Via Allen West:
The Obama administration’s social equality transformation of the U.S. military continues and now sets a serious precedent for negative ramifications. Will every gay Soldier now lobby to have his/her discharges upgraded in order to claim benefits? Our nation can barely care adequately for veterans as it is.
According to Military.com, “Thirty-five years after being kicked out of the U.S. Army for being gay, an Oklahoma City woman has won her fight to have her discharge upgraded from “other than honorable” to “honorable.”
“It’s crazy,” said Lisa Weiszmiller, 53, proudly displaying an honorable discharge certificate backdated to June 22, 1979. On paper, it’s just like the “other than honorable discharge” 35 years ago never happened.”
What is crazy is that this former Soldier volunteered to be in the U.S. Army fully aware of rules and regulations, and violated one that resulted in her discharge under “other than honorable” conditions. Now, years later because of an executive order repealing the “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” regulation, she is afforded an upgrade in her discharge?
Ms. Weiszmiller violated a regulation in existence at that time. The repeal today has no bearing upon her willing violation of that regulation. No one forced her into joining the U.S. Army, she did so voluntarily.
Military.com details how policies toward gay military service have changed dramatically in recent decades. In 1993, the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy replaced a complete ban on gay military service. That policy later was repealed, and restrictions on gay military service were lifted in 2011. […]
Weiszmiller said her next step is to try to get the U.S. Veterans Affairs Department to pay for a post-traumatic stress disorder service disability. But get this — Weiszmiller believes she suffers from PTSD not as the result of combat, but because of the intentional humiliating treatment Army officials inflicted on her because she was gay.
“Back then, the treatment was barbaric,” Weiszmiller said. She and another female soldier were accused of being gay, interrogated for hours and assigned extra duties as punishment — including mowing fields of grass with a hand sickle.
I remember screwing up as a cadet in our officer boot camp in Ft. Lewis, Washington and having to clean the latrine with small scrub brushes. And some of us remember the ultimate “dummy cord” punishment for those prone to losing or misplacing their individual weapon.