Report: Enforcing DADT cost $52,800 per troop - Army News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Army Times

Report: Enforcing DADT cost $52,800 per troop

The military spent more than $193 million enforcing the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy from 2004 through 2009, according to a new report.

That includes the administrative costs of separating nearly 3,700 active-duty members for being gay, plus recruiting and training their replacements, according to the report, released Thursday by the Government Accountability Office.

On average, that’s about $52,800 per troop, the report said.

Congress requested the study a year ago. In December, Congress repealed “don’t ask, don’t tell,” and the Pentagon is now implementing a plan to lift the ban on gays serving openly in uniform.

The GAO found that about 39 percent of the service members separated under the policy held critical occupations, such as infantryman and security forces.

About 34 percent of the separated troops were women, who make up about 14 percent of the total active-duty force, the report found.

The vast majority of the troops, about 98 percent, were enlisted, the report said, and about 67 percent had served less than two years.

Less than 1 percent of those separated had critical language skills, such as Arabic or Chinese, the report said.