Tom Ricks gets an e-mail from a Navy submarine officer:
The debate may exist in the media, and certainly exists in Congress, but on the ship, if it's talked about at all, it's with a little bit of confusion about what the big deal is. Don't get me wrong, there is homophobia and there are a few loud, mostly uneducated, mostly very junior, and mostly still well-meaning people who would tell you they think it's wrong -- but they're the kind of people who are just saying it because its what they were brought up to say, and even they aren't saying it with much fervor. I can tell you with certainty that if the ban were lifted tomorrow -- no year of preparation -- life would go on exactly as it did before.
Which is what has happened in every other military that did the right thing, including Britain's and Israel's. It's only six-deferment Christianists like Saxby Chambliss who get the vapors.