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Excerpts from a review of "End of Don't Ask, Don't Tell" in the Washington Post on August 17, 2012 by U.S. Army veteran, author and academic, Brian Turner:

“The End of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” is a timely and necessary book that... goes far beyond to articulate and make fully human the toll of DADT on many military service members and their loved ones. The book suggests that, surely, if the militaries of Australia, Canada, Germany, the Netherlands and Britain have integrated homosexual service members into their ranks — in some cases going as far back as the early 1970s — we can do the same, without degrading unit cohesion and battlefield effectiveness. The editors also suggest — and rightly so — that the empirical and anecdotal data gathered here constitute a fundamental addition to our knowledge of the changing cultural and psychological climate for our military as it learns to accept openly gay personnel.

... The book is divided into two halves, with the first (“The Reports”)laying the historical and contemporary groundwork for the individual responses, and the second (“The Essays”) consisting of first-hand accounts by affected service members. It’s a logical progression, but one that burdens some sections with multiple prefaces, making the book seem as though it’s walking on academic eggshells.

An intriguing opening essay by Nora Bensahel (“After Repeal: Lessons From Foreign Militaries”) is followed by insightful ones on family readiness; an analysis of DADT and its implementation, supported by a wide-ranging series of survey tables; and a meditation on the warrior ethos (“It’s Time to Redefine the Marine Warrior,” by Maj. Alasdair B.G. Mackay).

... That said, the first half of the book — including the Mackay essay — should prove useful to academics, chroniclers and anyone else wishing to understand the issues.

In contrast, the essays in the second half of the book read more like individual narratives, though the rhetorical arc of the book can be discerned here, too... There are rough patches in some of the subsequent essays, and the editors could have been more aggressive in polishing them, although that lack of polish adds to a sense of authenticity.

A particular highlight is Seth Moulton’s “Joe’s Story Is the One I Tell Most Often.” Moulton writes: “In a place where honesty is valued above all else, [DADT] demanded dishonesty of my fellow gay service members. It’s hard to think of a more fundamental contradiction in policy in our modern military.” In “Buck Up and Serve Honorably,” Justin H. Johnson argues, “Although homosexuality may be ‘incompatible’ with a person’s moral code, it is not incompatible with military service.” This is one of the most crucial — and effective — points made in the book.

At a time when the first portside kiss in Virginia Beach for the U.S.S. Oak Hill was awarded to a gay couple (via a ship-wide raffle); when gay pride groups are beginning to appear at U.S. military academies; and when the Pentagon is hosting gay pride events, the editors of “The End of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” are to be commended. The book supplies an invaluable overview of a vital social and institutional issue. More important, the editors have developed an argument that leads, inexorably, to a repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act. Certainly, it can be argued, if gay service members are willing to fight and die in the defense of their country, they deserve the full rights and privileges afforded to the heterosexual men and women who serve alongside them.