From
the January 7 broadcast of Newsradio 850 KOA's The Gunny Bob Show:
NEWMAN:
Interesting, though, how Barack Obama, who strictly avoided military service, has
-- says that the key test must be those things. He left a lot of stuff out.
Like being able to fight with as much combat power as you possibly can. And if
we have gays serving openly in the military, according to the military, that is
going to reduce their combat power. You reduce combat power, casualties can go
up.
We had
a doctor call in the last hour, a military doctor, been in a long time, and he
explained the dangers of HIV-AIDS on the battlefield. Especially when it comes
to combat transfusions at the battalion aid station or where have you, in the
back of a Hummer ambulance, wherever. And I added there's also the danger
of contamination when it comes to all the first responders on scene.
Often times that's gonna be a medic or a corpsman. Or
just another soldier -- doesn't have to be a medic or a corpsman or a
Marine or what have you -- who faces the additional risk of HIV-AIDS contamination. And the doctor also went on to explain, you know, how these
transfusions are sought and how quickly they must happen. And he pointed out
that if we do this, and more and more gays
join the military and they are HIV-positive or suffering from AIDS, and their
blood ends up getting transfused, you know, into another military person, well,
then that's a death sentence for the other person too. 303-713-8585.
This doesn't bother Barack Obama. It doesn't faze
him in the least. He doesn't care if a soldier or a Marine or a SEAL or
what have you gets HIV, becomes HIV-positive, and then develops AIDS and dies
because he happened to get a transfusion from an, say, an openly gay person with a very active sexual, open
lifestyle.
Because
to Obama, what's most important is two things, being politically correct
-- excuse me, three things: being politically correct; functioning as a good
leftist; and number three, paying back the gay and lesbian lobby, which donated
such staggering sums of money to his campaign. He owes them a lot of money.
Newman made his remarks during a diatribe in response
to a January 7 Agence
France Presse article
that reported, "Sixteen years after Bill
Clinton tried to end restrictions on gays in the military, the US
armed forces under Barack
Obama may be forced to give homosexuals the same welcome as
non-gays." The article
continued:
Under president
Clinton, the policy that once saw homosexuals discharged from US military
service evolved to "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," allowing
gays to remain in the military so long as they did not reveal their sexual
orientation.
Obama has pledged to overhaul current law.
"The key test
for military service should be patriotism, a sense of duty, and a willingness
to serve. Discrimination should be prohibited," reads an entry on the
president-elect's transition website.
A statement on Change.gov, the website
for Obama's presidential transition team, outlines the president-elect's position
on gays in the military:
-
Repeal Don't
Ask-Don't Tell: Barack Obama agrees with former
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff John Shalikashvili and other military
experts that we need to repeal the "don't ask, don't tell" policy.
The key test for military service should be patriotism, a sense of duty, and a
willingness to serve. Discrimination should be prohibited. The U.S.
government has spent millions of dollars replacing troops kicked out of the
military because of their sexual orientation. Additionally, more than 300
language experts have been fired under this policy, including more than 50 who
are fluent in Arabic. Obama will work with military leaders to repeal the
current policy and ensure it helps accomplish our national defense goals. [boldface in original]
However, in claiming that allowing
gays to serve openly in the military would create "additional risk of HIV-AIDS contamination"
for military medical personnel,
as well as for recipients of blood transfusions in combat situations, Newman
did not mention that a significant body of military regulations and procedures
already exists to address such risks, specifically by keeping HIV-positive
applicants out of the military and by keeping personnel who test HIV-positive while
in the service from being deployed overseas.
According to
the federal Centers for Disease Control, "Since October 1985, the U.S.
Department of Defense has routinely tested civilian applicants for military
service for serologic evidence of infection with human immunodeficiency virus
type 1 (HIV-1)." Further, U.S.
military regulations require continued testing of all active-duty personnel every two years and provide
procedures for preventing those who have tested HIV-positive from serving
overseas or serving as blood donors.
For example, the U.S. Army's
regulations governing HIV are detailed in the 59-page Army
Regulation 600-110, updated as of July 2005. Among the
regulations governing testing for HIV and the administration of HIV-positive
personnel in the Army, Army Reserve,
and Army National Guard -- including
soldiers called up for
national emergencies or mobilization and deployment overseas -- are the following
passages [emphasis added]:
1-15. HIV Policies
The following are established
policies on HIV:
a. HIV-infected
persons are not eligible for appointment or enlistment into the Regular Army
(RA), the ARNG, or the USAR. (See chap 3.)
b. All active duty (AD) and RC personnel designated in chapters 2, 4, and 5
will periodically be tested and retested for evidence of HIV infection. Frequency
of testing will be jointly determined by the DCS. G-1 and OTSG based on available medical and
epidemiological evidence.
c. Medical follow-up and evaluation
will be conducted periodically for all HIV-infected HCBs. (See chap 2 and 6.)
d. Except for those identified during
the accession testing program (chap 3), HIV-infected soldiers who do not demonstrate progressive
clinical illness or immunological deficiency during periodic evaluations will
not be involuntarily separated
solely because they are HIV-infected. (See chap 2, 4, and 7.)
e. HIV-infected AD soldiers, including Active Guard/Reserve (AGR), will be
permanently limited to duty within the
United States
(including Alaska, Hawaii,
and Puerto Rico). HIV-infected soldiers
currently assigned outside the United States
will be reassigned to the United
States per AR 614-30 and this
regulation. Direct coordination with Commander, U.S. Total Army Personnel Command (HRC),
Commander, GuardPERCEN, ATTN: NGB-ARP-CT (for ARNG AGR Title 10 personnel), or
Commander, ARPERCEN, ATTN: DARP-AR (for USAR
AGR personnel), will be made to ensure
expeditious reassignment of HIV-infected soldiers. (See chap 4.)
(1)
The duty limitation discussed above does not apply to RC personnel who reside
overseas, or to AD soldiers who are
permanent residents of, and are currently stationed in, Guam, the Virgin
Islands, or American Samoa.
It does, however, apply
to all AD soldiers not currently assigned to these locations, regardless of
permanent residence.
(2)
HIV-infected soldiers outside these areas who desire compassionate reassignment
to these areas may apply per existing
policy for compassionate reassignments. Requests will be considered on their
merits on a case-by-case basis.
f. Conditions of
national emergency and/or mobilization and deployment overseas may require
reordering of priorities
for screening and assignment of HIV-infected soldiers, but will not affect
overseas assignment limitations. For
readiness (including unit status reporting and emergency deployment readiness
exercises) and mobilization purposes,
AD soldiers are considered deployable if they have a negative HIV
antibody test recorded within 24 months of scheduled deployment (or date of unit status
report). RC soldiers are considered deployable if they have a negative HIV antibody test recorded
within 5 years of scheduled deployment (or date of unit status report).
However, upon mobilization, all soldiers being ordered or
called to active duty will be tested for HIV antibodies within 24 hours of reporting to their
mobilization station if there is no record of a negative HIV test within the
previous 24 months. Initial
enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) HIV test results will
normally be available within 48 hours. Soldiers will not be deployed until test results are known.
If the test results are negative, the soldier is considered deployable. If the initial
test results are positive, the soldier will be removed from further processing
until confirmatory tests are conducted
and results are known. AD soldiers whose confirmatory HIV tests are positive
will be assigned per paragraph
e above. RC soldiers being called to AD under mobilization
conditions whose confirmatory HIV tests are positive may be assigned per paragraph e
above if the Assistant Secretary of the Army (Manpower and Reserve Affairs) (ASA(M&RA)) has
authorized HIV-infected RC soldiers to be ordered to extended AD (EAD) under
the mobilization conditions.
HIV testing will continue at MEPS and training centers during mobilization.
g. HIV-infected soldiers who
demonstrate rapidly progressive clinical illness or immunological deficiency
may not meet medical
retention standards under AR 40-501, and will be processed for physical
disability under AR 635-40. (See
para 4-12.)
h. It is essential that HIV-infected
soldiers be encouraged to provide accurate information during the
epidemiological assessment
process. Accordingly, the mere presence of the HIV antibody or other medical
evidence of HIV infection
alone will not be used as the basis for adverse action against a soldier. (See
chap 7.)
i. Soldiers found to be HIV-infected will be designated as "donor
ineligible" in their medical and dental records. As part of the commander's counseling,
they will be counselled and ordered not to donate blood, sperm/semen, tissues,
or body organs due to
the risk of HIV transmission to recipients. (See chap 2.)
Similar
regulations and procedures are in effect for the Air
Force, Navy,
and Marine Corps.
-B.J.M.
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