Navy Veteran Carroll: 'Don't Ask' Repeal Harms Military

Allowing gays and lesbians to serve openly in the military will throw the armed forces off of their primary mission of defending the United States, Navy veteran and Florida Lt. Gov. Jennifer Carroll, R-Fla., tells Newsmax.TV.

Carroll, who retired from the Navy in 1999, had joined in 1979 as an enlisted member but was selected for an officer training program.

“I think the military needs to be left alone,” she said when asked about the recent repeal of don’t ask, don’t tell. “And oftentimes individuals who have never served don’t have a clear understanding as to the mission and direction of our military and it’s to defend this country. So the less social injections of items to be considered, I think we should just have our generals and our admirals run the military the way it’s supposed to be without the social injection of matters that will take them off their mission.”

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Nonetheless, when asked whether the policy that barred gays and lesbians from serving openly in the military should be reinstated, Carroll deferred to those on active duty.

“ I think what they need to do is look at the military personnel that are serving and ask them what they would like to see as far as a course of direction,” she said.

Also during the interview, Carroll praised the efforts of Republican Gov. Rick Scott to reduce the Sunshine State’s unemployment rate. Unemployment stood at 12 percent when the administration took office in January, she said. However, reductions in bureaucracy and taxes began to bring it down and it now stands at 10.7 percent, she said.

“All of those things we put into place created a better business climate,” she said. “So now, for . . . . every one government job we reduced, two private-sector jobs were created. So since we took office over 87,000 jobs were created from the private sector in the state of Florida. We’re doing it right. As a matter of fact, our state contributed to producing 50 percent of the private sector jobs that were created nationally.”