Top Marine Tells Corps to 'Get Over' Prejudices, Welcome Openly Gay Troops with 'Compassion and Respect'

On a visit to Marines based in South Korea last week, top enlisted officer Sgt. Maj. Micheal Barrett told troops to prepare for repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" with a "tough, hard charging...intimidating" address that is characteristic and expected of his office, the WSJ's Nathan Hodge reports:

Said Barrett:

"Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution is pretty simple,...It says, ‘Raise an army.’ It says absolutely nothing about race, color, creed, sexual orientation. You all joined for a reason: to serve. To protect our nation, right?...How dare we, then, exclude a group of people who want to do the same thing you do right now, something that is honorable and noble?...Right?...Get over it. We’re magnificent, we’re going to continue to be. … Let’s just move on, treat everybody with firmness, fairness, dignity, compassion and respect. Let’s be Marines.”