Some Limestone County veterans say lawmakers should have left well enough alone rather than allow gay and lesbian soldiers to openly serve in the military.

The U.S. Senate repealed on Dec. 18 the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, which banned gays and lesbians from openly serving in the military. Although President Barack Obama has signed the bill into law, the military has to figure out how to implement it. Once that is achieved, there will be a 60-day waiting period.

The repeal received mixed reviews from five area veterans interviewed Wednesday by The News Courier.

Sandy Thompson of Athens, who served in the Air Force from 1986 to 2007 and directs the Alabama Veterans Museum and Archives on Pryor Street, has no problem with openly gay or lesbian people serving in the military.

“I don’t think sexual orientation should matter,” Thompson said. “It is like religion — as long as the mission doesn’t suffer.”

She likens gays and lesbians serving openly to women serving in the military — a change that will take some getting used to.

“There were men who didn’t want to work for a woman,” she said. “Finally, you would just have to sit them down and say, ‘your personal opinion does not matter, I outrank you.’”

She said she served with many gay and lesbian soldiers.

“They didn’t say they were gay, but everyone knew it,” she said. “It has always been there, they just didn’t bring it up.”

Many homosexual service members had opposed the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy because it required them to hide their sexual orientation, which is stressful, and because they feared being outed. They said, under the policy, a homosexual soldier who was so proved through credible correspondence or conversation would likely be discriminated against or could face discharge from the service. Some said the fear of discrimination and possible discharge even prevented homosexual soldiers from making a career of the military.

Army veteran Jim Watson, 67, of Athens, who served with the 122nd Signal Battalion Second Infantry in Korea from 1963 to 66, said the government should have left the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy in place. He agrees that homosexuals have always served in the military but he believes they should keep their orientation quiet. Failing to do so, he believes, could put lives in jeopardy.

“If a soldier is serving on the front line and eyeing you, then he is not protecting the hill because he is thinking about how to get in a guy’s pants,” he said. “I think it will be a problem, especially in God’s law … my Bible don’t say that’s OK … only a man and a woman should be joined.”

World War II Navy veteran Bob Smaltz, 86, of Huntsville, who served all over the Pacific from 1942 to 46, has no problem with the repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell.”

“As far as I’m concerned, if they don’t bother anyone else and they don’t tell about their lifestyle, then it’s alright,” Smaltz said. “Look at the workforce in the big plants. People are open and it isn’t a problem.”

Smaltz said he never saw anyone engage in any homosexual activity in the places he served, but he advised soldiers serving after the repeal “not to be too open with it.”

Smaltz attributed his open-mindedness to his upbringing in West Virginia.

He came to Alabama about 10 years ago after living for many years in Norfolk, Va.

“It’s just the way I was raised,” he said. “Let your neighbor do what he wants to do.”

Vietnam War Army veteran Bob McAbee of Athens, who served all over the world between 1955 and 75, believes the government should have left the policy alone.

“It could be a problem, especially when you get in a small group or if you are in a situation where you are almost in the same sleeping bag. In civilian life, you can pick your bedmates and roommates; in the military, it’s hard to do that. You don’t have freedom of choice like you do in civilian life.”

He said the switch away from “don’t ask, don’t tell,” would likely cause some upsets, something the military has seen before when women were allowed to serve alongside men.

Ali Turner, who said she worked for the Department of Defense amid many Navy SEALs, Army Rangers and Intel officers, said the repeal “disrespects” soldiers because the majority of them oppose it.

“They should respect the soldiers and leave it the way it was,” said Turner, who said she has discussed the matter with many soldiers.

She believes openly gay or lesbian soldiers are a “distraction.”

“Once you make sex the focal point, you are a distraction,” she said. “And a distraction can cause fatalities.”

That is the same reason many male soldiers opposed women in combat, she said.

Thompson said she did not see the point of requiring homosexual soldiers to hide their orientation rather than allowing them to be frank about it in the way heterosexual soldiers do everyday when they talk about their wives or husbands or girlfriends or boyfriends.

And, she said, the military already has rules regarding the sexual conduct of soldiers.

She did wonder if the repeal might trigger lawsuits against the government.

“The family of a homosexual soldier sent to the front line and killed might argue that he was put in harms way because he was gay,” she said.