HIV-Positive, DoD-Negative

EXECUTIVE MEMO

HIV-Positive, DoD-Negative

t's no small irony that the department that fought so hard to keep homosexuals out is now engaged in a battle to keep members who test positive for the AIDS virus in. Top Defense Department officials have joined the Administration in condemning a provision in the Defense Authorization Act that would force out soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines who test positive for the HIV virus.

The provision, sponsored by Rep. Robert Dornan (R-Calif.), was intended to boost military readiness by giving the boot to troops who cannot serve overseas or in combat because their HIV-positive status renders them "non-deployable."

But Defense officials, including Defense Secretary William Perry and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. John Shalikashvili, say the number of troops who test positive for HIV is too small to affect readiness.

Discharging service members deemed fit for duty would waste the government's investment in training and disrupt the organizations in which they work, they wrote in a joint statement to the President.

"I think it is unfair, and that is what bothers me very much," Shalikashvili says. HIV-positive troops comprise only a fraction of permanently non-deployable troops. Other non-deployable troops, such as soldiers with cancer who must reside near medical centers, may remain on active duty until they are medically retired.

DoD is now working with the Department of Veterans Affairs to determine under what disability standards the troops might be released from service, Pentagon spokesperson Lt. Col. Deborah Bosick says. Perry has pledged to not release troops earlier than Aug. 31, the date mandated by law.

In the meantime, Defense officials hope the provision will be repealed. The Senate unanimously approved a measure forged by Sens. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., and William Cohen, R-Maine, that would repeal the provision. As of early April, the House had yet to take action on the measure.

The Justice Department has already said it will not defend the dismissal policy in court. "After consulting with Secretary Perry and the joint chiefs, the President concluded that the provision does not serve any valid military or other purpose," says Assistant Attorney General Walter Dellinger. "Based on the Pentagon's military conclusion, and after consulting with the Department of Justice about the legal effect of those conclusions, the President appropriately determined that the provision is unconstitutional and that the Department of Justice should not defend its constitutionality in any litigation."