WASHINGTON — No one in Air Force Lt. Col. Victor Fehrenbach’s unit knew he was gay until he went on television Tuesday night to talk about his sexuality.
“It was never my intention to come out publicly,” he said in an interview with Stripes the next day.
But Fehrenbach, an F-15 pilot, said he was grounded last spring, just weeks before his unit deployed to Iraq, when a civilian acquaintance told his commanders that Fehrenbach might be gay.
He said he doesn’t know why he was outed. For almost two decades, he kept his sexual orientation a secret from military officials. But the tip began a yearlong review that culminated in a recommendation for discharge earlier this week, under the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy.
Fehrenbach, an 18-year airman who has served overseas tours in Kosovo, Iraq and Afghanistan, said he felt compelled to share his story with the press after that because of the White House’s reluctance to confront the issue of homosexuals serving openly in the military.
“I had a lot of hope in September, when I heard about [President Barack Obama’s] plans to overturn the law,” he said. “Now, I’m hoping that by coming out and telling my story that the president will move faster on this.”
For now, there’s no indication that will happen, and Fehrenbach stands to lose his military pension.
The White House publicly remains committed to overturning the ban, but recently press secretary Robert Gibbs noted that the president won’t intervene in current cases against men and women who announce their homosexuality or who are outed by others. However, on Thursday, Gibbs said that the administration remains committed to overturning the policy, but he noted that it would require an act of Congress.
Both Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Joint Chiefs Chairman Adm. Michael Mullen have said any such move will take time to process and implement, and current war priorities are postponing those conversations. On Tuesday, Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said defense officials haven’t had any significant conversations about the issue. Later, Gates asked Morrell to clarify the statement.
“Although this will require changes to the law, the secretary and chairman are working to address the challenges associated with implementation of the president’s commitment,” Morrell said Thursday.
Kevin Nix, spokesman for the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, said his group is asking the president to consider a working group to look at ways to implement the repeal of the ban, with a goal of a change in policy within 90 days.
But so far the White House has maintained that changes must first come from Congress, and Obama has not offered public support for a bill already on Capitol Hill that would overturn the ban. The administration had no reaction to a public rebuke from SLDN last month, in the form of a newspaper ad demanding action on the issue.
Earlier this week, the Boston Globe reported the number of discharges under the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy last year remained steady, down almost half from the 1,227 high in 2001.
Fehrenbach hopes to find some way to avoid becoming one of the highest-ranking servicemembers ever kicked out of the service under the rule. He had hoped to retire quietly in two years, but now that seems unlikely.
“I followed the rules for 18 years,” he said. “I didn’t make the decision to come out. There’s no reason I couldn’t continue to do my job well.”
