A former Air Force airman who was discharged under Don’t Ask Don’t Tell has reached a settlement in his lawsuit against the Defense Department.
Mike Almy, a decorated Air Force major who served in Iraq, was discharged in 2006 after his commanding officer was made aware of the fact that Almy was gay.
Joining the ROTC in 1988, Almy graduated in the top 10% of all graduates nationwide and went on active duty with the Air Force in 1993 (just as DADT was being codified).
His prestigious career included Almy being named officer of the year for his unit and being selected as just one of six officers chosen to attend Professional Military Education at Quantico. Almy was deployed to the Middle East four times, and led a team of nearly 200 airmen to control the airspace over Iraq.
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But, for whatever reason, someone had it in for Mike: His private emails were searched, and messages to his then-boyfriend were forwarded to his commanding officer. In short order, he was relieved of his duties and security clearance, and after a 16-month investigation, was escorted off the base with half of his expected severance pay.
With the aid of OutServe-SLDN and attorneys at Morrison & Foerster, Almy was able to reach a settlement with the DoD that includes service credit and a cash payment, the details of which have been kept classified.
“I appreciate all of those who worked on my behalf to find a resolution and close this painful chapter in my life with a positive ending,” he said. “America has moved on from this discriminatory law, and it’s my hope that one day soon we will realize the vision of full equality in our military.”
Derek Williams
Even though this massively expensive ($192 million) and hugely devastating (over 14,300 sacked) policy is now toast, this story is still gut wrenching.
jwrappaport
I picked the wrong career track: I would give anything to have a job that entailed making the fed pay dearly for DADT.
Chad Hunt
I’d like to fire my SCUD missile at that cute airman.
TVC 15
Mmm, now that’s the kind of soldier I like to support. 🙂
MuscleModelBlog.com
It sounds like justice has been served (as best as can be). He can’t go back and regain those years he lost in his career, but hopefully the extra bit of money will help.
dvlaries
Fly me anywhere baby! Woooo
Cam
A Long seven year battle just to be treated like a human being ane not be fired for who he is. Poor guy. I’m so glad it ended with his victory.
Victor_in_PA
This law was doomed from the beginning. The military had no intention of “not asking”. They wanted to keep gay people out of the military and then witch hunt the ones already enlisted. They wanted the “don’t tell” part to keep people from being able to talk about who they are but, they also wanted to be able to “ask” all they wanted which is what they did. Very few discharges were done without the military investigating people and then kicking them out with what they found. That’s not “don’t ask”. That’s a clear violation of their own law and they should have to pay BIG TIME to every person who was discharged after a military investigation.
Polaro
Now every soldier that was booted out for not telling but being asked needs to get their check. The military broke their own BS law.