{"id":26803,"date":"2013-12-18T00:30:17","date_gmt":"2013-12-18T03:30:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/?p=26803"},"modified":"2016-11-26T00:09:54","modified_gmt":"2016-11-26T03:09:54","slug":"air-force-highlights-return-of-dadt-discharged-airman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/2013\/12\/18\/air-force-highlights-return-of-dadt-discharged-airman\/","title":{"rendered":"Air Force Highlights Return of DADT-Discharged Airman"},"content":{"rendered":"<div align=\"center\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"border: none; overflow: hidden; width: 500px; height: 300px;\" src=\"http:\/\/www.dvidshub.net\/video\/embed\/308458\" height=\"300\" width=\"500\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p>As has been repeatedly highlighted in the press, the repeal of Don&#8217;t Ask, Don&#8217;t Tell <a href=\"http:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/2012\/09\/25\/us-military-downplays-impact-of-dadt-repeal\/\">was\u00a0a &#8220;non-event&#8221;<\/a> (both <a href=\"http:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/2012\/07\/09\/dod-dadt-repeal-had-no-positive-effect-on-readiness\/\">positively<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/2012\/09\/11\/first-post-dadt-study-says-30-of-troops-oppose-homosexual-service-but-no-negative-impact\/\">negatively<\/a>).\u00a0So much so, in fact, that news stories continue to be generated <em>highlighting<\/em> its non-impact to the military.<\/p>\n<p>The Air Force produced a full <a href=\"http:\/\/airman.dodlive.mil\/2013\/11\/back-in-blue\/\">story on SSgt Anthony Loverde<\/a>, who recently re-entered the Air Force after having been discharged under DADT 2008.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>He went to the local recruiting office and asked about getting back in&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey said no,\u201d Loverde said.<\/p>\n<p>The reasons ranged from his age, to his <!--more-->weight to the needs of the Air Force in his career field.<\/p>\n<p>Loverde kept asking, though, and after several attempts, he was finally allowed to return to duty in the same career field. He became only the second service member to be discharged under DADT who was allowed back in.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt wasn\u2019t easy,\u201d he said. \u201cI had to lose a bunch of weight. But I did, and now I\u2019m back in uniform doing what I love.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Despite\u00a0the public article focusing on the military and its reaction to sexuality,<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Loverde [said he] doesn\u2019t want his sexual orientation to define him.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAt the end of the day, I am more than my sexuality,\u201d he said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>The story was recently picked up <a href=\"http:\/\/www.stripes.com\/news\/servicemembers-readjust-to-life-back-in-the-military-after-being-discharged-under-dadt-1.257393\">by the <em>Stars and Stripes<\/em><\/a>, which likewise noted that, rather than the &#8220;non-event&#8221; that has been the common narrative,<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>the Pentagon has faced some challenges to integrating gay servicemembers since DADT was repealed&#8230;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>The two examples cited both dealt with religious liberty.<\/p>\n<div class=\"fb-like\" data-share=\"true\" data-show-faces=\"true\" data-size=\"small\" data-action=\"like\" data-layout=\"standard\"><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: xx-small;\"><strong>ADVERTISEMENT<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js\"><\/script><!-- blogpost --><ins class=\"adsbygoogle\" style=\"display: block;\" data-ad-format=\"auto\" data-ad-slot=\"2728423835\" data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-6450825356098669\"><\/ins><script>\n(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});<\/script><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As has been repeatedly highlighted in the press, the repeal of Don&#8217;t Ask, Don&#8217;t Tell was\u00a0a &#8220;non-event&#8221; (both positively and negatively).\u00a0So much so, in fact, that news stories continue to be generated highlighting its non-impact to the military. The Air Force produced a full story on SSgt Anthony Loverde, who recently re-entered the Air Force after having been discharged under [&#8230;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[4511,219,442,2,10,171],"class_list":["post-26803","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-government-and-religion","tag-anthony-loverde","tag-dadt","tag-homosexual","tag-military","tag-religion","tag-religious-freedom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26803","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26803"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26803\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26803"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26803"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26803"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}