Mennonite Central Committee

Sam Nunn on the Realities of Military Life

Sam Nunn (D GA), Chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee, made the following remarks during a January 27, 1993 debate in the Senate regarding gays in the military. In his speech which opposed admission of gays to the military, Nunn listed the many ways in which individual freedoms are restricted for all military personnel. The following quotes are taken from the Congressional Record--Senate, S756, January 27, 1993.

We are not talking about civilian life; we are talking about military life and there are fundamental differences that our military people know well but too many times those of us in civilian life do not keep in mind.

Our national security requires that the Armed Forces maintain a high level of good order and discipline. In order to maintain military effectiveness, members of the Armed Forces give up many of the constitutional rights that their civilian counterparts take for granted. The number of constitutional rights military people give up is considerable, and I do not think we stop and think about that very often.

Military personnel are subject to involuntary assignments any place in the world, often on short notice, often to places of grave danger. The requirements of discipline, including adherence to the chain of command, means that their first amendment rights of speech and of association are limited. Young officers do not walk in and tell the colonel what they think every morning; if they bring up their first amendment rights, they usually are not in the military very long.

Military trials and administrative procedures have procedural safeguards, but they are not the same as the rights that apply in a civilian setting. Service members are subject to searches and command inspections in living quarters that would not meet the privacy standards and warrant requirements of the fourth amendment that we take for granted in civilian society.

Members of the Armed Forces are subject to the involuntary assignment to units, duties, and living quarters that require living and working in close proximity with others under conditions that afford little and often--very often--no privacy whatsoever.

In recent years we have made important improvements in the quality of life in the military, and I hope we can continue that trend. We have also made improvements in the rights afforded to service members. But the basic nature of military service, which is preparation for the participation in combat to defend the interests of the United States, means that service members must continue to live in a closely regulated, highly regimented environment, which as everyone who serves in the military can tell you, does not accord them every constitutional protection that we have as individuals in civil society.