After my post on the Don’t Ask Don’t Tell lawsuit of Major Margaret Witt this morning, I thought it’d be a good idea to give an extremely brief profile to bring us all up to speed.

Maj. Witt, an Air Force reservist flight and operating room nurse represented by the ACLU, is twice decorated, with the Air Medal for evacuating wounded troops in the Middle East and separately with the Air Force Commendation Medal for saving a Department of Defense worker.

Major Witt received the SLDN Courage Award earlier this year.

According to the SLDN, Maj. Witt’s peers in the Air Force explicitly declared that her presence did not harm morale or cause problems with “unit cohesion”.

Witt went to great lengths to keep her military colleagues from knowing she was gay: She and her then-partner lived across the state border from her base.

But judging from comments from Air Force personnel who served alongside Witt, they wouldn’t have cared anyway. In legal documents, they said that what hurt morale was seeing her get booted out.

Major Faith Mueller said of Witt, “She plays an important role in ensuring the good order, morale and cohesion of our unit. … I can say with confidence that her presence in the U.S. Air Force greatly enhances our squadron’s combat efficiency and readiness.”

According to the ACLU, at the time of Maj. Witt’s discharge in early 2006, the Air Force Reserves had 121 vacancies for flight nurses at her rank.