I respect and admire Admiral Lyons for his military expertise and long service to this country. As former commander of the US Pacific Fleet, I value his views on saving money by combining the hull designs for both the Coast Guard and Navy Zumwalt-class destroyers, and his ideas regarding the anti-ballistic-missiles systems capable of resisting the Chinese and Iranian ASBM threat.
I also respect his views on gays, Islam, and politics, that he has expressed after his retirement. But I don't share most of his non-military views, and he certainly has no more expertise in regard to those areas than most private citizens. So conflating his military expertise with his views on politics, religion, and gender issues is not "a teaching moment for those who are willing to learn". The reality is that his unorthodox views are what you conservatives are slaves to, and he is simply used as an appeal to authority fallacy.
