Navy bars outed gay sailor from return to service (3rd time)

[babylonsister]

http://www.estripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=46576

Navy bars outed gay sailor from return to service


By Joseph Giordono, Stars and Stripes
Mideast edition, Sunday, June 10, 2007

A sailor who outed himself is out of the Navy for good.

Navy officials said Friday that a third set of discharge papers — this time noting “homosexual conduct” and barring any recall to service — have been issued for Petty Officer 2nd Class Jason Knight.

Though privacy rules forbid the Navy from releasing the documents, officials said a recall code of RE-4 was listed and that the papers effectively end any possibility of future service.

As of Friday, Knight said he had not received the DD-214 discharge papers, but was not surprised they were reissued.

In early May, Knight was the subject of a Stars and Stripes story detailing how he had served a yearlong tour in Kuwait as an openly gay man. Shortly after, Navy officials said that, based in part on statements Knight made afterward, he would be honorably discharged under the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy.

Last week, Knight released the only discharge papers he had received after his Individual Ready Reserve tour with a customs battalion in Kuwait was completed. Those papers made no mention of homosexual conduct and made him eligible for active duty recall until 2009.

However, Navy officials said those documents were issued before Knight’s story was published. The third, and final, DD-214 had already been issued before that story ran, Navy officials said Friday.

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[Captain Hilts]

1. The navy has been told to get rid of 30K sailors in three years. Bad timing on his part.

The navy is the smallest it's been since BEFORE the First World War.

They're just scratchin' for ways to get rid of folks, legitimate or not.