Navy Secretary Ray Mabus told Senate lawmakers Thursday he thinks gays and lesbians should be permitted to serve openly in the military, even as the Navy’s top admiral kept his views to himself and the Marine Corps’ top general repeated that he believes “don’t ask, don’t tell” should stay in place.

Mabus cautioned senators that his view on open service was his personal opinion and that he and the department would follow the orders of the president and laws made by Congress. He also said that if a Defense Department investigation finds that allowing open service would hurt the readiness of the Navy Department, he would oppose it.

Still, Mabus said he thought open service was the right course for the military to take.

“I think it’s important to remember that we have gays in the military right now. It’s only a question of whether they can serve openly or not, and I think the chairman of the joint chiefs set out that case pretty well,” he said. “Next, I think that it’s important to distinguish between orientation and conduct. We have lots of rules in the military, in the Navy and Marine Corps, about conduct and heterosexual conduct, that we enforce very stringently and very specifically. And I think that we’ve got to be careful to separate orientation, which is what we’re talking about, and conduct.”

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Mabus said another consideration is that he is very seldom questioned about gays in the military when he meets with sailors and Marines in all-hands calls on ships or bases. That tacit sanguinity, and his faith in the force, gives him confidence that a repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell” would cause few problems.

“I’ve just got absolute faith in the Navy and the Marine Corps to carry out any mission that they’re given, including this one, without any sort of diminution in fighting value. The type of people we have in those two forces are just so incredible,” he said.

The Navy Department’s top uniformed commanders gave members of the Senate Armed Services Committee different answers about their personal opinions on open service. Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Gary Roughead made no statement about his thoughts on a repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell,” but he emphasized the importance of the planned DoD survey that will ask troops and their families what they think about serving with openly gay men and women.

“We’ve never done this — we’ve never assessed the force this way,” he said. “It’s not our policy to poll the force and determine how they feel about the laws of the land.”

Regardless of what other nation’s navies have experienced if they’ve allowed open service, only a survey of American sailors and their families will give decision-makers the right understanding of how to proceed, Roughead said.

Marine Corps Commandant Gen. James Conway did give his personal opinion about open service: He opposes it.

“My best military advice to this committee is keeping the law as it is,” he said.

All three leaders said they and their subordinates will abide by whatever orders come from President Obama and whatever laws Congress eventually passes, each repeatedly making the proviso that they place the readiness of the Navy and Marine Corps above all other considerations.

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