Decorated veterans were in Las Vegas Monday, speaking out against the military's Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy. They say it discriminates against qualified gays and lesbians who just want to serve their country.

They told our Luis Cruz that it's more than a question of equal rights. It impacts our national security.

"We'd die for this country in a heartbeat."

And former Marine Staff Sergeant Eric Alva almost did. He's the first American service member wounded in the Iraq war. His arm was torn apart, his left leg was broken, and his right leg had to be amputated above the knee after he stepped on a landmine.

"I'm a veteran who lost his leg who has sacrificed for the country and goodwill of nature for the rights and freedoms of the people," Alva said. "Not just some of them but all of them, and then come home and not have the same rights as the rest of the country."

Alva, who is gay, says it's time to repeal the military's Don't Ask Don't Tell policy. He says the policy discriminates against gays and lesbians and drives away qualified Americans who want to serve their country.

Since 1993 when the Don't Ask Don't Tell policy was passed, more than 11,000 American service members have been discharged because of their sexual orientation.

Alexander Nicholson, an Arabic language specialist is among them. He was discharged from the Army after another service member found a letter he wrote in Portuguese telling a friend he was gay. "Nobody asked me if I was gay and I wasn't telling anyone. You would think that a private letter that you had written in a foreign language would be sufficiently safe."

Nicholson says it's not just gays and lesbians being hurt by the policy but it's affecting our military as well. "You know they're having critical shortages of people who have the skills that I already have. They wouldn't have to train me in human intelligence, they wouldn't have to spend two years training me in Arabic, you know they wouldn't have to spend $500,000 training me to speak Arabic, I already do."

"We can't keep teaching our younger generations that it's okay to hate or not tolerate someone because of their orientation," Alva added.