Pilot's fate hangs on timely repeal of gay-ban policy

BOISE, Idaho — Barack Obama's campaign promise to scrap the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy gave Lt. Col. Victor Fehrenbach hope. Now the pilot is wondering if the president will deliver in time to save his 18-year Air Force career.

The winner of nine air medals for distinguished service in flight, including one for heroism the night U.S. forces captured Baghdad International Airport in 2003, Fehrenbach is getting kicked out of the military a year after a civilian acquaintance told his bosses he was gay.

He thought he could hang on until the government eliminated the military's policy forcing gays and lesbians to keep their sexual orientation secret, but now he isn't so sure.

Obama "was someone who had experienced discrimination firsthand and that's why I had a lot of faith," Fehrenbach said. "I thought, OK I can fight this, and maybe by January Obama could be inaugurated and this won't matter.

"That hasn't happened."

The Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, an advocacy group seeking equal treatment of gays in the military, estimates that more than 200 service members have been discharged under "don't ask, don't tell" since Obama was sworn in.

Administration officials insisted they are working to overturn the policy. The reassurances mean little to Fehrenbach, who has flown on missions in Afghanistan and Iraq and is about to lose the only way of life he's known two years before he would be eligible to retire.

He stands to lose the $46,000 a year in retirement benefits, plus medical benefits, he would receive for the rest of his life.

Under the honorable discharge he is facing, he would receive $80,000 in separation pay.

Fehrenbach, 39, is the son of Air Force veterans; his father was a lieutenant colonel who died when he was 9 and his mother is a former military nurse who lives in Ohio. Last week he told his relatives he is gay, was being discharged from the Air Force and was going on national television to talk about it.

"Now, I'm not hiding anything," said Fehrenbach, who has appeared on Rachel Maddow's MSNBC's talk show and remains on active duty at the Mountain Home Air Force Base in the Idaho desert, about 60 miles southeast of Boise, where he is an assistant director of operations for the 366th Operations Support Squadron.

"For 18 years, I played by the rules and I kept my private life private."

Fehrenbach graduated from University of Notre Dame in 1991 on a full Air Force ROTC scholarship.

Most of the estimated 13,000 service members discharged under "don't ask, don't tell" since the law was enacted in 1993 have opted to leave and close the final chapter of their military careers in private. Groups calling for the repeal of the ban, however, say Fehrenbach is among a growing number going public with a newfound sense of urgency.

In April, Fehrenbach was told he had been recommended for an honorable discharge. The process could take about five months to complete because of his record and rank, he said; he doesn't know whether he'll be able stay in the Air Force if "don't ask, don't tell" is repealed before then.

Material from The Dayton Daily News is included in this report.