sailor boys

Marine Chief James Conway: Marines More ‘Macho,’ So It’s Harder For Them to Deal With Openly Gay Sailors

[W]e recruit a certain type of young American, pretty macho guy or gal, that is willing to go fight and perhaps die for their country. That’s about the only difference that I see between the other services. I mean, they recruit from a great strain of young Americans as well. They all come from the same areas and that type of thing. So I can only think that, as we look at our mission, how we are forced to live in close proximity aboard ship, in the field for long periods of time and that type of thing, that the average Marine out there, and by the way, my own surveys indicate that it’s not age-dependent, it’s not rank-dependent, it’s not where you’re from; it’s, as you highlight, pretty uniformly not endorsed as the ideal way ahead. But I just think all those things have impact on the Marines. And we’d just as soon not see it change. But again, we will follow the law, whatever the law prescribes.

—Marine Corps Commandant Gen. James Conway, explaining the difference between marines and other personnel, and why it’ll be harder for his military branch to deal with a DADT repeal [via]

EARLIER:
Marine Chief Gen. James Conway: Straight + Gay Soldiers Living Together Must Be ‘Voluntary’

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