Support Our Troops... All of Them

It is a sad commentary on the state of our military that when in times of great conflict, and need, the focus of some of its most senseless abuses is its own membership. Such was the case over fifty years ago in the form of Lt. Milo Radulovich, an Air Force reservist. Such is the case today in the form of Lt. Dan Choi, an Army reservist and Arab linguist.

Milo Radulovich was the son of a Serbian immigrant born October 28, 1926. He joined the Army Air Corps in 1944 to become a meteorologist. By 1952 Radulovich had become a weather officer in the Air Force, in Dexter Michigan. Since moving to America, John Radulovich, Milo’s father, subscribed to newspapers from his homeland reportedly to keep up with events there. One of those newspapers was associated with a periodical called the American Slav Congress which had been labeled Communist by the American government. In 1952 Lt. Radulovich was discharged from the Air Force for consorting with known communist sympathizers. In other words, the lieutenant’s continued relationship with his father made him a security risk, as a weather man, to the U.S. homeland. Lt. Radulovich was granted a hearing where Air Force attorneys produced a manila envelope purportedly containing damaging evidence against him. Neither Radulovich, nor his lawyers, nor anyone present or deciding the outcome of the hearing ever saw the contents of that envelope.

In October 1953 Radulovich’s lawyers successfully put his story on the front page of the Detroit News. This caught the attention of Edward R. Murrow, who that week ran it as a feature on his weekly CBS show See It Now. In November 1953 the U.S. Secretary of the Air Force, reversed the decision declaring Radulovich a security risk. He was cleared of all charges and reinstated. For Radulovich, justice prevailed only after a bitter, uneven battle by the military. It used questionable tactics, if not outright lies during that battle against a man who only swore allegiance to his flag and was willing to put his life on the line for the country he loved. Lt. Radulovich’s own allegiance was never questioned.

On March 19, 2009 a National Guard lieutenant went on national television to say the following:

I am an infantry platoon leader in the New York Army National Guard, and by saying three words to you today—I am gay—those three words are a violation of Title 10 of the U.S. Code.

Like over twelve thousand of his fellow soldiers since 1993, Dan Choi was discharged from his service because he:

... admitted publicly that [he is] a homosexual, which constitutes homosexual conduct. [His] actions negatively affected the good order and discipline of the Army National Guard.

The greatest comfort we can give to our enemies is to fight ourselves in times of turmoil. In each of these situations the military deferred to the law to make its case against its own members. While the methods of application are deplorable, the manila envelope for Lt. Radulovich and coming out as “homosexual behavior” for Lt. Choi, the application of the law cannot be disputed. Air Force regulation 35-62 stated:

A man may be regarded as a security risk if he has close and continuing associations with communists or people believed to have communist sympathies.

U.S. Code 10 Section 654b (2) states:

A member of the armed forces shall be separated from the armed forces under regulations prescribed by the Secretary of Defense if one or more of the following findings is made... That the member has stated that he or she is a homosexual or bisexual, or words to that effect

Only the hysteria of the era could have found that a man whose father subscribed to foreign newspapers, and had no question to his own loyalty, could be a security risk. Only puritanical hysteria could find that a man is unfit for duty not by the fact of his homosexuality, but by the knowledge of it. Twelve thousand plus have lost the privilege* to fight for their country based solely on that knowledge. From bumpers stickers to keychains, lawn signs to the pages of Facebook we see the slogan everywhere, “Support Our Troops.” Only in the back of our minds do we qualify, "... but only the straight ones."

Within a month of Ed Murrow’s piece the military took action to reverse the wrongs it did to Lt. Radulovich. In the darkest moments of the Cold War a cabal of brazen journalists, of which Mr. Murrow admitted he was a late entrant, stepped up to a junior senator and said, “Enough!” Thus far the military, the Supreme Court and the president who promised to end DADT have failed to support Lt. Choi. H.R. 1283 amends Title 10 of U.S. Code, repealing DADT and replacing with a policy of nondiscrimination based on sexual orientation. It is now in committee for review. Two-thirds of the government have turned a blind eye to Lt. Choi and others. I’m not here to debate whether their reasons were just, but to get the other third to do the right thing.

*U.S.C. 10 also declares that military service is not a Constitutional right