers like this cretin.

[zipplewrath]

7. Navy just reorganized themselves

A friend of mine who was in the Navy during the early '80s said everyone knew who everyone was and no one particularly cared. The enlisted folks tended to swap births so that the gays often roomed together. Bottom line is that life on a ship is damn boring and the guy pulling his weight is gonna be darn popular.

[sarge43]

12. Third that.

In 20 plus years AF, I never saw, heard or any way aware of gays or lesbians being "taken care of". On the other there was a sickening amount of official mistreatment.

Let me put it this way: In all those years not once did a gay or lesbian sexually harass me. Mother of God, I wish I had a dollar for every time a male hetero did so, from the vile remark to near rape.

[shedevil69taz]

14. I've known several soldiers who were gay

and some of them were "good" at their profession and some were not so good.

[Ozymanithrax]

2. If he knew of crimes being committed and did not report it, why should he be a Congressma and not...

a resident of a cell block?

[geardaddy]

4. Excellent point.

[laughingliberal]

5. I think we need to call for further questioning of this individual. nt

[npk]

8. Well don't you know he was just joking, haha get it.

Just a little anecdote to get the base laughing. You know if you can't think of anything else it's always fun to tell a few queer jokes. :eyes:

[Echo In Light]

3. Creepy K/R

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

6. We had a gay guy in our outfit.

Probably more. This guy made himself obvious because he pursued a guy he was in love with in the outfit. So, what we, rough tough, macho, marines do? Nothing. Big deal. Nobody reported him, nobody beat him, nobody did anything, even though he was pretty universally disliked because he was a gung-ho lifer.

[BlooInBloo]

9. What does that even *mean*?

[Touchdown]

10. And here's another thing they hate Obama for doing that he actually isn't.

At until 2013, which is the story today. When 2012 comes around, then he'll push it back into Biden's 2nd term.... then until after we colonize Mars, then after we...

[Arkana]

11. These people seem to be under the impression

that because a man is gay he can't control his sexual desires--he'll just fuck anything that moves.

[bullwinkle428]

21. All of these neanderthals think they just ooze sex appeal from

every pore of their bodies, so it's only natural that "those nasty queers" couldn't POSSIBLY control themselves around them!

[haele]

25. That's because they can't control their sexual desires. And would

f**k anything that would let them. I've known jerks like that. When stuck serving with them, carrying a ratcheting cable cutter with you could make the point "leave me alone". (Just flick it open, and start ratcheting it down as you looked them straight in the eye while they were trying to hit on you...)

I joined the Navy in '77. Went to "C" school in '78/'79 at the same command (and barracks complexes) that some Pac-deployed River-Rats (aka "Swift Boaters")were based, and knew quite a few of them while I was there and heard "all the stories" - or at least a good number of them - and saw some of the pictures that didn't get tacked on the cork-board next to their desks or shown to the wife and kids at home.
I'm not saying they were a swell bunch of guys - they liked shock value and pretty much only respected people who took them at their own value and didn't freak out easily.

These guys, some of whom were still rotating "in-country" supporting black-ops or the CIA, cared only that the guys serving with them 1) did their jobs without bitching and knew their limitations, 2) didn't get anyone else killed if or when they skirted the system (i.e., black market dealings or getting drunk), 3) didn't stink too much, and 4) weren't insufferable assholes who couldn't take a joke or got shocked too easily.

Looking back with a bit more of an experienced eye, I'm pretty sure that at least two of the 'Rats I played ping-pong or pool with at the barracks when there was nothing else to do were gay. No one cared about anyone else's personal lives unless there was drama that could become distracting to the mission.

A personal relationship or lifestyle that was not easily prosecutable (i.e. - consenting adults) and did not cause drama or hassle the command did not concern anyone in the military unless they were nosy idiots. Not when I first enlisted, not on my ship in the early 80's, not during Desert Shield/Desert Storm in the early '90s, not when I retired in 1998, not now while I'm still supporting the Navy and still have contact with the military "culture".

That congress-critter was playing to his crowd - and he was probably a Vietnam era REMP at best.

Bet his uni was always pressed and his shoes were always shiney...

Haele

[sarge43]

26. If he's telling the stone truth and with Repugs that's not a given,

he was a sergeant and a counterintelligence agent in Nam.

(Your pun on counterintelligence here __________________)

[Blue_Tires]

13. double entendre?

[Name removed]

15. Deleted message

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Starry Messenger]

22. You can go back to not posting much

It'll be fine with me.

[Mojeoux]

23. Gays and people who like gays are who put Obama in office

And he better get this DADT crap thrown out before the elections in Nov.!!!!

To jasonfree, I just want to ask, how is it that the British and all the other armies manage to have gays? They have been our allies in the middle east for these past 8 years. They act like grown-ups.

P.S.in my town, Guerneville California, we see gays holding hands all the time, lots of times they are holding hand with their kids too. It is a beautiful thing to see love.

Of course you might just see perversion, jasonfree.
You should ask the Snow Queen to take the splinter
of her evil mirror out of your eye.

[Caliman73]

24. Guess he shouldn't have posted at all....

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=user_profiles&u_id=257316

I suppose that Democrats can be as homophobic as anyone else. Bigotry is not an inherent trait, it is learned and we pass that shit on to our children whether we think so or not.

[kevinbgoode]

16. Perhaps it is time for this nation to acknowledge that we cannot

afford to have looney tune "conservatives" serving in the armed forces. Their mental disabilities and often self-selected phobias are much too great to put other servicemembers at risk. Moreover, there should be many more investigations into this kind of heterosupremacist "joking" and whether it violates the military code of conduct.

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

17. Let me guess: "They were dirty, dirt bad boys and they had to be showered and spanked". nt

[Initech]

18. I call bullshit.

[Are_grits_groceries]

20. On what? nt

[Missy Vixen]

19. What's the statute of limitations against the crimes he "witnessed"?

Maybe it's time that was discussed.

I'll bet he quickly recants.

:eyes: