Gen. James Conway: Heterosexual Homosexual Marines Will Not Room Together

General James Conway says no matter what happens to military policy, he will do everything possible to keep heterosexual Marines from rooming with homosexual Marines.

General James Conway

In an article on Military.com, Gen. Conway said the policy means "we have to build BEQ's [bachelor enlisted quarters] and have single rooms.

The Stars and Stripes published a letter by Army Lt. Gen. Benjamin Mixon asking military and civilians to write their Congressmen and urge them oppose repeal of the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy. Mixon received a reprimand from Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, and Admiral Mike Mullen said Mixon should considering resigning over his statement. This is a portion of Gen. Mixon's letter:

If those of us who are in favor of retaining the current policy do not speak up, there is no chance to retain the current policy...

Also on March 25, Pentagon chief Robert Gates announced new guidelines intended to make it more difficult to boot someone from the service under DADT, including elevating the grade of officers able to separate gay servicemembers to flag and general officers only. Previously, O-6s could separate members determined to have committed homosexual conduct, according to a Defense Department statement.

From Gen. Conway:

In this case, I would want to reserve the right of a Marine that thinks he or she wouldn't want to [share a room with a homosexual]. And again that's the overwhelming...number of people that say that they wouldn't like to do so.

In a Senate hearing, Gen. John Sheehan, a former senior Marine officer and Nato commander blamed "open homosexuality" in the Dutch Army for the failure to prevent the Srebrenica massacre in 1995. At the end of the cold war, the General said, there was:

...a focus on peacekeeping operation because they did not believe the Germans were going to attack again or the Soviets were coming back

The case in point that I'm referring to is when the Dutch were required to defend Srebrenica against the Serbs, he said, referrring to the UN peacekeeping force deployed to protect Bosnian Muslim civilians.

The battalion was understrength, poorly led, and the Serbs came into town, handcuffed the soldiers to the telephone poles, marched the Muslims off and executed them.

Senator Carl Levin, the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee asked Gen. Sheehan if the Dutch leaders told him the failure to defend was because there were gay soldiers there? Sheehan said "yes," "they included that as part of the problem.

Levin as much as called the General a liar. The Dutch defense minister said Sheehan's claims were "complete nonsense."