JimmieJoe / KC6YRU

I Want YOU - For The US Air Force!

On December 22, 2010, I posted this picture and a link to NOH8’s website where it and others of military men affected by Don’t Ask Don’t Tell could be found.

Now the latest news about the status of Lt. Col. Victor Fehrenbach, the Air Force officer in this picture:

The South Bend Tribune reports that the Air Force has informed Lt. Col. Fehrenbach that he will be retired with his full rank and pension on October 1, 2011.  This effectively cancels the discharge proceedings that were in progress since he was involuntarily outed in 2008.

“It was a great sense of relief. I didn’t expect it,” said Fehrenbach, 41, a 1991 University of Notre Dame graduate, in a telephone interview with the Tribune Tuesday from Mountain Home Air Force Base in Idaho.

For nearly three years, Fehrenbach has been in a battle to save his career because of the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy — a policy that was overturned in late 2010.

With no further explanation, the military in January sent Fehrenbach new orders: Effective Sept. 30, he will be retired from active duty at his current rank and with his pension. He’ll serve out the remaining months of his military duty at his current desk job at the base in Idaho.