Morgan O'Brien Endorses

Here's hoping Bill White becomes our next Secretary of the Navy, and takes the reigns as the top civilian for the Navy and Marine Corps.

Before I explain my endorsement, here are some key disclosures:

- The current SecNav, Donald Winter, serves at the pleasure of the president. He is a Bush appointee held over under Defense Secretary Robert Gates. There is no set time frame for his departure, but all service secretaries are expected to serve for the next several weeks. This endorsement is in no way a call for Sec. Winter to step down until he's prepared.

- I am totally bias because Bill White is a Chaminade alum.

As President of Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum & Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund, the 41-year-old New Yorker is one of America's foremost champions for our military, veterans and their families. Under his leadership, the Intrepid Museum emerged as a world-class education attraction welcoming over 700,000 visitors each year and featuring exciting exhibits like the British Airways Concorde. Recently, I had the opportunity to experience the ship's majesty firsthand, spending Veteran's Day 2008 celebrating the reopening of the ship with President Bush and a bunch of proud American vets.

An incredible fundraiser, White's raised more than $400 million for the families of military personnel lost in Afghanistan and Iraq, for the construction of the Center for the Intrepid, the national Armed Forces Physical Rehabilitation Center in San Antonio, Texas and other related military and Intrepid foundations. This 65,000 square-foot “state-of-the-world” center serves military personnel and veterans who have been catastrophically disabled in action.

As if that wasn't enough, he is currently leading fundraising for construction of the National Intrepid Center of Excellence, a $75 million Traumatic Brain Injury center. Oh, by the way he also served eight years in Point Lookout-Lido Volunteer Fire Department (his hometown), including three years as captain of rescue company.

I heard Mr. White on Imus last week (download), and was blown away by his singular focus on combating the suicide rates of our returning war veterans and healing those who've sacrificed their physical, emotional and mental wellbeing for their country. During the interview, Imus reiterated his endorsement of White to become SecNav. Likewise, noted warrior and former Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Hugh Shelton called White's work on the Intrepid "legendary" and also endorsed White for the post. While Imus and Shelton have championed Mr. White's cause, White himself is most concerned about taking care of our uniformed personnel than promoting any personal agenda.

According to Newsday, White's spokesman, Howard Rubenstein, said White "considers it truly the highest privilege to be of service to the brave men and women of our armed forces, and their families."

One more interesting tidbit:

In 2003 White helped lead the first major entertainers visit to troops fighting in Iraq. Kid Rock, Robert DeNiro and others major celebrities joined in this visit to tens of thousands of military personnel in the war zone. White has visited the troops in Iraq and Afghanistan several times since then.

I was actually all set to see Kid Rock at BIAP in June '03, but our Hummer broke down in some weird village outside of Baghdad and I missed the show.

So, with this impressive resume, With sounds too good to be true, right? Before I forget, Bill's gay*. Talk about perfect timing.

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs is on the record stating that Don't Ask, Don't Tell will be overturned under President Obama:

In a response to a question on the Web site Change.gov asking whether Obama would get rid of the "don't ask, don't tell" policy, Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs said: "You don't hear politicians give a one-word answer much. But it's 'Yes.'"

I've made it perfectly clear that I support overturning this ban. If we can allow criminals, the undereducated and the overweight (to say nothing of non-Americans) to wear the uniform of our nation's armed forces, it's about time we allow patriotic homosexuals to serve openly. As if White's incredible devotion to supporting our troops and tremendous organiztion skills aren't enough, he also happens to be the perfect candidate to lead the charge in overturning this archaic mindset.

For as conservative an organization the military is, it's often been at the forefront of social change. For example, Jackie Robinson was an Army lieutenant before he was a Dodger. Leave it to the military to lead the charge in taking the next giant leap in providing gay Americans with equal rights.

There it is--morganobrien.com endorses Bill White to be the next Secretary of the Navy. Go Flyers!

*Ed's Note: Bill's probably the second most noteworthy gay Chaminade alum since Glen Hughes, giving the smash hit "In the Navy" a whole new meaning