Students and allies flock to Lt. Choi for autographs and photo-ops at the 5th Annual Governor’s Conference on LGBT Youth (photo by T.M. Lindsey/Iowa Independent).

“Through my experiences while serving in Iraq, I discovered why ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ is so poisonous is that it forces people to lie about who they are,” Choi told an audience of about 200 LGBT students, allies, school administrators and educators gathered at the 5th Annual Governor’s Conference on LGBT Youth at Drake University in Des Moines Feb. 18. “This is a policy of shame that forces people into the closet.

“I wonder how many of us have a DADT policy in our churches, families, schools, clubs, classrooms, or even here in our own hearts that we’ve placed on ourselves, imposing shame and saying to ourselves: ‘that’s an order,’” Choi said. “DADT is the disease of shame that we all suffer through. For the past 10 years, I had no problem with DADT and thought it was just great. Since I was already in the closet, DADT provided cover and gave me a place to hide.”

Upon returning from active duty in Iraq, he could no longer hide his true identity. Choi, a West Point graduate, Iraq war veteran and Arabic translator, was eventually discharged from the Army when he said “I am gay” on an episode of “The Rachel Maddow Show” that aired last March.

Debate over the future of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” –  which bars those that are openly gay, lesbian, or bisexual from military service — continues to rage in Washington. Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the Senate Armed Services Committee earlier this month that openly gay men and women should be allowed to serve, and even former Vice President Dick Cheney has publicly said the policy needs to be changed.

In an exclusive interview with The Iowa Independent, Choi said one person who could contribute to the end of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” is Iowa’s highest ranking military official, Gov. Chet Culver, who did not attend his LGBT conference.

“If Gov. Culver, Iowa’s commander-in-chief, were here today, I would ask that he join my brothers in arms and call upon the federal government to repeal DADT,” he said, adding: “Gov. Culver is the highest ranking military official in Iowa, so it would be great to see him make some sort of public declaration to show he supports the repeal of DADT.”

Culver can’t formally change the policy, Choi said, but seeing the governor speak out would  “mean a lot to the gay Iowa soldiers already serving and those who have been discharged, knowing that their leader supports and stands up for them.”

“In fact, I would call on all commanders-in-chief across the country to stand up for their troops, who have been shouldering a significant portion of the war efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan,” he said. “I would be honored to have Gov. Culver serving with me in my foxhole.”

The Iowa Independent contacted Culver’s office on multiple occasions but received no response.

Uncovering the truth in the ‘Triangle of Death’

During his keynote speech, Choi told the audience about the definitive moment that changed his perspective on DADT and ultimately, himself. While serving in Baghdad’s “Triangle of Death” one afternoon, Choi and one of his men were standing outside what they thought was a Sunni mosque. But what they heard coming from the mosque was something different than a call to prayer. Using his translation skills, Choi realized it was a Shia political rally.

Lt. Choi mans his station while serving in Iraq (photo courtesy of ltdanchoi.com).

“What I heard at that rally at that particular moment amazed me, because Shia political leaders had been so discriminated for centuries that they educated their people with the philosophy that you can hide who you are,” Choi said. “And if somebody wants to discriminate against you it’s better to hide, for God will forgive you. This is a philosophy that the Shia had ascribed to for 100s of years as a means of self-preservation and political expediency: Do what’s comfortable and God will forgive you.”

Hearing the Shia people standing up and saying they were no longer going to hide who they were hit home with Lt. Choi, who had spent most of his life hiding who he was for the sake of preserving himself and maintain political expediency. “There I was standing in the middle of the ‘Triangle of Death,’ knowing that I could die at any minute and I was hiding something,” Choi said. “I felt if I was to teach this new Iraqi government anything about transparency or democracy or equality, how could I keep hiding who I was? I felt like such a hypocrite that I was teaching other people to stand up and be who they are while I hid and was forced to lie about who I was.”

Choi is not the only one stuck in an identity quagmire. To date nearly 13,500 gay men and women serving in the military have been discharged under the DADT policy, including 60 fellow Arabic translators, who have been labeled “mission critical” by the armed forces. Moreover an estimated 4,000 soldiers leave the service every year. Retention rates are not the only casualty but the costs for implementing the policy have hit home as well. In 2005 the Government Accountability Office estimated that implementation of the DADT policy has cost our government an estimated $190.5 million through 2003 to discharge the troops and train their replacements. However, the following year a University of California Blue Ribbon Commission concluded that the costs were much higher and closer to $363 million.

Reconciling family and faith

According to Choi, the courage it took to come out on “The Rachel Maddow Show” was nothing compared to what he had to muster when he came out to his parents. He was raised in an evangelical household by his father, a southern Baptist minister, and his mother, a nurse on the maternity ward who always dreamed of a house filled with Korean grandchildren. Feeling the continuous pressure from his mother to marry a Korean girl and have a big, traditional wedding, Choi admitted to the audience that she annoyed him to the point that he buckled and came out to her. “I am not going to marry a Korean girl, nor am I going to marry a white girl,” he told his mother. “I am gay, and I was born that way, and I tried to pray the gay away.”

Choi confessed his father was even more shocked than his mother, to the point of irrationality. “Since when?” was his father’s first response. “You can change, it’s just like Barack Obama, you can change. Yes you can,” his father said to him.

“Thanks to Obama, yes we can turn straight again,” Choi quipped to the audience.

Lt. Dan Choi (photo courtesy of ltdanchoi.com)

Despite their initial reactions, Lt. Choi stuck to his guns, realizing he was out of the closet and would not turn back on his decision or himself. “It is because I love you that I am telling you the truth,” he confided to his mother. “If I didn’t tell you, that’s when you should be truly concerned, because I would continue to keep lying to your face.”

Reconciling a new path with his father, however, was more challenging, given his father’s religious position and background, not to mention the irrationality of his initial responses. “This is the biggest shame, the biggest sin,” Choi’s father told him when he first found out. “Number one sin.”

“I learned about the biggest sin that you taught me in your church and while growing up in your house was to not accept Jesus Christ, your lord and savior, who said you should love your neighbor as you love yourself,” Choi responded to his father. “Which means you have to love yourself before you can love your neighbor. You have to love yourself as God has created you, and I do, and I love you, and this is why I am telling you this.”

Since he came out to them, Choi’s mother and father have slowly grappled with coming to terms with their son’s sexuality.

“The last time I was in Iowa last October, my dad called me and said he had seen me making appearances on all of the television shows and told me he knew what I was doing and that he accepted me as his gay son,” Choi said.

However, Choi admits that not everyone who shares his faith has been so accepting or understanding.

“There are a lot of people out there who use their religious sentiments against my sexuality and that is the source of their hatred,” he said. “I don’t think I should have to give up my religion and faith, because the politicians and the people with a political agenda within those faiths want to hijack it.”

To help illustrate his point, Choi pointed to Chaplain Gordan James Klingenschmitt, a religious pundit and founder of “The Praying in Jesus Name” project. Klingenschmitt singled out Choi in some of his online posts, calling him a liar for knowingly breaking the West Point Honor Code by lying about his sexuality and called for his immediate separation from the military.

Not knowing how to respond to Klingenschmitt in Jesus’ name, Choi offered the audience an open prayer:

Dear God,

I just want to pray and lift up Chaplain James who needs to learn the pain he causes. You teach us to love our enemies and to pray for those who persecute us. And how many times did you teach us to turn our cheek when somebody does wrong to us. Chaplain Klingenschmitt just doesn’t understand the pain he is causing, and I realize that he doesn’t understand the lessons we learned though your son, Jesus Christ, when He was here on earth. But the tradition and the law and his people turned their back on Him and gave him the death penalty for telling the truth. When oppression and discrimination were present in his time but He stood up. Chaplain James can be blessed to learn these messages.

Amen

“That is how I respond and how I pray in Jesus’ name,” Lt. Choi said. “There will be some people who will continue to use their views and religious bigotry to push their agenda. It is not our job to hate them back, rather to show them the truth and pray for them to understand.”

Choi’s call-to-arms

Despite having been formerly discharged from the Army, Choi was recently called back to active duty and recently reported to his National Guard unit in New York to complete some drills.. “I have been training hard with my unit, with the intent that I will join them when it receives its orders for deployment to Afghanistan,” Choi told The Iowa Independent. “However, a discharge continually looms over my head, and as far as I know, I could be discharged the day before deployment.

“Mentally, I am stuck in a schizophrenic holding pattern,” he added. “In the meantime, like other members in my unit, I will continue to plug away at my day job, which for me is a full-time activist.”

Choi helped form Knights Out, an organization comprised of West Point alumni advocating for the rights of gays and lesbians to serve openly in the military, and continues to speak out to the press and events across the country. “Whether I am reinstated or not in the military remains to be seen. Either way, I will continue to speak out against the DADT policy until it is repealed and my fellow gay soldiers can serve openly and without having to serve our country in shame.”

“Ironically, there are gay men and women over in Iraq and Afghanistan fighting for and protecting the very freedoms they themselves cannot openly exercise,” Choi said. “Meanwhile back at home there are some states, like Iowa, that recognize these rights and protections for our gay citizens. Unfortunately, these same rights do not extended to them when they return to their civilian lives and families — who also have to hide the truth and share this overwhelming burden of shame.”

Choi will return to Iowa Thursday to speak at 7 p.m. in the Iowa Memorial Union’s Main Lounge at the University of Iowa.

The Department of Defense (DOD) and the National Guard Bureau, Washington, D.C., have ordered to federal active duty approximately 20 selected Soldiers from various Iowa Army National Guard units. The alert and mobilization is part of Operation Enduring Freedom and the Global War on Terrorism.

To honor the guardsmen, nearly 300 people attended a send-off ceremony Monday at Camp Dodge in Johnston.

The soldiers will report immediately to their mobilization station at Fort Riley, Kan. for additional training and preparation before departing for the Afghanistan theater of operations. In Afghanistan, these soldiers will operate as a Regional Corps Advisory Group Embedded Training Team to provide mentorship and advanced training to the Afghan National Army and Afghan National Police.

(U.S. Rep. Bruce Braley, (U.S. Sen. Tom) Harkin and Grassley, along with three House members – Tom Latham, Leonard Boswell and Dave Loebsack – signed on to a letter to the leadership of the Armed Services Committee in both chambers. The letter cites these problems as well as delays in a post-deployment benefit that had been promised by the Pentagon.

So they ask that as the defense authorization bill is written this year, the chief of the National Guard Bureau be made a full member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Rep. Steve King was the only member of the delegation who did not sign on to the letter. Asked for comment, King said: “Rep. Braley and all Democrats in the Iowa delegation do not support the troops and their mission. We will not be led to victory by those who have declared defeat.”

There was no elaboration, so it’s not clear why King would say that in connection with this particular initiative.

How exactly is this anti-troop? Does this, Mr. King, mean Grassley and Latham aren’t patriotic or somehow not supporting the military?

Rob Hubler, Democratic candidate for Iowa’s Fifth Congressional District, says King is obligated to elaborate on why he refused to sign the letter asking Congress’ Armed Services Committees that the head of the National Guard Bureau become part of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

“Now we in the Fifth District can lay claim to having the only member of the state’s delegation refuse to support the brave men and women who chose to serve in Iowa’s National Guard not to mention overseas in Iraq,” Hubler said. 

The only statement the incumbent gave for not signing on to the request is his belief that Democrats do not support U.S. troops, Hubler said.

“He has got to do better than just use an extreme talking point that is untrue and worn out,” Hubler said.  “If you want to really represent the people of western Iowa, including those who wear the uniform of our armed forces, you must give a more detailed reason for such an irresponsible decision.  And by the way, where is his criticism of fellow Republican lawmakers Tom Latham and Chuck Grassley who understand this is an issue that transcends party lines?”

“Furthermore, this is not even an issue over the war in Iraq, it is a policy issue over the inner workings of a government office and making it more efficient,” Hubler added.  “This is to ensure that Iowa’s guardsmen and women have a voice with the other military branches and that they receive the benefits promised to them for enlisting.  As the next Representative of Iowa’s Fifth District, I will bring Real Representation to those who served or are actively serving our great nation.”

Introduced by a local Army reservist and speaking to an audience of roughly 300 people at the Boys and Girls Club, the Democratic presidential hopeful centered his remarks around Iowa’s 1st Battalion, 133rd Infantry Regiment that is headquartered in Waterloo. Although members of the Ironman Battalion have been stateside since July, while in Iraq the service men and women learned from friends and family back home that their deployment had been extended.

“It’s time to use the guard and reserves responsibly,” Obama said. “No more unpredictable deployments. No more extended tours. No more failures to plan, to communicate down the chain of command, or to reset the equipment that we’ve left in Iraq. When we’ve got service-members who have to find out that their tour has been extended in a phone call home, we’re not keeping that trust, and we’re not keeping this country safe.”

The Iowans were deployed to Iraq during March and April of 2006 and given the task of convoy security. The group provided securty for more than 500 combat patrols and escorted a total of 62,000 trucks over 4 million miles in the Al Anbar province. Two members of Company C — Sgt. 1st Class Scott Nisely, 48, of Marshalltown and Sgt. Kampha Sourivong, 20, of Iowa City — were killed during combat near Al Asad, Iraq in September 2006.

Obama’s white paper on the National Guard and Reserves calls for improved mental health services, replacement of lost or over-used equipment and enhanced services for military families. He also would elevate the chief of the National Guard to the rank of four-star general and make that person a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Instead of trying to steer the conversation around Iraq and the current state of foreign policy in America, Obama led head-on into what many believe to be one of his strongest talking points.

“In the rush to go to war in Iraq we were failed by a president who didn’t tell the whole truth,” Obama said. “We were also failed by the media and the Congress. Let’s be clear, without that vote, there would have been no war.”

From domestic needs at home to failed national security, Obama hammered out a laundry list of items, which he eventually lumped into one phrase: “the cost of war.”

“The right person to end this war is the person who had the judgement to oppose it from the beginning,” he said. “There is no military solution in Iraq — there never has been. That is why from day one I’ll begin removing troops from Iraq immediately.”

Obama promised to begin pulling out troops at the rate of one or two regiments a month while sending humanitarian relief into the country.

“Have no confusion,” he said, “I will end this war.”

While the announcement of Obama’s plan for guard members, reservists and their families was the focus of the event and the primary reason the campaign chose Waterloo, campaign officials said there was more reasoning behind their exact venue choice within the city.

“We’ve been wanting to do an event in this particular neighborhood,” said Josh Earnest, Iowa communications director for the campaign. “In addition to discussing the plan for the National Guard — which is important locally because of the headquarters being in Waterloo — the senator also plans to take questions from the audience and reach out to this segment of the population.”

At least some of the rally attendees were a bit surprised when they heard the subjects to be discussed. Obama supporter Dr. Michael Blackwell, who stresses that through his organization affiliations he continues to work for the benefit of all the Democratic campaigns, was one person who spoke candidly following the event.

“I didn’t know ahead of time that he was going to focus on foreign policy and deal with the situation in Iraq,” he said. “That being said, I thought it was good to hear him really focus on it and take the time so that we could hear more than just a 60-second soundbyte. He really described his assessment of the situation, what he’s done in the past and what he would do if he were to be elected president.”

Blackwell said that he also would have liked, especially in this particular neighborhood, to have heard Obama discuss his politics of hope.

“In the question-and-answer portion he did try to address concerns about jobs, economic development and health care,” Blackwell said. “So, he did touch upon those, but not as the central part of his speech. I have looked on his website and I have heard him in more private settings talk about jobs and training and education that would hopefully lead to better employment opportunities for the poor. I know his heart is there and that he’s done that type of work in Chicago. But, yes, it would have been nice to hear that today since there are people in Waterloo who need to hear that and be encouraged. There are a lot of working class, unemployed and under-employed people here.”

Waterloo resident Louise Miller said the portion of the event that meant the most to her was the part on domestic policy.

“There are just so many people that do not have health care,” she said while holding open the facility door so others could exit. “Senior citizens especially rely on Social Security and have limited opportunities.”

She admitted to being a member of the “Obama Mamas” — something the button pinned to her jacket already proclaimed — and then explained why she was supporting Obama.

“When you start listening [to all the politicians], you have so many saying so many different things that you don’t know what is right and what isn’t,” she said. “You’ve got to just try and weigh it and determine which way you are going to go. Obama. I like the man himself and I think he is doing the best at getting his message across. It seems to me that he is saying what the people want to hear.”

In a move that this reporter has not seen at an Obama event, staff members performed a brief question-and-answer skit before the event began that could have been dubbed Iowa Caucus 101. The hard ask for support, however, came from the man himself.

“We want you to sign a supporter card,” he told the audience before beginning his prepared remarks. “We’re going to have the exits covered as you leave so that we can at least ask you to sign a card. Also, if you have already signed a card, we want you to be a precinct captain.”

The ask, however, did not come without a promise.

“I will not be a president who shortchanges governors like Chet Culver here in Iowa who are working hard to keep their people safe,” he said. “I will not be a president who sends our guard off to fight in a misguided war while telling governors and state legislators to hope that a big snowstorm won’t hit next winter or that a tornado won’t come through town. I will not be a president who extends tours for our guard units overseas while Americans are stranded on rooftops right here at home.”

Ottumwa was a community swelling with pride at a send-off ceremony Sunday for approximately 120 soldiers in the Iowa National Guard 833rd Engineer Company.

The Hellyer Student Life Center gymnasium at Indian Hills Community College was filled with soldiers and their families and friends, along with others from the community just there to show their support.

A sidewalk was lined with flags from the gymnasium all the way to the buses that would take the soldiers to Fort McCoy, Wis., where they will prepare to be deployed for service in Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Most of the people in attendance, both soldiers and civilians, have been through this emotional experience before.

This group of soldiers, formerly called Company B of the 224th Engineering Battalion, served a tour of duty in Iraq from October 2004 through December, 2005. Company B, from Ottumwa and the rural areas and nearby towns of southeast Iowa, became well-known for being very good at what they do.

Iowa National Guard Public Affairs Officer Lt. Col. Greg Hapgood said the 833rd Engineer Company's responsibility involves "providing greater mobility for U.S. forces and also countering some of the things that opposing forces do to slow down or to stop our soldiers." Hapgood said that the soldiers of the 833rd Company "are very experienced with building things, with tearing down things, with using explosives, and with direct combat support for units in a combat situation. So they really have a great variety of skills that they can do very ably, and they're ready to go do their mission."

One of the things they do best is find and diffuse improvised explosive devices. As noted by Des Moines Register columnist John Carlson, this company of soldiers has proven its abilities and been honored for it by high-level commanders.

Among those soldiers today was Staff Sgt. Tim Raskie, a communications specialist for the unit. His duties during the 2004-2005 tour in Iraq involved taking care of all of the radios and other communication systems used by the 833rd Engineer Company, a task he will continue when they arrive in Iraq for their second tour of duty.

Raskie is a resident of Albia, where he is raising two kids with his wife, Ruth. His son Brian and his daughter Leah are students at Albia Community Schools, and Ruth is a librarian at the Carnegie-Evans Public Library in Albia. In an emotional moment after the ceremony, the kids hugged their father as the other soldiers began making their way toward the buses waiting outside.

Another soldier in the company is Sgt. Nathan Chambers. He deployed today for his third tour of duty in the War on Terrorism.

His father, Brian Chambers of Eddyville, said Sgt. Chambers first served a tour of duty in Afghanistan with another National Guard unit.
After returning from Afghanistan, he later joined this Ottumwa unit and served in the previous deployment in 2004-2005.

Sgt. Chambers was just recently married in March, and living in Pella with his new bride, Dawn.

The send-off ceremony included a speech by Ottumwa Mayor Dale Uehling, who presented the company with an Iowa flag the soldiers will take with them to Iraq.

Rep. Dave Loebsack, who is a member of the U.S. House Armed Services committee, thanked the soldiers for their service and offered his gratitude to the soldiers' families.

As the company exited the gymnasium to board the buses, the local American Legion post conducted a 21-gun salute.

The buses carrying the soldiers were escorted out of town by the sirens and flashing lights of Ottumwa fire trucks, ambulances and police vehicles.

The program, “Fathers, Sons, and Brothers” will air at 6 p.m. (Iowa time) on CBS affiliates. The Iowa Army National Guard’s 1st Battalion, 133rd Infantry (The Ironman Battalion) — the unit that includes Iowa state Rep. Ray Zirkelbach — and their families here in Iowa are followed from initial alert to the present, nearly 24 total months.

The relationship between the TV news program and the Iowa Guard was formed, according to Lt. Col. Greg Hapgood, in summer 2004 when 60 Minutes did a report on three of the nation’s fallen, who included Iowa National Guard member Bruce Smith. The helicopter pilot and instructor had lost his life the previous November when his Chinook, which carried roughly 40 soldiers, was hit by enemy fire. In the subsequent crash-landing, 16 soldiers lost their lives, but 20 survived.

“We worked with them as they put together the piece with Bruce Smith and had a good relationship,” Hapgood said. “We were pleased with how the final piece came out, feeling it was very balanced, and that paved the way for us to be more comfortable about this more long-term piece.”

CBS, knowing it wanted to follow a battalion-sized unit and family back home, approached the National Guard in several states to see what might be available and who might be willing.

“It was approximately two years ago when they first came to us to see if we had units of a certain size and if we could work together on something like this,” Hapgood said. “After learning of the 1st Battalion, 133rd Infantry they met with a number of soldiers and families to make a rough decision as to which story lines would be followed.”

Given the title of the piece, the focus isn’t difficult to figure out.

“There are probably 18 different families that have multiple family members serving,” he explained. “You have lots of relationships there — fathers and sons, brothers, nephews, cousins. We also have the very unusual circumstance of having one husband-and-wife couple serving.”

In general, it is unusual to have women serving in the infantry since federal law and internal policies limit the roles women can play in combat situations.

The unit was alerted in July 2005 to serve as a part of Operation Iraqi Freedom and the global war on terrorism. They reported to Camp Shelby, Miss., in September 2005 before leaving for Iraq the following April. In January 2007, the Department of Defense extended their deployment for up to 125 days, or through August 2007.

There have been two major items of note about the unit in the local press: Zirkelbach’s service and two fallen soldiers. While Hapgood admits he has not seen the final product, he says, because of the focus of the piece and based on questions asked of him, he does not believe either will be a big presence in the news report.

Because of the deployment and extension of duty, Zirkelbach – who was first elected in 2004 and won re-election in 2006 (unopposed) – has missed the 2006 and 2007 legislative sessions. He was the ranking member of the Veterans Affairs Committee from 2004 to 2006. He is the only state representative deployed to Iraq. A corrections officer at Anamosa State Penitentiary and a member of AFSCME Local 2994, he represents Jones County and a portion of Dubuque County.

In September 2006, two members of the group – Staff Sgt. Scott E. Nisely, 48, of Marshalltown and Spc. Kampha B. Sourivong, 20, of Iowa City – lost their lives during combat operations near Al Asad, Iraq.

“We were honored by 60 Minutes – one of the preeminent news organizations in the world – wanting to follow our Iowa National Guard soldiers,” said Hapgood. “We hope it will help provide an understanding of how deployment affects our soldiers and their families and even our communities. We hope that will lead to greater support for our military and their families.”

The 1st Battalion, 133rd Infantry includes units located in Waterloo (Headquarters and Headquarters Company as well as Detachment 1 of Company B), Dubuque (Companies A and D), Oelwein (Company B), Iowa Falls (Company C), and Charles City (Detachment 1 of Headquarters and Headquarters Company). Approximately 560 soldiers from 1st Battalion, 133rd Infantry are on this deployment, with an additional 130 soldiers from Company E, 334th Brigade Support Battalion (Waterloo and Dubuque) providing logistical support.

The Ironmen Battalion’s core mission is to conduct close combat with enemy forces and provide security of key terrain, facilities and installations.