Officials Plan First ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ Repeal Briefing

WASHINGTON, Jan. 26, 2011 — The first in a series of brief­in­gs to describe the Defense Department’s progress in imple­ment­ing repeal of the so-called “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” law is com­ing soon, Pen­ta­gon Press Sec­re­tary Geoff Mor­rell said today.

The brief­ing — by Clif­ford L. Stan­ley, under­sec­re­tary of defense for per­son­nel and readi­ness, and Marine Corps Gen. James E. Cartwright, vice chair­man of the Joint Chiefs of Staff — like­ly will take place Jan. 28, Mor­rell said. 

Stan­ley is lead­ing the effort for the Pentagon. 

The House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives passed leg­is­la­tion in May that called for the pres­i­dent, defense sec­re­tary and Joint Chiefs chair­man to cer­ti­fy the imple­men­ta­tion plan before the repeal takes effect. On Nov. 30, Pen­ta­gon offi­cials released the report of a work­ing group that reviewed issues asso­ci­at­ed with a poten­tial repeal. And on Dec. 18, the Sen­ate vot­ed 65–31 for repeal, and Pres­i­dent Barack Oba­ma signed the bill into law Dec. 22. 

On Jan. 7, at a Pen­ta­gon news con­fer­ence with Navy Adm. Mike Mullen, chair­man of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Defense Sec­re­tary Robert M. Gates updat­ed reporters on the department’s plan for imple­ment­ing repeal of the law, which has been in effect since 1993 and remains in effect until the process is complete. 

Gates said the three-step process includes final­iz­ing changes in reg­u­la­tions and poli­cies and get­ting a clear­er def­i­n­i­tion on benefits. 

The sec­ond phase is to pre­pare train­ing mate­ri­als for use by per­son­nel spe­cial­ists, chap­lains, com­man­ders and oth­er lead­ers, and those who are in dai­ly con­tact with ser­vice mem­bers, he said. 

The third phase, the sec­re­tary explained, is the actu­al train­ing for ser­vice members. 

Source:
U.S. Depart­ment of Defense
Office of the Assis­tant Sec­re­tary of Defense (Pub­lic Affairs) 

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