Old, Reactionary, Bigots Oppose DADT Repeal

I posted previously about Elaine Donnelly's latest effort to torpedo the repeal of Don't Ask Don't Tell by producing a letter signed by 1,000 relics of by gone days in the U.S. Military including retired Gen. Carl E. Mundy, Jr. (pictured at left), a former commandant of the Marine Corps, who apparently doesn't reserve his bigotry just for gays. As Victor Maldonado at Pam's House Blend reports, Mundy also seems to holds blacks in contempt. Mundy explained away the lack of African-American officers in the Marines by telling 60 Minutes:

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"in the military skills, we find that the minority officers do not shoot as well as the non-minorities. They don't swim as well. And when you give them a compass and send them across the terrain at night in a land navigation exercise, they don't do as well at that sort of thing."

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The CBS News story goes on to highlight what was apparently all too typical of the Marine Corps under Mundy who entered the Marine Corps in 1953 and retired more than a decade ago in 1995:

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(CBS) THE MARINE CORPS IN 1993 (UNDER MUNDY). When 60 Minutes first visited Marine Corps Headquarters in 1993, there seemed to be little chance for advancement up the ranks for non-whites. Today, the statistics show improvement. 60 Minutes II Correspondent Lesley Stahl reports for a "Classic" segment of 60 Minutes II.

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"If I was blond-haired and blue-eyed and 6'1' and a closet homosexual, I'd be in the air cockpit of a CH-46 aircraft right now," says Captain Marcus Hartman. He used to be a CH-46 Marine helicopter pilot. Now he's a corporate lawyer. . When I challenged that individual a few days later, he resorted to screaming at me and calling me 'boy' in front of a wardroom full of officers," says Hartman. Hartman failed two flight tests, both administered by the same white captain who called him 'boy.' Then he was told he couldn't fly again. Hartman thinks that's business as usual in the Marine Corps, where only two percent of the pilots are black. . .

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Captain Gerald Gaskins agrees with him. "In my opinion, yes, it is racism. It's institutionalized racism," says Gaskins. "There's no doubt in my mind that it's racism."Captain Gaskins said that even though one of his superior officers urged him not to talk to 60 Minutes II. He recently learned that he's being promoted to the rank of major. But he did some research and found out that most black captains don't get promoted to major while most white captains do, courtesy, he says, of an "old-boy network." "I think people want to promote their own kind, and the more you look like your leadership, the better off you do in this system," Gaskins continues.

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60 Minutes II came to Marine Corps Headquarters to find out why they consistently kick out a greater percentage of minorities than whites. At first, we were told it's because of lower scores on Scholastic Aptitude Tests. In other words, they were saying that the minority officers just aren't as smart, at least academically, as the whites.

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THE MARINE CORPS TODAY. Since 60 Minutes II left Marine Corps Headquarters, Gaskins has gone from captain, to major, to lieutenant colonel. He now says minority officers have a real chance to succeed in the Corps.As for Marcus Hartman, he graduated from Harvard Law School, and is currently practicing corporate law. But it doesn't end there. In 1994, Hartman was recruited into the Reserves, and is now Marine Reservist Major Marcus Hartman.

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I'm sorry, but it sounds like if anyone should have been forced out of the military it was Mundy. His signature on the anti-gay letter put together by Elaine Donnelly shows that in Mundy's case once a bigot, always a bigot.