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US Army staff shortage leads to hunt for strictly straight foreign recruits
"The Defence Department will target people who have been granted refugee or political asylum to sign up, as well as those with student and temporary US work visas."
The US Armed Forces are so short on staff they have approved a pilot scheme that allows them to recruit up to 1000 foreign nationals. However, new recruits must be heterosexual in keeping with the military’s Don’t Ask Don’t Tell policy.
A desperate shortage of doctors, nurses and linguists was identified by the Pentagon, which approved the pilot recruitment scheme, which will come into effect immediately.
The Defence Department will target people who have been granted refugee or political asylum to sign up, as well as those with student and temporary US work visas.
Don’t Ask Don’t Tell is the common term for the US Armed Services’ ban on openly gay, lesbian and bi-sexual service men and women.
Despite a statistics reporting that 75% of Americans want gay people to be able to serve openly, only 500 of the estimated 65,000 lesbian and gay service members on active duty, are doing so without consequence.
President-elect Barack Obama revealed to Gay History Project in September last month that while Don’t Ask Don’t Tell would not be a priority, it is undoubtedly a policy he will be investigating upon taking office:
“I want to make sure that when we revert ‘Don't Ask, Don't Tell,’ it's gone through a process and we've built a consensus or at least a clarity of that, of what my expectations are, so that it works.
"My first obligation as the President is to make sure that I keep the American people safe and that our military is functioning effectively.
"Although I have consistently said I would repeal Don't Ask, Don't Tell, I believe that the way to do it is make sure that we are working through a process, getting the Joint Chiefs of Staff clear in terms of what our priorities are going to be.”
So far over 12,000 troops have been dismissed under the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell law.
