A preliminary evaluation of those who signed a letter compiled by Elaine Donnelly, president of her own "Center for Military Readiness," reveals problems for those who rely on it to perpetuate discrimination.

Some of the flag officers did not actually sign the letter. Some of them want their names removed from the letter. Some are dead. More than five had career-tarnishing scandals which should exclude them from advising on any military topic. This is the letter cited by John McCain at the last Senate Armed Services Committee meeting as his last shred of evidence for not allowing open service in the military.

DCAgenda reports:

A number of high-ranking military officers whose names appear on a well-publicized letter supporting “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” were involved in career-ending scandals or have said the letter doesn’t represent their views, according to Servicemembers United.

The organization’s preliminary investigation of 200 names on the letter, which more than 1,100 flag and general officers signed, reveals new information that could undermine the document supporting the 1993 law barring gays from serving openly in the military.

Alex Nicholson, executive director of Servicemembers United, said his organization’s report “speaks to an overall lack of expertise” the signers have on the views of service members of the 21st century military.

Additionally, few of the signers actually served in the military under Don’t-Ask-Don’t-Tell:

“Only a small fraction of these officers have even served in the military during the ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ period, much less in the 21st century military,” Nicholson said. “How can these flag officers honestly claim to know how accepting and tolerant 18- and 21-year-olds are today when most of them haven’t been that age themselves since the 1940s and 1950s?”

The report found the average age among is the officers is 74, the oldest living signer is 98, and several signers died in the time since the document was published.

Even worse, though, are the career-tarnishing scandals that marred the service of several signers. A sample:

• Brig. Gen. Eddie Cain was in the early 1990s director of the Pentagon agency in charge of the anthrax vaccine administered to troops and testified before Congress the vaccine was safe and tested. Later reports showed it was neither. Cain was revealed to have known his testimony was inaccurate, and wrote in personal e-mails that if Congress found out, he’d be “in big-time trouble.”

• Brig. Gen. David Boland in 1994 was executive director of a “boot camp” for at-risk children at Camp Wiecker, Conn., that was mired in problems and later discontinued. According to the New York Times, gang recruitment, sexual relations between students and faculty, drug use, gambling rings and widespread violence and fighting — including one fight that resulted in 14 arrests — took place at Camp Wiecker under Boland’s supervision. Boland later stepped down to “pursue other interests.”

• Rear Adm. Riley Mixson in 1993 received a career-ending letter of censure from then-Navy Secretary John Dalton for involvement in the 1991 Tailhook scandal, during which he failed to take action against allegations of sexual misconduct. According to the New York Times, “Mixson was cited for failing to take action when he saw a woman drink from a dispenser made to look like a rhinoceros’ penis and men shaving women’s legs.”

Now that we know more about those who signed this letter, Elaine Donnelly should provide further documentation on all signatories. Clearly it was neither an honest nor a complete submission to the United States Congress on this issue.

This is the letter John McCain held up at the hearing, indicating that the signers’ views should influence the argument about open service in the military. Hopefully, he’ll be asked if their views still matter to him, and why.