U.S. Military Recruitment Goals Being Met One Year After "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" Repeal

Don't Ask, Don't Tell officially got repealed effective September 20, 2011. It took way too long for that discriminatory anti-gay military policy to get repealed, resulting in the unnecessary career deaths of too many American gay, lesbian, and bisexual officers and soldiers. Since its repeal, we have heard several Republican political candidates argue in favor of DADT's reimplementation, despite the fact that there has been next to zero negative effects from last year's repeal.

One of the arguments against repealing DADT was the idea that the military would be unable to recruit new service members. However, according to new information released by the Department of Defense, that argument holds no water:

All four active-duty services and five of the six reserve components met or exceeded their recruiting goals for fiscal 2012, officials announced today. The Army Reserve shortfall was the result of precision recruiting, which was implemented in an effort to rebalance the force.

According to date provided by the DOD, all four active-duty services (Air Force, Army, Marine Corp, and Navy) met between 100-104% of their fiscal year 2012 recruit goals. Plus, all five reserve services (Air Force Reserve, Air National Guard; Army National Guard, Army Reserve, Marine Corp Reserve, and Navy Reserve) met their fiscal year 2012 recruit goals by 97-115%. The Army Reserve was the only one of these ten military programs that failed to make it to 100% (barely).