Page 42 - Unit Cohesion News Today

>> it had a tremendous impact after i was fired. i was working in an absolutely amazing squadron. the people there were just incredible. they were highly dedicated, highly trained. they worked very hard at getting the mission done and were very successful at that. we had strong unit cohesion, in other words. after i was fired it had a complete disruption to the unit, to the cohesion, to the mission. there was a lot of chaos, a lot of confusion. i was replaced by an officer who was very junior to...

But it is been effective. >> i think the rule of dont ask, dont tell has seemed to work pretty well. >> it has helped to balance a potentially disruptive tension between the desires of a minority and the broader interests of our all-volunteer force. it has sustained unit cohesion and unit moral. >> today in the house armed services committee, congressman "you lie" joe wilson explained what proponents of keeping the anti-gay policy mean when they say that the policy is working. >> during fiscal y...

Live in one room, shower together, they stay together. you dont have much privacy, but secondly, ang he think more importantly is the impact on national security from the standpoint of its impact on military readiness, weve had 14 congressional studies in the last 16 years or congressional hearings and come to the same conclusion that good order, morale, unit cohesion is essential to military success and this policy, the current policy dont ask-dont tell upholds that. so, its not just our opinio...

Admiral mullen testified today that hes talked to the commanding officers of the other services for other countries and in fact they have said they experienced no undermining of morale or no less unit cohesion. and he brought up the point that i thought was very important that we serve with these militaries, not only in iraq, but in afghanistan. and our men and women serve with their men and women and there is no problem in our ability to serve effectively. >> you want to respond to that, congre...

In the right and i think it is important that we maintain that status quo. >> ill get to senator gillibrand in a moment. you dont think, for example, the israelis have military issues similar to the issues that the united states faces? >> yeah, but the israelis have mandatory service. so you have to go into the military in israel we an all volunteer force. >> do they have a problem as far as unit cohesion because they allow gays to serve openly? >> no, i dont know, wolf, but they dont have a cho...

Replacement cost. we need all of our best and brightest serving now with all of the skills and all of the training. i challenge you now when we have two great wars, great recruitment needs and terrorism on every front, we need the best and the bright northwest places. we cannot afford to lose some of these men and women. >> if i may, wolf, since -- >> very quickly, congressman. >> since 1999, over 1.96 million people have been discharmed. one half of 1% of those have been discharged because of h...

What he used to the military, and now hes decided this isnt the right thing to do now. >> lets talk about why this is the right thing to do the past few years, the army wasnt meeting the recruiting goals, we were letting felons into the military. these felons came in in a town i happened to be in, which is one of the absolute worst towns you can be in in iraq. this convicted felon murdered a family and then two u.s. soldiers were taken prisoner and killed as a retraction to that, or as a rebutta...

>> i think he was totally wrong. >> a few years he was open to the military and now decided this isnt the right thing to do now. >> lets talk about why this is the right thing to do the past few years, the army wasnt meeting the recruiting goals, we were letting felons into the military. these felons came in in a town i happened to be in, which is one of the absolute worst towns you can be in in iraq. this convicted felon murder eared family and then two u.s. soldiers taken prisoner and killed a...

Tremendous stress and strain. at this moment, immense hardship for our armed services, we should not be seeking to overturn the "dont ask, dont tell" policy. >> jon solts, what do you make of that? it seems like his policy has chang changed. >> john mccain is wrong -- >> hes fighting with himself. a few years ago he was open from what hes hearing from the military. now he decided this isnt the right thing to do now. >> lets talk about why it is the right thing to do. when the army wasnt meeting ...

Been, and raised, is what has changed since 1993 when this policy was implemented by the clinton administration? we had 14 congressional hearings since then all coming to the same conclusion that this would undermine unit cohesion and military readiness. even the democratic chairman of the house armed services committee, ike skelton, says hes opposed to changing this policy. there are members of the joint chiefs who are opposed to changing this policy. its not a foregone conclusion this is going...