General James Amos, the first-ever aviator nominated to be Commandant of the Marine Corps, appeared this morning before the Senate Armed Services Committee to discuss how he'll lead the nation's Marines. It's a big subject, because so much is in flux for the Corps: the Marine future in Afghanistan; how the Marines return post-Afghanistan to its traditional sea-borne role; what gear they'll need to pull it all off. And Amos was so proud to lay out his vision for the Corps that he didn't just bring his family to the Dirksen building, he also showed up with some of his high-school buddies. But what did Senators want to talk about? Gays, gays, gays.

This afternoon, the Senate will take a critical preliminary vote on next year's defense bill. One of the reasons the bill might not move forward is its White House-backed provision to end the ban on open gay military service. So opponents of repealing "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" wanted to collect a last-minute talking point, as Amos told the committee that his "personal view" is that he's not comfortable junking the ban.

Amos also appeared uncomfortable going too far out in airing his opposition to repeal. He cautioned that he awaited the results of months-long Defense Department surveys on how to implement the end of the ban. "I think there’s parts of this we’ve not peeled back yet – policy issues, standards of conduct issues, unit cohesion," he told Senator Jack Reed. But while anecdotal evidence suggests most Marines prefer the ban to remain, he said, should Congress and President Obama overturn it, "the last thing you will see your Marine Corps do is step in and try to push it aside. That will not be the case."

And so Amos became a political football. Opponents of repeal urged Amos to discuss his own opposition to it; supporters emphasized Amos's caveats. The hearing took a surreal turn when Senator Jeff Sessions, who wants to keep the ban in place, read Amos aquote attributed to an Army three-star general telling opponents of gays in the military that they're bigots who should return to civilian life. The general, Thomas Bostick, categorically denied saying any such thing. Sessions still wanted Amos to pledge that servicemembers have the right to disagree with open gay service. Amos did his best to demur.

It took nearly an hour until Amos fielded a question about the Marine Corps' traditional specialties , like amphibious warfare. Amos described taking a gradual path away from nine years' worth of ground combat in Iraq and Afghanistan: as the Corps increases the time its war-weary units spend at home between deployments, those units will "actually do something besides go to Twentynine Palmsand do counterinsurgency training." He expressed pride in the Corps' role in disaster relief in Haiti and Pakistan despite the pressures of ongoing combat, and said he was satisfied with its current fleet of 31 amphibious ships. But right now, the Corps's "principal focus, unless directed otherwise" will be the Afghanistan war.

How exactly the Corps phases amphibious operations back into its core mission to be a "Expeditionary Force in Readiness" – that is, a force that can rapidly deploy to any crisis on the globe – will depend on an internal review that should reach completion in January, Amos said. That study will help determine what new stuff the service needs to buy and how to restructure itself "for the next two decades, once we come out of Afghanistan."

Remarkably, not a single senator asked Amos what he thought about the Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle, the swimming tank that's a top Marine purchasing priority. On Thursday, the Senate moneymen effectively put the long-overdue-and-overbudget vehicle on life support. But you have to read Amos' prepared statements to the committee for the record to learn what the next Commandant thinks of the EFV. Short answer: he's in favor of it. "In an era of increasing challenges to access, the capabilities of a vehicle like the EFV afford our amphibious ships the maneuver space and stand-off distance to better counter anti-access weapons," Amos writes.

The Senate vote on the defense bill is scheduled for 2:15 p.m. If it doesn't have the votes to proceed today, said Senator Joe Lieberman, a supporter of ending "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," the bill will come back up for a vote in the brief congressional session following the November election. Maybe then the Senate can return to trivial matters like the future of the military.

Update: The bill won't go forward. Only 56 senators voted to allow next year's defense authorization an up-or-down vote on the Senate floor, four short of the needed 60. The Senate will return to the $700-plus billion funding authorization, complete with its "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" provision, after the November election.

Credit: U.S.M.C. via DVIDS

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