Kicking homosexuals out of the armed services cost the government more than $190 million over a five-year period, due to the expense of removing gays and lesbians and training their replacements.

 

The Government Accountability Office in a new report determined that the military spent $193.3 million between 2004 and 2009 to enforce its “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy. This expense represented the removal of 3,664 troops—$52,800 for each removal of a gay servicemember. Of these, 1,442 were involved in what is known as “critical occupations,” such as infantryman, military police and transport driver. Of these, 148 held skills in intelligence-related critical occupations, including spy, cryptologic technician and airborne cryptologic language analyst.

 

Most of the money ($185.6 million) was allocated to recruit and train replacement troops. Another $7.7 million was consumed by administrative costs.

 

About 14% of armed forces personnel are women; however lesbians make up 34% of the homosexuals discharged for their sexual orientation.

 

With the approval of legislation repealing “don’t ask, don’t tell,” the Department of Defense is working on a plan to train all military personnel about changes to its personnel policy before officially ending the ban.

-Noel Brinkerhoff, David Wallechinsky

 

Report: 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' Cost Military $193.3M over Five Years (by Ed O'Keefe, Washington Post)

Personnel and Cost Data Associated with Implementing DOD’s Homosexual Conduct Policy (Government Accountability Office) (pdf)