DADT Cost $200M Since 2005

According to a just-released report from the federal Government Accountability Office, in the last five years almost $200M was spent on ejecting gay troops. Most of that money went to training replacements.



That means the average expulsion under DADT cost taxpayers $52,800, partly because a significant number of those discharged held a “critical occupation or important language skill,” the GAO reported. At least “1,442 (39 percent) of the servicemembers separated under the policy held critical occupations, such as infantryman and security forces, while 23 (less than 1 percent) of the servicemembers held skills in an important foreign language, such as Arabic or Spanish,” the report reads. “Seven separated servicemembers held both a critical occupation and an important foreign language skill.”