Dan Coats: “I struggled with this issue when I was, first, ranking member and then chairman of the Personnel Subcommittee. I visited…”

“I struggled with this issue when I was, first, ranking member and then chairman of the Personnel Subcommittee. I visited most of the training facilities for the various services around the country. I talked to those in charge. We held hearings on the issue. We heard from the experts. We talked to those who lived with the situation in their basic training. It is my inescapable conclusion that the Kassebaum commission did a good job in sorting this out and producing a report which called for separate facilities. I, frankly, was surprised with the conclusion of the commission. I didn't think when it was constituted that the commission would come to that conclusion. It was something that I was strongly leaning toward, and all the visits that I made and the people I discussed this issue with seemed to indicate that separate barracks was the direction to go. When the commission came forth with this recommendation after a more thorough look than I was able to give, I thought this added a lot of weight to the question. There is no doubt in my mind that effective training and effective gender integration of the armed services can be accomplished without the necessity of forcing the issue through gender integration within the living facilities.”