Paul Eaton, MG USA (Ret) Photo By U. S. Army Central Command Iraq
By Brody Levesque (Bethesda, Maryland) Apr 3 | Major General Paul D. Eaton, U. S. Army Retired, has joined a growing list of senior military officials in the American Defence establishment calling on Congress to repeal "Don't Ask-Don't Tell." Eaton, former commanding general in Iraq of the Coalition Military Assistance Training Team (CMATT), where he developed, designed and began the training of the Iraqi military and security forces from 2003 to 2004, and now senior advisor to the National Security Network- said in a radio interview:
“Discrimination based on sexual orientation is inappropriate in our society,” Eaton said. “It is inappropriate to ask somebody to lie if he wants to keep his job as a solider, air man, seaman or marine.”
Eaton served more than 30 years in the United States Army, including combat and post-combat assignments in Iraq, Bosnia and Somalia. Prior his assignment in Iraq, he commanded the Army's Infantry Center and was Chief of Infantry for the Army. The General noted:
"I expect people to serve in the military where sexuality is not a topic of discussion. It is not a topic of recognition. Simply, you don’t display affection….It’s not an issue. It’ just a discipline issue. The issue of sexuality is so complex, it’s not binary. And the older I get the more I learn about it and we’ve gone to a considerable level of openness in our society to discussing this,” he added, noting that attitudes towards sexuality have changed since the policy was first enacted. “There is a considerable amount of growth we’ve seen and when it comes down to the issue of gays serving in the military, the real issue is discipline”
In 2008 Eaton served as an advisor to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign. He holds a bachelor's degree from West Point and a master's in French from Middlebury College. He is married, has two sons and a daughter, all of whom are soldiers.
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