National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2011

Floor Speech

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Mr. GARAMENDI. I thank my colleague from New Jersey for yielding.

I was elected in a special election last November. One of my opponents was an extraordinary young man, an African American. Raised in Fairfield, California, he went to West Point. Very successful, he served in Iraq two tours and came out a captain. He took his team there twice. On both those tours, all of them were in very dangerous circumstances.

He came home. He came back to America and could no longer tolerate the Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy. He came out of the closet. An extraordinary loss. Fortunately, I had another idea about who might be the next Congressman. But this man could have been a general leading the entire Army, an extraordinary person.

We lost that talent because of this policy, and it is time for this policy to end. If only the President had the power that Truman did when he said, enough already, we are going to integrate the Army.

We need to complete that integration. The Murphy amendment is absolutely essential.

I yield back the balance of my time.

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