It appears the country is about to catch up with the ancient Greeks -- and our modern allies -- by allowing gays to join the military without hiding their sexual preferences. The issue has never been whether gays and lesbians could fight. Thebes' Sacred Band of Lovers, 150 pairs of lovers, never lost until the Battle of Chaeronea in 338 BC. Alexander, fighting under his father, Philip, both of them homosexuals who later took wives, broke through their lines and they were annihilated. After the bloodletting, when Philip came across the bodies of the 300 lovers lying together, he cried. "Perish any man who suspects that these men either did or suffered anything that was base," he said.

Thebes erected a statue in their honor.

No one in his Macedonian army thought twice about Alexander's lover and boyfriend friend, Hephaestion, being constantly at his side. He had to earn his way through the ranks to get there, however. Merits mattered most.

U.S. Sen. Carl Levin of Michigan, the Senate Armed Forces Committee chairman said Sunday that the time is ripe. "I think it has to be done in the right way, which is to get a buy-in from the military, which I think is now possible," Levin said.

Some would say publication of an essay endorsing the change in a top Pentagon publication means commanders are ready.

"It is not time for the administration to re-examine the issue; rather, it is time for the administration to examine how to implement the repeal of the law," wrote Air Force Col. Om Prakash for the Joint Chiefs Quarterly, the flagship journal of the military's Joint Chiefs of Staff. Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen knew it was being published, but made clear the decision would be for the Congress and the President to make.

Prakash said evidence from other armies has shown that the change can be made. While negative consequences remain a matter of debate, it is known that our military has lost 12,500 personnel who were outed for being gay or lesbian since the law was implemented in 1994.

No total figures are available for the value of the skills lost to an all-volunteer military force that can't fill the gaps with a draft. A University of California study put the cost of the first decade of the ban at $364 million.

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Pictured: the Lion of Chaeronea in Chaeronea as erected by the Thebans in memory of their dead after the battle of Chaeronea. Excavation of the grave at the site of the statue brought to light 254 skeletons, laid out in seven rows.

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• Read the full military essay: Don't ask, don't tell -- a 'costly failure'