USAF REALLY wants gays in the military

Bit of a disturbance in the blogosphere this week concerning the Sunshine Project's discovery of an Air Force proposal to fund a chemical weapon designed to turn enemy soldiers into homosexuals. And the Pentegon has confirmed it!

This is just too good. According to a CBS affiliate:

Pentagon officials on Friday confirmed to CBS 5 that military leaders had considered, and then subsquently rejected, building the so-called "Gay Bomb."

Edward Hammond, of Berkeley's Sunshine Project, had used the Freedom of Information Act to obtain a copy of the proposal from the Air Force's Wright Laboratory in Dayton, Ohio.

As part of a military effort to develop non-lethal weapons, the proposal suggested, "One distasteful but completely non-lethal example would be strong aphrodisiacs, especially if the chemical also caused homosexual behavior."

The documents show the Air Force lab asked for $7.5 million to develop such a chemical weapon.

"The Ohio Air Force lab proposed that a bomb be developed that contained a chemical that would cause enemy soldiers to become gay, and to have their units break down because all their soldiers became irresistably attractive to one another," Hammond said after reviewing the documents.

"The notion was that a chemical that would probably be pleasant in the human body in low quantities could be identified, and by virtue of either breathing or having their skin exposed to this chemical, the notion was that soliders would become gay," explained Hammond.

The Pentagon told CBS 5 that the proposal was made by the Air Force in 1994."The Department of Defense is committed to identifying, researching and developing non-lethal weapons that will support our men and women in uniform," said a DOD spokesperson, who indicated that the "gay bomb" idea was quickly dismissed.

However, Hammond said the government records he obtained suggest the military gave the plan much stronger consideration than it has acknowledged.

"The truth of the matter is it would have never come to my attention if it was dismissed at the time it was proposed," he said. "In fact, the Pentagon has used it repeatedly and subsequently in an effort to promote non-lethal weapons,and in fact they submitted it to the highest scientific review body in the country for them to consider."

Military officials insisted Friday to CBS 5 that they are not currently working on any such idea and that the past plan was abandoned.

Putting all the WTF arguments aside for a second, Jason Sigger, a chemical weapons expert at Armchair Generalist points out that the "gay bomb" was not endorsed by DOD:

Yes, the DoD has, on occassion, desired to develop non-lethal chemical weapons
for special military applications (and in fact, the Air Force War College had a 2006 paper on it). But it's important to note that the proposal came out of the Air Force lab at Wright-Patt AFB - probably from a cash-starved and stupid government scientist, desperate for a grant to make it through the year. And let's just say that AF scientists have a history of proposing ridiculous ideas, because there's a lot of research money out there to be spent and it's better to spend money on dumb ideas than to risk getting less money the following year.

Well, I'm glad to know this was never officially considered by the Pentagon but I'm just wondering who the people were who were sitting around and decided to actually write this plan down on a sheet of paper and then what other asshat read the damn thing and decided "Wow, now THIS is an idea that needs to be funded."

WHAT . . . THE . . . FUCK?!!