Sociologist
Charles Moskos, an expert on the attitudes of service
members who helped formulate the ''don't ask, don't
tell'' policy toward gays in the military, has died.
The retired
Northwestern University professor died of cancer Saturday at
his home in Santa Monica, Calif., his family said. He was
74.
His surveys on
military personnel issues, such as morale and recruitment
trends, got him widely quoted in the news media. But he was
best known for the advice to the Joint Chiefs of Staff
that led to ''don't ask, don't tell.''
Under the policy,
passed by Congress in 1993 in the early months of the
Clinton administration, gays are allowed to serve in the
military, but they are prohibited from engaging in
homosexual activity or talking about their sexual
orientation.
He acknowledged
that the policy, which had critics on both sides of the
debate, was imperfect.
''It's like what
Churchill said about democracy -- it's the worst system
possible, except for all the other ones,'' Moskos said in
2006. But he said allowing gays to serve openly would
hurt the morale of the military rank-and-file and make
many recruits uncomfortable.
To critics who
called for the Pentagon to be more flexible about gays, he
noted that ''don't ask, don't tell'' is the law.
''Any change in
the status of homosexuals in the military requires
congressional action,'' he wrote in a letter to the editor
of The New York Times in 2005. ''Your editorial
implies that the military should disobey the law. Who is
hiding from reality?''
He also was a
strong advocate of military service for young people from
all segments of society. He argued it would increase public
support for the military.
''Imagine if
Jenna Bush were in Iraq today,'' he said in 2004. ''We would
be much more committed.''
In a 2005
Associated Press interview, he said that of the 750 men in
his Princeton University graduating class in 1956,
more than 400 went on to serve in the military. Of the
1,100 men and women in the 2004 Princeton class, eight
joined, he said.
''That's the
difference,'' he said.
Moskos himself
was drafted after graduation and served two years in the
Army. He earned graduate degrees at UCLA and joined the
Northwestern faculty in 1966 after working at the
University of Michigan.
Moskos's work
earned him several awards, including the Distinguished
Service Medal, the highest honor the Army awards civilians.
''He truly had an
impact on the military,'' retired general Wesley Clark
said in a statement. He said Moskos ''gave many of us the
reassurance that someone out there knew us, cared
about us, and could help see our best interests as a
nation and a military were looked after.''
Moskos retired
from Northwestern in 2003 and moved to Santa Monica.
However, he returned to the university each fall to teach an
introductory sociology course. (AP)
