DES MOINES, Iowa – Alex Nicholson speaks five languages, but he can hardly muster the words to express his frustrations with the military’s Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy.

“Most people think it just literally means they don’t ask you, you don’t tell,” Nicholson said in an interview. “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell is a nice little soundbite. But it’s more like, ‘Don’t ask, don’t tell, don’t happen to be found in anyway at anytime whatsoever.'”

Nicholson was one of several veterans who spoke Tuesday night in Des Moines as the Human Rights Campaign began what it calls a Legacy of Service National Tour. The tour will include stops in Orlando, Fla., Seattle, Phoenix, and Palm Springs, Calif., before concluding at an undetermined site in New Hampshire.

The Human Rights Campaign, a national group dedicated to creating equality for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered people, planned the tour to pressure politicians to repeal Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. Organizers contend the policy on gays in the military is outdated and costing the military valuable enlistees.

“This isn’t a political issue, it’s a national security issue,” Nicholson said.

He cites his own story as an example of what the military is losing by sticking with the policy.

Nicholson’s language skills – including Arabic – made him a valuable member of the Army, where he served as a human intelligence collector. But six months after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, a colleague outed him to his commanding officer.

His colonel tried unsuccessfully to keep him in the service, but Nicholson said he was quickly forced out.

Others on the Human Rights Campaign’s tour tell similar stories: Antonio Agnone was an officer in the Marines, serving as an engineer and explosives officer. He declined to re-enlist in part because of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, despite a paucity of people in the service with his expertise.

He said there are practical problems with the policy, such as not being able to ask the military to contact his partner if he was hurt or killed in Iraq.

“I did not know how I would get a hold of him,” he said. “And he would have no way to get a hold of me in Iraq.”

Jarrod Chlapowski worked as a Korean translator and interpreter. He said all his friends and many of his commanding officers knew he was gay and never had a problem with it.

Still, when it came time to re-enlist he declined.

“You just never know. All it takes is one person who has a problem with it,” Chlapowski said. “You lose all of your benefits, everything.”

Others who spoke against the policy Tuesday night included Eric Alva, a Marine and one of the first Americans injured in the Iraq war; James S. Taylor, a Spencer native who served in the Navy; and Mike Gronstal, D-Council Bluffs, the majority leader of the Iowa Senate.

All the panelists said they were optimistic the policy would be repealed in coming years.

“There’s a huge generational difference…Our work is to do everything we can to capitalize on that sentiment,” said Joe Solomonese, president of the Human Rights Campaign. “But the challenge is that young voters are the hardest to reach by far.”

Organizers said the Human Rights Campaign is starting the tour in Des Moines because of Iowa’s early role in the presidential nomination process.

“It’s not a coincidence we’re in Des Moines,” Nicholson said. “We want this to a part of the discussion.”