GAO: 40 Percent Of DADT Discharges Were in "Critical" Roles or Spoke "Important" Languages

By Chris Geidner -

According to a report released today by the Government Accountability Office, 40 percent of the servicemembers discharged under "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" from 2004 through 2009 "held skills in a critical occupation, an important foreign language, or both, as determined by us and the services."
The 40 percent represents nearly 1,500 servicemembers of the 3,664 servicemembers discharged in the six-year period under review, according to the "Personnel and Cost Data Associated with Implementing DOD's Homosexual Conduct Policy" report.
The report further found that 10 percent -- or 148 -- of the separated servicemembers who held skills in critical occupations held intelligence-related skills. The report states, "Examples of intelligence-related critical occupations include human intelligence collector, cryptologic technician (interpretive), intelligence specialist, and airborne cryptologic language analyst."
As The Washington Post's Ed O'Keefe reported, one of the primary findings of the GAO report is that "[t]he military spent about $193.3 million between 2004 and 2009 to replace approximately 3,660 troops discharged under" DADT.
The report was requested by Rep. Susan Davis (D-Calif.), who was the chairwoman of the Military Personnel Subcommittee of the House Armed Services Committee in the 111th Congress.

Read the GAO report: GAO-DADTRpt.pdf

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