By Capt Joseph R. John, July 27, 2017: Op Ed # 362

Admiral James A. Lyons, Jr., USNA '52, USN (Ret), former Commander US Pacific Fleet, discusses the need to restore the “Military’s Moral Underpinning” in his below listed Op Ed.  It is so appropriate and timely in light of President Trump’s decision to terminate the induction of transgender people into the US Armed Forces. 

 

Terminating transgender people from serving in the US Armed Forces is another of the President Trump’s important steps, to change the disastrous policies Obama imposed on the US Armed Forces by force feeding his “Social Experiment On Diversity” into the US military over the last 8 years.  

 

President Trump stated that, after consulting "with my generals and military experts," that the US government "will not accept or allow transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military."  

The over 2 million military personnel serving in the US Armed Forces and Reserve Force, do not want to conform to the strange transgender accommodations imposed upon them by Obama (men sleeping in women compartments, women using male bathrooms, males showering with women, personnel being absent from their units for extended periods going through sex change operations, increasing the work load on everyone else in the undermanned unit, etc.)  

 

The critical issue that Obama completely ignored for the last 8 years, was that no policy should ever be instituted in the US military, if it degrades the “Combat Effectiveness” of the US Armed Forces.

 

The destabilizing “Social Experiment On Diversity” was forced upon the US military by Obama over the last 8 years.  That policy degraded the “Combat Effectiveness” of the US Armed Forces, degraded unit readiness, destabilized unit cohesion, and damaged unit moral.
 

The US Armed Forces is not an organization for progressives and liberals to experiment with by enacting one social experiment after another.  The US military is also not an equal opportunity employer.  The US Military, like the all other strong & effective military organizations worldwide, is in reality, a dictatorship that has one focus and one focus only, to defend their countries from all enemies, foreign and domestic.  

 

In order to allow transgender people to enlist in the US Armed Forces, Obama had to repeal President Clinton’s policy of  “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell.”  A 2014 Pentagon study reported that Obama’s elimination of  “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell,” resulted in thousands of gay members joining the US Armed Forces, which resulted in:

 

Thousands of young straight military recruits being raped in their barracks, many of those straight military recruits went AWOL to avoid being raped in their barracks at night.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/may/20/victims-of-sex-assaults-in-military-are-mostly-sil/

 

The decision by Obama to approve the enlistment of transgender people into the US Armed Forces was another of destabilizing decisions that have:

 

Created a massive compulsory retraining program for over 2 million members of the US Armed Forces and the reserve component of the US Armed Forces, as well as for millions of civilian employees of the US Armed Forces, requiring that they endure many hours of transgender “Sensitivity Training” classes, and “Politically Correct” training classes at prohibitive costs in terms of time and cost.  Instead, military personnel should be going to classes to train them to be more efficient war fighters. Burdened the US Armed Forces with millions of dollars in costs for gender change surgeries.  How does gender change surgeries win wars?  Often transgender people join the US military to get the free gender change surgeries which they would not have otherwise afford. Resulted in medical costs per transgender enlistee that far exceeded the cost of rehabilitating personnel with serious combat injuries, and their extended hospital stays, taken the scarce hospital availabilities that would have normally been required for military personnel with legitimate service connected injuries. Extended the time required for transgender people to go through a series of surgeries, resulting in newly enrolled transgender personnel spending years in gender change surgeries and extended recovery periods, making them unavailable to serve for many years. Resulted in the enrollment of 6,630 transgender people during the Obama administration.  The JAG Corps spends an inordinate amount of time dealing with multiple complex legal issues affecting transgender personnel in comparison to an average enrollee.  The JAG Corps  is already short staffed, and has a myriad of legal issues normally affecting their services branches, without being saddled with issues affecting transgender members. Resulted in massive bureaucratic problems, in additional administrative costs of $8 million annually for 6,630 transgender members (according to a RAND study), disrupting the smooth running operation of boot camps, the four Military Service Academies, every military base in the world, on hundreds of US Navy ships, in recruiting offices for all service branches in thousands of US cities across the nation, and in the Pentagon, in comparison to the benefits that 6,630 transgender members, out of 2,092,900 active duty and reserve personnel, provide for the US Armed Forces.  These gender-confused individuals are a tiny fraction of the 350 million Americans, yet Obama expected everyone on military bases, in military commissaries & exchange bathrooms, in base grammar school bathrooms, and in civil service offices bathrooms to succumb to transgender demands, such as being allowed to shower and go to the bathroom with them, or risk being labeled as a bigot, a homophobe, or worse.  Accommodating transgender military members, requires women and victims of sexual abuse to risk their safety and privacy by allowing biological men into intimate areas reserved only for women and girls on military facilities.

 

The US Armed Forces must focus on its primary function, on its “Combat Effectiveness.”  The ultimate function of the US military is to put a bullet into an enemy soldier, not to promote the progressive “feel good” social experiments that have been destroying unit cohesiveness, unit moral, and military readiness, while driving straight military personnel out of careers in the US Armed Forces.  

 

We encourage you to read Admiral Lyons below listed Op Ed, and forward it to those in your address book who would support our effort to support President Trump’s plan to focus, once again after 8 years, on developing the most efficient “Combat Effective” military force in the world.  

 

Copyright by Capt Joseph R. John.  All Rights Reserved.  The material can only posted on another Web site or distributed on the Internet by giving full credit to the author.  It may not be published, broadcast, or rewritten without the permission from the author.   

 

Restoring the Military’s Moral Underpinnings

Obama’s social engineering mandates did nothing to improve military readiness

By James A. Lyons - - Sunday, July 23, 2017

ANALYSIS/OPINION:

 

The Trump administration came to power with a clear mandate to restore U.S. military credibility, effectiveness, and capabilities. Such a mandate involves reversing not only the debilitating impact of sequestration on our declining military force structure, but also the Obama administration’s social engineering mandates forced on our military.

These mandates did nothing to improve readiness or capabilities. They destroyed unit integrity, cohesiveness and the “will to win.” Clearly, under President Obama’s plan to fundamentally change America, the degradation of our military forces was a key element. The capitulation of our military leadership to accept these mandates was more than shocking, as it was a manifestation of the corrupt “political correctness” mentality run amok.

 

Civilian laws and different lifestyles which may be acceptable in a civil society should not be forced on the institution of the military. The military as an institution is not an equal opportunity employer. The military’s mandate is to protect and defend the country against all enemies, foreign and domestic.

Therefore, the military as an institution must have laws, regulations, and procedures to ensure the maintenance of good order and discipline in order to successfully complete its mission.

 

In June 2015, as part of the social engineering transformation of our military, the Department of Defense added “sexual orientation” to Military Equal Opportunity” categories; thereby, making the military institution just another equal opportunity employer. As a follow on, in June 2016, Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter issued the initial directive ordering the military services to accept transgender personnel. How then did homosexuality and transgenders get accepted into the military culture?

 

In an excellent article by Mark A. Hewitt on July 17, 2017 in the American Thinker, he outlines how the American left and LGBT activists hijacked the American Psychological Association and, in effect, “normalized” personality disorders.

 

They successfully lobbied the APA to eliminate some of the sexual identity disorders from their “Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders” (DSM). In the U.S., the DSM not only serves as a universal authority for psychiatric diagnoses but more importantly, the Department of Defense relies on the DSM as its source reference for psychiatric diagnoses and mental disorders.

 

In 1968, homosexuality was listed in the DSM as a mental disorder. With constant pressure from the left and LGBT activists, the APA compromised itself by removing homosexuality from the DSM and replaced it with a nondescript “sexual orientation disturbance” for people “in conflict with” their sexual orientation.

Under constant pressure, the APA members removed homosexuality from the DSM in 1987 by a “majority vote.” With the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” Repeal Act of 2010, another LGBT agenda goal was achieved to the detriment of the military services.

With the success the left and LGBT activists had on “normalizing” homosexuality, they used the same formula on the acceptability of transgenderism. In 2012, transvestitism was eliminated from the DSM and replaced with a “gender identity disorder.” It was further redefined as a “gender dysphoria.” What this did, in effect, was to remove all implication that transgenderism is a mental illness.

Dr. Paul R. McHugh, the former head psychiatrist for Johns Hopkins Hospital, has stated many times that transgenderism is a “mental disorder” that requires treatment and understanding. He further states that a sex change is “biologically” impossible. Further, it should never be forced on the military.

 

With the change in the latest fifth edition of DSM, the APA voted against Dr. McHugh and his group of like-minded psychiatrists. Regrettably, with the APA and the DSM, if you get enough votes, you can redefine, normalize, and ultimately legitimize any mental disorder. Common sense be damned. Mr. Obama and Mr. Carter had their justification.

In June 2015, with transgenderism voted out of the DSM, LGBT activists had one more urgent objective and that was to end the ban on transgender people serving in the military. Mr. Carter’s June 2016 directive took care of that. Even though a transgender person is mentally unstable and should never qualify for military service, unbelievably, there was no outcry from either congressional or military leadership.

 

These administration directives, in effect, made the military institution accept the LGBT agenda as law.

 

On July 13, 2017, the House of Representatives voted on an amendment to the FY 2018 National Defense Authorization Act offered by Rep. Vicky Harztler, Missouri Republican. The amendment would have prohibited the use of taxpayer dollars to pay for expensive “gender-reassignment” surgery as well as life-long hormone therapy for military personnel suffering from gender dysphoria.

 

Unbelievably, it failed to pass by just five votes, 209-214 with 24 Republicans joining with all Democrats who voted. Regrettably, this is another indication of failed Republican leadership — actually, we have none. Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, who missed the vote, apparently provided no leadership at all.

 

The other main social engineering mandate was to open all combat roles to women, including our Special Forces and U.S. Navy SEAL Teams. There have been many studies conducted including a special 9-month study by the Marine Corps, which clearly point out the physical limitations of women in direct ground (infantry) combat.

 

Clearly, all of the Obama administration’s social engineering mandates must be canceled. The moral underpinnings of our military must be restored. Further, since the DSM has been fully compromised by the left and the LGBT activists, it should no longer be used by the DOD for guidance and should be decertified. There is only one criteria that should apply and that is mission success. Anything that detracts from that objective must be discarded.

 

• James A. Lyons, a retired U.S. Navy admiral, was commander in chief of the U.S. Pacific Fleet and senior U.S. military representative to the United Nations.