WASHINGTON, D.C. – The U.S. military’s ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ ban on gays serving openly in the military cost the Pentagon more than $193 million over six years, the Government Accountability Office recently reported.

In the first-ever public accounting of the cost of the Clinton-era policy, which remains in effect despite its December repeal, the GAO determined that the bulk of that expenditure, $185.7 million, went toward recruiting and training replacements for the 3,664 gay service members expelled during those years. The Pentagon spent another $7.7 million on administrative costs.

The report also suggested that the cost on military readiness of the policy had been high. It said 79 percent of soldiers expelled from the Army under “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” held jobs that were critical to military operations. In the Navy, 760 sailors expelled spoke languages considered critical to U.S. military operations, including Arabic, Serbian and Haitian Creole, the report said.

“Today’s GAO report underscores that the ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ law not only deprives the military of the qualified Americans it needs, but has also been a huge waste of taxpayer dollars on replacing patriots lost under this discriminatory law,” Aubrey Sarvis, an Army veteran and executive director for Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, said in a statement.

The average cost was $52,800, but it varied widely by service, the GAO said. The Navy’s cost was the highest, at $103,000 per recruit.

“Our calculations for the services’ replacement costs amount to about $19.4 million for the Air Force, $39.4 million for the Army, $22.0 million for the Marine Corps, and $104.9 million for the Navy,” the GAO report stated.

The majority of those expelled had already served at least two years in the military, the report found.