No Change We Can Believe In

Here is the latest evidence of what our country is losing under Don't Ask, Don't Tell, the law that prevents gay men and women from serving openly in the US armed forces.

Lieutenant Colonel Victor J. Fehrenbach, a fighter weapons systems officer, has been flying the F-15E Strike Eagle since 1998. He has flown numerous missions against Taliban and al-Qaida targets, including the longest combat mission in his squadron's history. On September 11, 2001, as the terrorist attacks were going on in this country, Lt. Col. Fehrenbach was handpicked to fly sorties above our nation's capital.

He has received at least 30 awards and decorations including nine air medals, one of them for heroism, as well as campaign medals for Kosovo, Afghanistan, and Iraq. He is now a flight instructor in Idaho, where he has passed on his skills to more than 300 future Navy, Marine Corps, and Air Force weapons systems officers.

Since 1987, when Fehrenbach entered Notre Dame on a full Air Force ROTC scholarship, the government has invested twenty-five million dollars in training and equipping him to serve his country, which he has done with what anyone would agree was great distinction. He comes from a military family. His father was a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel, his mother an Air Force nurse and captain.

Lt. Col. Fehrenbach has honored that tradition.

Now he's out of the Air Force. He's gay, so he's out.

This is what our country is doing to its dedicated servicemen and women.
This is not America.