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Captain reassigned after column published

An officer who wrote an opinion column supporting gays openly serving in the military was reassigned after his piece ran in Marine Corps Times, the officer said.

Capt. Josh Gibbs, formerly a quality-control officer for 8th Marine Corps District in Fort Worth, Texas, wrote an opinion piece for Marine Corps Times’ “Back Talk” section, blasting long-standing military policy of expelling homosexuals. The piece ran in the April 23 issue.

A common military perception, he wrote in the column, is that homosexuals cannot control their urges and could not perform their jobs alongside heterosexuals. “Proponents of this argument make it seem as if gay service members will immediately try to strike up romantic relationships with every man or woman within arm’s reach,” he wrote. “This assertion is an insult to the professionalism of the U.S. military and an affront to our Constitution.”

Gibbs has contributed columns to Marine Corps Times since 2005 and has written about a range of issues from gas prices to the Army relaxing boot camp standards.

Fallout from the April 23 column was swift, he said. According to Gibbs, he was notified April 30 that he was relieved of duty due to “loss of confidence” in his ability. His commanding officer shared the news only after Gibbs began asking questions after a posting for his position was prematurely listed on a Corps Web site, Gibbs said during a May 17 telephone interview.

Gibbs will be reassigned to 3rd Marines Logistics group on Okinawa, Japan, he said. His commanders told him, “It is a mark against me, but not one I can’t recover from,” Gibbs said.

But he said he doesn’t necessarily want to recover from it. “Honestly, my military career will be coming to an end shortly,” by choice, the nine-year Corps veteran said.

“I was told, we don’t comment on policy, that’s not our job. That’s what I want to do — I want to be somewhere where I can make change happen,” he said.

Gibbs says he understands the decision. “A relief is a commanding officer’s prerogative if he feels like he’s lost confidence in one of his officers,” he said. “They made it very clear my relief was not a result of poor job performance.”

His command agrees.

“The commanding officer’s decision was to relieve Capt. Gibbs from duty at that specific station,” said Capt. John Niemann, a spokesman for 8th Marine Corps District. “It was a result of judgment and decisions he made and not a result of performance or views held.”

He declined further comment on the reassignment. His commanding officer, Col. Carl Huenefeld, could not be reached.

Gibbs, who started his career in the Corps in 1998 as a Reserve tank driver and has done two tours in Iraq, said this experience will not force him to see the Corps as a negative experience. He admits the backlash caught him off-guard.

“I made sure to be very careful and made sure this was my opinion and my opinion only,” and not that of the Marine Corps, he said. And while he had written about controversial topics in the past, “This article pushed it over the edge,” he said.

This experience has also pushed him in a new direction, he said. “I’m standing up for what I think is right. I’m obviously not in the right place. If I want to make a change, I need to be someplace else.”

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Captain reassigned after his column published