Posted on 07/27/2006 7:39:00 AM PDT by SmithL
JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. (AP) - A decorated sergeant and Arabic language specialist was dismissed from the U.S. Army under the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy, though he says he never admitted being gay and his accuser was never identified.
Bleu Copas, 30, told The Associated Press he is gay, but said he was "outed" by a stream of anonymous e-mails to his superiors in the 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg, N.C.
"I knew the policy going in," Copas said in an interview on the campus of East Tennessee State University, where he is pursuing a master's degree in counseling and working as a student adviser. "I knew it was going to be difficult."
An eight-month Army investigation culminated in Copas' honorable discharge on Jan. 30 _ less than four years after he enlisted, he said, out of a post-Sept. 11 sense of duty to his country.
Copas now carries the discharge papers, which mention his awards and citations, so he can document his military service for prospective employers. But the papers also give the reason for his dismissal.
He plans to appeal to the Army Board for Correction of Military Records.
The "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy, established in 1993, prohibits the military from inquiring about the sex lives of service members, but requires discharges of those who openly acknowledge being gay.
The policy is becoming "a very effective weapon of vengeance in the armed forces" said Steve Ralls, a spokesman for the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, a Washington-based watchdog organization that counseled Copas and is working to repeal "Don't Ask, Don't Tell."
Copas said he was never open about his sexuality in the military and suspects his accuser was someone he mistakenly befriended and apparently slighted.
More than 11,000 service members have been dismissed under the policy, including 726 last year _ an 11 percent jump from 2004 and the first increase since 2001.
That's less than a half-percent of the more than 2 million soldiers, sailors and Marines dismissed for all reasons since 1993, according to the General Accountability Office.
But the GAO also noted that nearly 800 dismissed gay or lesbian service members had critical abilities, including 300 with important language skills. Fifty-five were proficient in Arabic, including Copas, a graduate of the Defense Language Institute in California.
Discharging and replacing them has cost the Pentagon nearly $369 million, according to the Center for the Study of Sexual Minorities in the Military at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
Lt. Col. James Zellmer, Copas' commanding officer in the 313th military intelligence battalion, told the AP that "the evidence clearly indicated that Sgt. Copas had engaged in homosexual acts."
While investigators were never able to determine who the accuser was, "in the end, the nature and the volume of the evidence and Sgt. Copas's own sworn statement led me to discharge him," Zellmer said.
Military investigators wrote that Copas "engaged in at least three homosexual relationships, and is dealing with at least two jealous lovers, either of whom could be the anonymous source providing this information."
Shortly after Copas was appointed to the 82nd Airborne's highly visible All-American Chorus last May, the first e-mail came to the chorus director.
"The director brought everyone into the hallway and told us about this e-mail they had just received and blatantly asked, 'Which one of you are gay?'" Copas said.
Copas later complained to the director and his platoon sergeant, saying the questions violated "Don't Ask, Don't Tell."
"They said they would watch it in the future," Copas said. "And they said, even specifically then, 'Well, you are not gay are you?' And I said, 'no.'"
The accuser, who signed his e-mails "John Smith" or "ftbraggman," pressed Copas' superiors to take action against him or "I will inform your entire battalion of the information that I gave you."
On Dec. 2, investigators formally interviewed Copas and asked if he understood the military's policy on homosexuals, if he had any close acquaintances who were gay, and if he was involved in community theater. He answered affirmatively.
But Copas declined to answer when they asked, "Have you ever engaged in homosexual activity or conduct?" He refused to answer 19 of 47 questions before he asked for a lawyer and the interrogation stopped.
Copas said he accepted the honorable discharge to end the ordeal, to avoid lying about his sexuality and risking a perjury charge, and to keep friends from being targeted.
"It is unfair. It is unjust," he said. "Even with the policy we have, it should never have happened."
Somebody told
Was that foreshadowing? A premonition? Or just lucky timing?
"But the papers also give the reason for his dismissal."
I question this statement. What exactly does it say on his DD 214? The article already states that he received an honorable discharge so the section that address character of service will say honorable. Many years ago the military put reenlistment codes (RE) on the DD 214 but this practice has been stopped. So I wonder what on his DD 214 addresses his supposed homosexuality?
Sorry, but thats just about one of the gayest names I can think of.
Having said that, if he is an Arab language specialist, and we supposedly have a hard time coming up with such people, maybe we coulda made an exception for him?
It was the show tunes on his iPod that did it.
Personally I think it's a waste to discharge this guy. Don't we need Arabic language specialists at this time?
BFD.
AP, all homo news, all the time it seems, pretty much the same as the NYT.
For such a small portion of the population, these deviants sure command a disproportionate slice of the news pie.
I agree, it'
s shame this policy even exists. If someone is willing to support our country by serving in the military, it really shouldn't matter from which side of the plate they swing from...la
Of course in the "diversity" centered corporate world of today this will be a badge of honor and guarantee for employment.
A decorated sergeant and Arabic language specialist
Some things are just more important than the War on Islamofacism. Thank God our priorities are straight.
If you're in a foxhole and taking rounds, you don't give a damn what the guy next to you does with his gun as long as he can shoot straight with his rifle.........
That might be what the "don't ask don't tell policy" says, but the question here is whether the soldier in question engaged in homosexual acts, which it sounds like he did.
That being said, one might say that it is impossible to suppress one's sexual urges. The problem is that the Clinton administration wrote the policy that way and didn't change the UCMJ. If he engaged in homosexual acts while in the service he is eligible to be discharged.
We NEED this guy! "Arabic language specialist"
We have kicked so many gays out of the military who were also Arabic language specialists and now we have a severe shortage of them for intercepting and translating messages that could save us from another 9/11 !
"We NEED this guy! "Arabic language specialist" ..."
One needs to know the facts before making that statement. Who knows what Homo ACTUALLY did!!!
not really, my best friend is an arab language specialist, he seems to think that there are enough of them.
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