Calif. parents recount ordeal of missing daughter

SAN DIEGO – Brent and Kelly King knew something was wrong when they discovered their 17-year-old daughter Chelsea wasn't home.
They called her cell phone, then her friends. They tried an AT&T Web site, which led them to her phone, left inside her 1994 BMW in Rancho Bernardo Community Park, a giant, wooded area on the northern edge of San Diego.
"Because it was so out of character for Chelsea not to tell us or call us and say I'm going to be late ... we just had that feeling," Brent King recalled Monday in an interview with The Associated Press, four days after his daughter disappeared.
Kelly King called 911 as her husband drove to the park. Brent found his daughter's belongings inside her car then spotted a running trail into the woods. Chelsea is an avid runner.
"I took off and ran down the trail as far as I could run, calling out for my daughter at the top of my voice in every direction," he said.
A massive search was under way for Chelsea King as authorities questioned a registered sex offender arrested Sunday for investigation of her murder and rape.
John Gardner III, 30, remained in custody without bail after his arrest outside a Mexican restaurant in suburban Escondido. Steve Walker, a spokesman for the district attorney's office, said a decision would be made by Wednesday about filing charges against Gardner.
Sheriff Bill Gore said physical evidence recovered during the search linked Gardner to the disappearance, but he declined to elaborate.
Gore said on ABC's "Good Morning that the interrogation of Gardner had not been productive.
"We questioned Mr. Gardner into the evening and so far we still don't know where Chelsea is," Gore said. "We're confident that we have the right man in custody. Now we've just got to find Chelsea."
About 100 agents searched a rugged, four-square-mile area of the park Monday. The FBI's Los Angeles office also brought sonar equipment to search Lake Hodges and 14 miles of shoreline.
"The terrain is tricky out there," said Jan Caldwell, spokeswoman for the San Diego County Sheriff's Department. "They're going slowly for the safety but also slowly to make sure they cover every single square inch."
Authorities also searched Gardner's home in Lake Elsinore and his mother's home in San Diego, Caldwell said. She declined to comment on what, if any evidence, the searches produced.
King's parents said they last saw Chelsea when she went to bed about 9:30 p.m. Wednesday after playing French horn in a school concert. On the way home, they mailed an application for financial aid at Boston University, one of 11 colleges where she applied.
The parents heard Chelsea leave the house at 6:15 a.m. Thursday for a peer counseling commitment. But she wasn't home at 5:30 p.m., when Brent King returned from the gym and his wife got home with groceries.
They described their daughter as a straight-A student and avid runner who plays French horn for the San Diego Youth Symphony. At suburban Poway High School, Chelsea runs on the cross-country team.
"That was her outlet when she was stressed about a test or needed to just clear her head," Kelly King said.
Chelsea was born in Poway, a well-to-do suburb of homes and office parks northeast of San Diego. Her family, including her 13-year-old brother, followed Brent King to various mortgage banking jobs in the San Francisco Bay area and suburban Chicago before returning to the San Diego area.
Their home was badly damaged in 2007 wildfires that ravaged Southern California. Brent, 47, is now between jobs. Kelly, 48, works as a medical assistant in dermatologist's office.
Chelsea researched 90 colleges, with an eye toward a career that would combine her interests in writing and environmental protection. She has been accepted by the University of Washington and the University of British Columbia.
"She is one of the most driven, personable, caring people that you could ever meet," Brent King said. "Her goal in life is to brighten everyone's day. That's what she does, and when she walks into the room, you know she's there."
She often stays up studying past midnight, working so hard that her parents urge her to ease off and spend more time with friends. Long-distance running was her escape.
"That was her outlet when she was stressed about a test or needed to just clear her head," Kelly King said.
Investigators also suspect Gardner could be tied to a Dec. 27 assault on a female jogger from Colorado who fended off her attacker in the same park.
Gardner, a resident of Lake Elsinore, about 75 miles north of Poway, was required to register as a sex offender because of a conviction for lewd or lascivious acts with a child under 14, the Megan's Law Web site said.
He was convicted in May 2000 of molesting a 13-year-old female neighbor and sentenced to six years in prison. A psychiatrist who interviewed Gardner said he showed no remorse for his actions. according to the court records obtained by the newspaper.
"There is no known treatment for an individual that sexually assaults girls and does not admit to it in any way," Dr. Matthew Carroll said in the documents.
At Poway High School, students and staff members wore blue shirts to represent the color of the teen's eyes and tied blue ribbons around campus light poles. Signs posted at the school said Chelsea was 5-foot-5, 115 pounds, with strawberry blonde hair.
Principal Scott Fisher thanked students for their search efforts, echoing King's parents, who said the massive effort by law enforcement and volunteers was sustaining their spirits.

Tsunami sweeps away entire towns on Chilean coast

TALCAHUANO, Chile – When the shaking stopped, Marioli Gatica and her extended family huddled in a circle on the floor of their seaside wooden home in this gritty port town, listening to the radio by a lantern's light.
They heard firefighters urging Talcahuano's citizens to stay calm and stay inside. They heard nothing of a tsunami — until it slammed into their house with an unearthly roar about an hour after Saturday's magnitude 8.8 quake.
Gatica's house exploded with water. She and her family were swept below the surface, swirling amid loose ship containers and other massive debris that smashed buildings into oblivion all around them.
"We were sitting there one moment and the next I looked up into the water and saw cables and furniture floating," Gatica said.
She clung to her 11-year-old daughter, Ninoska Elgueta, but the rush of water ripped the girl from her hands. Then the wave retreated as suddenly as it came.
Two of the giant containers crushed Gatica's home. A third landed seaward of where she floated, preventing the retreating tsunami from dragging her and other relatives away.
Soon Ninoska was back in her mother's arms — she had grabbed a tree branch to avoid being swept away and climbed down as soon as the sea receded.
Gatica's son, husband and 76-year-old father were OK as well, as were her sister and her family. The only relative missing was her 76-year-old mother, Nery Valdebenito, Gatica said as she waited in a hundreds-long line outside a school to report her losses.
"I think my mother is trapped beneath" the house, Gatica said.
As she spoke, firefighters with search dogs were examining the ruins of her home blocks away. Minutes later, the group leader drew his finger across his neck: No one alive under the house.
Such horrors abound along the devastated beach communities of Chile's south-central coast, which suffered the double tragedy Saturday of the earthquake and the tsunami it caused. Of the quake's 723 victims, most were in the wine-growing Maule region that includes Talcahuano, now a mud-caked, ravaged town of 180,000 just north of Concepcion.
Close to 80 percent of Talcahuano's residents are homeless, with 10,000 homes uninhabitable and hundreds more destroyed, said Mayor Gaston Saavedra.
"The port is destroyed. The streets, collapsed. City buildings, destroyed," Saavedra said.
In Concepcion, the biggest city near the epicenter, rescuers heard the knocking of victims trapped inside a toppled 70-unit apartment building Monday and were drilling through thick concrete to reach them, said fire Commander Juan Carlos Subercaseux. By late Monday, firefighters had pulled 25 survivors and nine bodies from the structure.
Chile's defense minister has said the navy made a mistake by not immediately activating a tsunami warning. He said port captains who did call warnings in several coastal towns saved hundreds of lives.
The waves came too quickly for a group of 40 retirees vacationing at a seaside campground in the village of Pelluhue. They had piled into a bus that was swept out to sea, along with trucks and houses, when the tsunami surged 200 meters (yards) into the summer resort town.
As of Monday, firefighters said, five of the retirees' bodies had been recovered. At least 30 remained missing.
Most residents in Pelluhue, where 300 homes were destroyed, were aware of the tsunami threat. Street signs point to the nearest tsunami evacuation route.
"We ran through the highest part of town, yelling, 'Get out of your homes!'" said Claudio Escalona, 43, who fled his home near the campground with his wife and daughters, ages 4 and 6. "About 20 minutes later came three waves, two of them huge, about 6 meters (18 feet) each, and a third even bigger. That one went into everything."
"You could hear the screams of children, women, everyone," Escalona said. "There were the screams, and then a tremendous silence."
In the village of Dichato, teenagers drinking on the beach were the first to shout the warning when they saw a horseshoe-shaped bay empty about an hour after the quake. They ran through the streets, screaming. Police joined them, using megaphones.
The water rose steadily, surging above the second floors of homes and lifting them off their foundations. Cars were stacked three high in the streets. Miles inland along a river valley, cows munched Monday next to marooned boats, refrigerators, sofas and other debris.
"The maritime radio said there wouldn't be a tsunami," said survivor Rogilio Reyes, who was tipped off by the teenagers.
Dichato Mayor Eduardo Aguilera said 49 people were missing and 800 homes were destroyed. Some people fled to high ground, only to return too early and get caught by the tsunami, he said. Fourteen bodies were found by Monday. The only aid: A fire department water truck.
The World Health Organization said it expected the death toll to rise as communications improve. For survivors, it said access to health services will be a major challenge and noted that indigenous people living in adobe homes were most at risk.
In Geneva, U.N. humanitarian spokeswoman Elisabeth Byrs said Chile was seeking temporary bridges, field hospitals, satellite phones, electric generators, damage assessment teams, water purification systems, field kitchens and dialysis centers.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said she was bringing 20 satellite phones as a first piece of a much larger U.S. aid package. Argentina said it was sending six aircraft loaded with a field hospital, 55 doctors and water treatment plants, and Brazil said it was sending a field hospital and rescue teams. Brazil's president, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, visited the capital of Santiago to express his solidarity.
Chilean President Michelle Bachelet said authorities were flying 320 tons of food, water and other basics into the quake zone.
Assessments of damage to Chile's economy were in the early stage. The copper industry was spared, while Concha y Toro, Chile's biggest winemaker, said Monday that the quake has forced it to halt production for at least a week while it assesses damage.
Security was a major concern in Concepcion and other hard-hit towns. Most markets in Concepcion were ransacked by looters and people desperate for food, water, toilet paper, gasoline and other essentials Sunday, prompting authorities to send troops and impose an overnight curfew in the city. The interior ministry extended the Concepcion curfew to run from 8 p.m. Monday to noon Tuesday.
When a small convoy of armored vehicles drove along a downtown street, bystanders applauded, shouting: "Finally! Finally!"
Throughout Talcahuano, stick-wielding residents barricaded streets with tires and rubble to protect their homes in the absence of law enforcement.
Downtown, eight suspected looters kneeled outside a pharmacy, their hands on their heads, as a police officer taunted them.

Chile quake death toll hits 708 as rescue ramps up

CONCEPCION, Chile – Heroism and banditry mingled on Chile's shattered streets Sunday as rescuers braved aftershocks digging for survivors and the government sent soldiers and ordered a nighttime curfew to quell looting. The death toll climbed to 708 in one of the biggest earthquakes in centuries.
In the hard-hit city of Concepcion, firefighters pulling survivors from a toppled apartment block were forced to pause because of tear gas fired to stop looters, who were wheeling off everything from microwave ovens to canned milk at a damaged supermarket across the street.
Efforts to determine the full scope of destruction were undermined by an endless string of terrifying aftershocks that continued to turn buildings into rubble. Officials said 500,000 houses were destroyed or badly damaged, and President Michele Bachelet said "a growing number" of people were listed as missing.
"We are facing a catastrophe of such unthinkable magnitude that it will require a giant effort" to recover, Bachelet said after meeting for six hours with ministers and generals in La Moneda Palace, itself chipped and cracked.
She signed a decree giving the military control over security in the province of Concepcion, where looters were pillaging supermarkets, gas stations, pharmacies and banks. Men and women hurried away with plastic containers of chicken, beef and sausages.
Virtually every market and supermarket had been looted — and no food or drinking water could be found. Many people in Concepcion expressed anger at the authorities for not stopping the looting or bringing in supplies. Electricity and water services were out of service.
"We are overwhelmed," a police officer told The Associated Press.
Bachelet said a curfew was being imposed from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. and only security forces and other emergency personnel would be allowed on the streets. Police vehicles drove around announcing the curfew over loudspeakers.
As nightfall neared, hundreds of people put up tents and huddled around wood fires in parks and the grassy medians of avenues, too fearful to return to their homes amid continuing strong aftershocks.
Bachelet, who leaves office on March 11, said the country would accept some of the offers of aid that have poured in from around the world.
She said Chile needs field hospitals and temporary bridges, water purification plants and damage assessment experts — as well as rescuers to help relieve workers who have been laboring frantically since the magnitude-8.8 quake struck before dawn Saturday.
To strip away any need for looting, Bachelet announced that essentials on the shelves of major supermarkets would be given away for free, under the supervision of authorities. Soldiers and police will also distribute food and water, she said.
Although houses, bridges and highways were damaged in Santiago, the national capital, a few flights managed to land at the airport and subway service resumed.
More chaotic was the region to the south, where the shaking was the strongest and where the quake generated waves that lashed coastal settlements, leaving behind sticks, scraps of metal and masonry houses ripped in two.
In the village of Lloca, a beachside carnival was caught in the tsunami. A carousel was twisted on its side and a ferris wheel rose above the muddy wreckage.
In Concepcion, the largest city in the disaster zone, a new, 15-story apartment building toppled onto its side. Many of those who lived on the side that wound up facing the sky could clamber out; those on the other were trapped. An estimated 60 people remained trapped in the 70-unit apartment building.
Police officer Jorge Guerra took names of the missing from a stream of tearful relatives and friends. He urged them to be optimistic because about two dozen people had been rescued.
"There are people alive. There are several people who are going to be rescued," he said — though the next people pulled from the wreckage were dead.
Concepcion's main hospital was operating, though patients in an older half of the building were moved into hallways as a precaution.
Rescuers worked carefully for fear of aftershocks. Ninety jolts of magnitude 5 or greater shuddered across the region in the first 24 hours after the quake, including one nearly as large as the earthquake that devastated Haiti on Jan. 12.
Firefighters in Concepcion were about to lower a rescuer deep into the rubble when the scent of tear gas fired at looters across the street forced them to interrupt their efforts.
"It's sad, but because of the situation you have to confront the robberies and at the same time continue the search," Guerra said.
The sound of chain saws, power drills and sledgehammers breaking through concrete competed with the whoosh of a water cannon fired at looters and the shouts of crowds that found new ways into a four-story supermarket each time police retreated.
One woman ran off with a shopping cart piled high with slabs of unwrapped meat and cheese. A shirtless man carried a mattress on his head. Some of the looters pitched rocks at police armored vehicles outside the Lider market, which is majority-owned by Wal-Mart Stores Inc.
Across the Bio Bio River in the city of San Pedro, looters cleared out a shopping mall. A video store was set ablaze, two automatic teller machines were broken open, a bank was robbed and a supermarket emptied, its floor littered with mashed plums, scattered dog food and smashed liquor bottles.
"It was a mob. They looted everything," said police Sgt. Rene Gutierrez, 46, who had his men guarding the now-empty mall. "Now we're only here to protect the building — what's left of the building."
He said police had been slow to reach the looted mall because one bridge over the river was collapsed and the other so damaged they had to move cautiously.
Ingenious looters even used long tubes of bamboo and plastic to siphon gasoline from underground tanks at a closed gasoline station. Others rummaged through the station's restaurant.
Thieves attacked a flour mill in Concepcion — some toting away bags on their shoulders, others using bicycles or cars. One man packed a school bus with sacks of flour.
Many defended the scavenging — of food if not television sets — as a necessity because officials had not brought food or water. Even Concepcion's mayor, Jacqueline van Rysselberghe, complained that no food aid was reaching the city. She said the federal government should send troops to help halt the looting.
In Talca, where old adobe buildings in the town center were flattened, many spent the night outside, huddled beneath blankets on lawn chairs, sleeping on a mattress hauled from a damaged home or sheltering in camping tents.
State television showed scenes of devastation in coastal towns and more still on Robinson Crusoe Island, where it said the tsunami drove almost 2 miles (3 kilometers) into the town of San Juan Bautista. Officials said at least five people were killed there and more were missing.
The surge of water raced across the Pacific, setting off alarm sirens and evacuations from Hawaii to Japan, but it did little damage.

Mullen: 'steady progress' in fight for Afghan town

WASHINGTON – The nation's top defense leaders said Monday that U.S.-led forces were making steady progress in their efforts in a Taliban stronghold in southern Afghanistan but faced stiffer resistance than expected and the operation would take longer than hoped.
Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters at the Pentagon the efforts against the Taliban were "messy" and "incredibly wasteful," as was war in general. "But that doesn't mean it's not worth the cost."
Mullen said the battle and the broader war can be won with the proper resources and strategy.
"As you've all been seeing, we're making steady, if perhaps a bit slower than anticipated, progress," Mullen said.
Mullen also expressed regret for a NATO airstrike that killed at least 21 Afghan civilians. It was the third coalition strike this month to kill noncombatants and drew a sharp rebuke from Afghanistan's government about endangering civilians.
At the same briefing, Defense Secretary Robert Gates defended the top commander in Afghanistan, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, saying McChrystal keenly understands the need to do the utmost to avoid civilian casualties and has made that a top priority.
"I have confidence in his judgment," Gates said.
For 10 days, U.S. and Afghan troops have been fighting holdout Taliban forces in an effort to secure the southern town of Marjah in Helmand province.
"The situation remains serious but is no longer deteriorating," Gates said.
On a related subject, Gates said recent arrests of high-level Taliban fighters by Pakistan marks "real progress" by the Islamabad government and "another positive indication" of its commitment to stabilizing its border with Afghanistan.
Earlier this month, Pakistani authorities arrested the No. 2 Afghan Taliban leader, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, in the southern Pakistani city of Karachi. Also arrested are a pair of Taliban "shadow governors" from two Afghan provinces and several other militant suspects linked to al-Qaida and the Taliban.
Gates told reporters that "what we are seeing is the importance of operations on both sides of the border."
When asked whether the arrests might help turn the tide in the eight-year-war, Mullen cautioned against putting too much stock in any single event. He said "it's just too early."
"The long view here is the best view," Mullen said.
The Afghanistan Council of Ministers strongly condemned the airstrike, calling it "unjustifiable."

Mullen: 'steady progress' in fight for Afghan town

WASHINGTON – The nation's top defense leaders said Monday that U.S.-led forces were making steady progress in their efforts in a Taliban stronghold in southern Afghanistan but faced stiffer resistance than expected and the operation would take longer than hoped.
Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters at the Pentagon the efforts against the Taliban were "messy" and "incredibly wasteful," as was war in general. "But that doesn't mean it's not worth the cost."
Mullen said the battle and the broader war can be won with the proper resources and strategy.
"As you've all been seeing, we're making steady, if perhaps a bit slower than anticipated, progress," Mullen said.
Mullen also expressed regret for a NATO airstrike that killed at least 21 Afghan civilians. It was the third coalition strike this month to kill noncombatants and drew a sharp rebuke from Afghanistan's government about endangering civilians.
At the same briefing, Defense Secretary Robert Gates defended the top commander in Afghanistan, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, saying McChrystal keenly understands the need to do the utmost to avoid civilian casualties and has made that a top priority.
"I have confidence in his judgment," Gates said.
For 10 days, U.S. and Afghan troops have been fighting holdout Taliban forces in an effort to secure the southern town of Marjah in Helmand province.
"The situation remains serious but is no longer deteriorating," Gates said.
On a related subject, Gates said recent arrests of high-level Taliban fighters by Pakistan marks "real progress" by the Islamabad government and "another positive indication" of its commitment to stabilizing its border with Afghanistan.
Earlier this month, Pakistani authorities arrested the No. 2 Afghan Taliban leader, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, in the southern Pakistani city of Karachi. Also arrested are a pair of Taliban "shadow governors" from two Afghan provinces and several other militant suspects linked to al-Qaida and the Taliban.
Gates told reporters that "what we are seeing is the importance of operations on both sides of the border."
When asked whether the arrests might help turn the tide in the eight-year-war, Mullen cautioned against putting too much stock in any single event. He said "it's just too early."
"The long view here is the best view," Mullen said.
The Afghanistan Council of Ministers strongly condemned the airstrike, calling it "unjustifiable."

WASHINGTON – It's time to repeal the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy and allow gay troops to serve openly for the first time in history, the nation's top defense officials declared Tuesday, with the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff proclaiming that service members should not be forced to "lie about who they are."
However, both Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Joint Chiefs Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen asked for a year to study the impact before Congress would lift the controversial policy.
Reversing the Pentagon's 17-year-old policy toward gays "comes down to integrity," for the military as an institution as well as the service members themselves, Mullen told a Senate hearing. Unpersuaded, several Republican senators said they would oppose any congressional effort to repeal the policy.
Ten months before voters elect a new Congress, some Democratic leaders also were leery of trying to change the policy this year, when both sides concede Republicans are likely to pick up seats, especially after GOP Sen.-elect Scott Brown's surprise victory last month in Massachusetts.
Repealing don't-ask-don't-tell is not a winning campaign strategy for a party under siege especially in the South and Midwest.
"What do I want members to do in their districts? I want them to focus on jobs and fiscal responsibility," said House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., classifying gays in the military in a category of "a lot of other issues" that will invariably come up.
"It's never a good year" for Democrats to bring up the controversial policy, said Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin of Illinois. "You can expect that it's going to be a rough ride."
However, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said he didn't see why it should wait another year.
The Pentagon announced an 11-month review of how the ban could be lifted, as President Barack Obama has said he will work to do. But there is no deadline for ending the policy that dates to President Bill Clinton's tenure and that gay rights advocates are pressing to overturn.
In the meantime, Gates announced plans to loosen enforcement rules for the policy, which says, in essence, that gays may serve so long as they keep their sexuality private.
Obama has called for repeal but has done little in his first year in office to advance that goal. If he succeeds, it would mark the biggest shake-up to military personnel policies since President Harry S. Truman's 1948 executive order integrating the services.
Homosexuality has never been openly tolerated in the American military, and the 1993 policy was intended to be a compromise that let gay men and women serve so long as they stayed silent about their sexuality. Clinton had wanted to repeal the ban entirely, but the military and many in Congress argued that doing so would dangerously disrupt order.
Repealing the ban would take an act of Congress, something that does not appear close to happening.
Since 'don't ask, don't tell" was established, much has changed. Five states and the District of Columbia have adopted laws permitting marriage of gay couples, while nine other states have granted similar rights to gay domestic partners.
The public's attitude toward gays and lesbians also has undergone a significant shift. A Pew poll last year indicated that 59 percent of Americans favor allowing gays and lesbians to serve openly in the military, up from 52 percent in 1994.
On Tuesday, several Democratic senators praised Mullen and Gates for what they said was courageous stance, but a number of Republicans spoke strongly against the idea of a repeal.
Gates drew unusually pointed criticism from Republicans on the Senate Armed Services Committee for saying the review would examine how, not whether, to repeal the ban. Arizona Sen. John McCain, the top Republican on the panel, icily told Gates he was disappointed in his position and suggested the Pentagon was usurping Congress' job.
"Has this policy been ideal? No, it has not," McCain said. "But it has been effective."
Mullen looked pained when Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., suggested that the Joint Chiefs chairman had preordained the outcome of any study by signaling his own opposition to the ban.
"This is about leadership, and I take that very, very seriously," Mullen replied, tightlipped.
Tuesday's session gave Obama high-level cover on a divisive social issue complicated by the strains on an all-volunteer military force fighting two wars.
Gates, who says he is a Republican, is the only member of former President George W. Bush's Cabinet whom Obama asked to stay on. He has gained a reputation for both candor and caution. Mullen's words were a forceful endorsement from a careful man, and his very appearance, starched uniform and four stars on view, made a statement as well.
Gates said change was inevitable and called for a yearlong internal study into how it would occur.
He told the senators he understood that any change in the law was up to them. But he made it clear he believes it is time to do away with the 1993 policy, and by implication the outright ban on gay service that preceded it. Alongside Mullen, that put the Pentagon's top leadership at odds with uniformed leaders a rung or two below, as well as with and also with senior members of Congress.
"No matter how I look at the issue," Mullen said, "I cannot escape being troubled by the fact that we have in place a policy which forces young men and women to lie about who they are in order to defend their fellow citizens." Noting that he was speaking for himself and not for the other service chiefs, Mullen added: "For me, it comes down to integrity — theirs as individuals and ours as an institution."
Gates has appointed a four-star Army general, Carter Ham, and his own chief legal counsel, Jeh Johnson, to conduct the assessment. He also has requested legal advice on how the military can relax enforcement standards of the current policy.
McCain, the ranking Republican on the panel, bristled at the Pentagon decision to pursue the study, saying he was "deeply disappointed" and calling the assessment "clearly biased" in presuming the law should be changed.
For their part, Democrats hailed the internal review but suggested they wouldn't wait too long. Sen. Carl Levin, the committee's chairman and a Michigan Democrat who has long opposed the ban, said he was considering legislation this year that would temporarily suspend dismissals of gays under the current policy until a full repeal could be passed.
Democrat Mark Udall said his Colorado constituents pride themselves on allowing others to live and let live.
"You don't have to be straight to shoot straight," said Udall, quoting longtime Arizona Republican Sen. Barry Goldwater.
The tenor of the hearings could change significantly when lawmakers hear from other senior military officials. Each of the service chiefs is expected to testify this month on his 2011 budget, and Marine Corps Commandant Gen. James Conway is said to have serious concerns about the upheaval that a change to "don't ask, don't tell" could cause.
Rep. Ike Skelton, a conservative Democrat from Missouri who chairs the House Armed Services Committee, says he thinks it would be ill-advised to pursue such a major shake-up at a time when forces are consumed by the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Mullen said it was his sense that rank-and-file troops would support the change.
"I have served with homosexuals since 1968," Mullen said in response to questions from Republican Sen. Sessions. "There are a number of things cumulatively that get me to this position."
Scott Duane Fair, a former Army helicopter flight engineer, voiced his strong objection to repeal in a comment posted on the Army's official Facebook page, saying straight service members shouldn't be forced to share sleeping quarters and showers with those who are openly gay.
In a phone interview, 30-year-old Fair said he had a troubling experience as a young private when a higher-ranking soldier propositioned him in a California barracks room. Fair said he reported the incident to commanders, who took no action.
"For somebody to go around flaunting their sexuality is going to make a lot of people more uncomfortable," said Fair, who left the Army in 2001 because of a disability.
On the other hand, Jason Jonas, a 28-year-old former Army staff sergeant from Tempe, Ariz., said he knew of openly gay soldiers in his intelligence unit at Fort Bragg, but their lifestyle never affected unit morale.
"I don't think it is anybody's right to say who can and who can't fight for their country," said Jonas, who served in Afghanistan before being hurt. He is no longer in the Army. "Nobody cares. Don't ask, don't tell is kind of a joke."
As for the leaders of the study:
• Ham is a former enlisted infantryman who rose through the ranks to eventually command troops in northern Iraq in 2004 and hold senior positions within the Joint Staff. Recently, he helped conduct an investigation into the shootings at Fort Hood in Texas.
• Johnson, as the Pentagon's top legal counsel, has played an integral role into the effort to try to close the military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
___

Schaub helps AFC beat NFC 41-34 in Pro Bowl

MIAMI – In its new role as a warmup to the Super Bowl, the Pro Bowl became a series of wind sprints.
Long gains were the rule and hard hitting was the exception as the AFC beat the NFC 41-34 on Sunday night.
Light showers fell for much of the game, stirring memories of a rainy Super Bowl in Miami three years ago. But uniforms remained mostly spotless, with more pushing and shoving than tackling.
"It's different. It was like 7 on 7," NFC linebacker Brian Orakpo said. "Everybody came out here trying not to get hurt and give the fans a good show"
Matt Schaub of the Houston Texans threw for 189 yards and two AFC scores, and was chosen the most valuable player.
"It's a game you watch growing up as a kid and wonder if you could ever be in," Schaub said. "To actually be a part of it is incredible."
Aaron Rodgers also threw two touchdown passes, and NFC teammate DeSean Jackson had two scoring catches.
From the standpoint of ticket sales, this year's new venue and slot on the league calendar was a success. The crowd of 70,697 was the largest for a Pro Bowl since 1959 in Los Angeles.
Spectators included Peyton Manning, Drew Brees and other Pro Bowl players from the Super Bowl teams. Manning and the Indianapolis Colts will face Brees and the New Orleans Saints on the same field next Sunday in the biggest game of the season.
The NFL sought to transform the Pro Bowl into a bigger game by playing it before the Super Bowl for the first time. In a one-year experiment, the league also moved the game from Honolulu, its home since 1980.
The stadium was half empty by the third quarter, perhaps partly because of the rain and temperatures in the 60s. It was sunny and 82 in Honolulu at game time.
Did the weather dampen the players' enthusiasm for Miami?
"It's beautiful. It's paradise," NFC receiver Steve Smith said. "Too bad it's not Hawaii."
Eager to host more big events, the Dolphins have proposed adding a roof that would cover fans as part of stadium improvements that could cost $250 million or more. NFL commissioner Roger Goodell says the upgrades are needed if South Florida is to remain competitive in bidding for future Super Bowls.
Nearly 40 percent of the players originally selected for the game didn't play. One of the AFC replacements, David Garrard, threw for 183 yards, including a 48-yard touchdown to Vincent Jackson.
"It's so awesome," Garrard said. "One of my goals coming into the game was to just be relevant and show all the people who said, `What is he doing in there? The Pro Bowl has dropped off a few pegs,' that I do belong."
Vincent Jackson made seven catches for 122 yards. Chad Ochocinco had a 40-yard reception but didn't do any kicking after practicing placements and punts for the AFC during the week.
"That's OK. It was fun anyway," Ochocinco said.
DeSean Jackson scored on a 7-yard pass from Rodgers and a 58-yard pass from Donovan McNabb, his regular quarterback with the Eagles.
"I'm just out here having a great time," Jackson said. "And at the same time I'm trying to put out a little effort."
There were plenty of other big plays. Joshua Cribbs caught a punt at the goal line and returned it 65 yards. A penalty negated LaMarr Woodley's 64-interception return for a touchdown.
"I slowed up to get a little camera time," Woodley said.
The AFC totaled 517 yards and the NFC 470. Both teams threw for more than 400 yards.
Redskins linebacker London Fletcher, a 12-year veteran playing in his first Pro Bowl, found the AFC's offensive approach exhausting.
"They came out with a bunch of screens and had us running around," Fletcher said.
But there were no complaints from Fletcher's teammate on defense, first-time Pro Bowler Justin Smith of the 49ers.
"The pace is nice," Smith said. "You don't have to worry about working too hard."
The game will return to Honolulu in 2011 and 2012, but the league hasn't decided whether to hold those games before or after the Super Bowl. The Pro Bowl site for 2013 and beyond hasn't been determined