
On April 3, 2003, Air Force Lt. Col. Victor Fehrenbach flew his F-15E toward an Iraqi ambush site about a mile from U.S. Army troops advancing on Baghdad airport. Fehrenbach faced anti-aircraft fire, surface-to-air missiles and a mechanical problem on his wingman's plane. Still, he destroyed the enemy position and helped clear the way for the Army to take the airport that night. For his heroism, the Notre Dame grad won an Air Medal with a valor device, one of his nine Air Medals.
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Five years later, Fehrenbach confronted a crisis in a very different setting. A Boise police detective sat across a conference table questioning him about an alleged crime. Fehrenbach, stationed at Mountain Home Air Force Base, was in a Catch-22. To clear himself of the claim he'd raped a man, Fehrenbach could tell police his side of the story. But admitting he'd had consensual sex could get him kicked out of the Air Force he loved after 18 years.
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Fehrenbach was soon cleared by police and the Ada County prosecutor's office. The Air Force Office of Special Investigations subsequently found no violation of the Uniform Code of Military Justice. AFOSI concluded that Fehrenbach and Shaner had consensual sex, and that Shaner was an "unreliable source of information." But the Air Force wasn't done: Fehrenbach's admission he'd had gay sex was a violation of the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" law. . . . Had his accuser been a woman, he'd have gone back to work with no further issue."
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But the prospect of President Barack Obama fulfilling a campaign promise to repeal "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," prompted Fehrenbach to fight. In April, a board of five officers recommended an honorable discharge. Fehrenbach's goal was to continue to serve. With two more years, he'd reach 20 years and qualify for full retirement.
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He also seeks to raise hope among those who want gays to be free to serve openly, as they do in 26 countries, including Britain, France, Australia and Israel. "You coming out has galvanized a lot of people, and it brought a lot of people out of the woodwork," Maddow told Fehrenbach on June 23. "Absolutely " he replied. "I have literally gotten thousands and thousands of e-mails, letters, phone calls from people I have served with ... I can't even count the number who have said, literally, 'Dude, I'll go to war with you tomorrow.'"
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DADT is a travesty - it is unfortunate that we have a spineless - and untruthful - president who lacks the balls to issue a stop loss order while the nightmare of DADT is repealed.
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