DADT lives, unfortunately

Some flaw in this system wiped out my post on this issue. I haven't the heart to rewrite what I finished writing moments ago.

I suspect that the vote yesterday was the high water mark of our being able to serve openly. With the country veering again to the right, no Republican will ever vote to help us achieve equality. We will have to continue to serve, and die, in silence for the rest of my lifetime.

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America: The Story of Us

I've been watching this fascinating History Channel special the past couple of days. In the second part, Revolution, we are told about Baron Von Steuben. The narrator boldly mentions that Von Steuben had been forced to work elsewhere because he was homosexual. (Wikipedia more timidly mentions that it is not known for certain that he was homosexual or not--though the rumors did exist.)

So he traveled from Europe to America and eventually came to train American soldiers for General George Washington. He showed the developing army how to employ the bayonet and, most importantly, to practice hygiene in the set up of their camps, to cut down on the impact of disease, which often killed more troops than enemy bullets.

It is important, then, to realize that without Von Steuben's help and tenacity and skills, America might have had a much more difficult time obtaining its independence from Britain.

If he was homosexual, then this is yet another example, at the very creation of our nation, that homosexual soldiers have made invaluable contributions to American freedom. He is yet another reason that DADT must be eliminated.

On Sunday, in a related matter, I volunteered for HeyDenver, a Colorado AIDS project confidential testing site, at a BBQ of Element, a gay men's group. Two of the young men I sat with are Air Force enlisted men. Each expressed his optimism that DADT will be overturned and they will no longer have to fear exposure and expulsion.

Let us hope their optimism is well founded.

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DD 214

A DD 214 is the form that is a service member's "Certificate of Release or Discharge from Active Duty".

I lost my original because a former friend turned pyscho and destroyed many important legal documents of mine in 1999, including all of my various diplomas from junior high school through my Master's Degree, many tax records, my Air Force discharge certificate, and my DD 214. Since I am attempting to refinance my mortgage and get a VA loan to take advantage of current, lower interest rates, I had to go online and apply for a replacement copy, as well as sign a form and mail, or fax, it to the St. Louis records office.

(While the nation is still debating the wisdom of eliminating "Don't ask; Don't tell" and moving to a situation where no one can be discharged from the military in America simply for being gay, I think it would be valuable to review my two discharge forms.)

My replacement copies arrived the other day, and now my loan application can proceed. But the two-page form from 1979 is a fascinating, if brief, look at my Air Force career that ended almost 31 years ago next month.

The "authority and reason" for my discharge was "AFM 39-10, PARA 3-8A, SEC B, CHAP 3, CONVENIENCE OF THE GOVERNMENT (SDN 21P)". Even though I was discharged for being gay, the deal my attorneys made was for an HONORABLE discharge, which I received.

On the DD 214 form itself, there is a nice collection of revelatory information:

I was separated at HQ USAF ACADEMY CO.

My primary specialties were "1825G, Missile Combat Crew Commander, 4 years and 2 months" and "0940, Instructor, English, 1 year and 4 months".

The "Decorations, Medals, Badges, Citations and Campaign Ribbons Awarded or Authorized" to me were "Small Arms Expert Marksmenship Ribbon, National Defense Service Medal, Combat Readiness Medal, Air Force Commendation Medal, Air Force Longevity Service Award".

My Military Education consisted of "SAC Missile CCR ORT 182100 G-1, 10 weeks, APR 74. Missile Launch Officer Course, 4 weeks, FEB 74. Officer Basic Military Training, 12 weeks, DEC 73."

Because I earned a regular commission, I was entitled to a certain amount of severance pay based upon the length of my service. "Severance Pay - $9,088.20".

Of course, since I was out of work beginning with my separation date of OCT 12, 1979, with no other income, that money began disappearing at a rather rapid rate as I was forced to pay bills: mortgage, electricity, phone, car, food.

The final indignity of the DD 214 was typed near the bottom of the form: "NARRATIVE REASON FOR SEPARATION Voluntary discharge - unfitness, unacceptable conduct".

I was forced to sign the upper four-fifths of the form and initial the "SPECIAL ADDITIONAL INFORMATION" at the bottom, which contained the above declaration. I thought that statement contrasted rather crudely with my several awards and accomplishments in the service.

The primary reason for my discharge was that the Air Force had learned from a screwed up cadet (and from the letters I wrote to him which he provided to them) that I was homosexual.

Of course, this same cadet was forced to resign from the Air Force Academy a week before I left because he had lied repeatedly during the investigation, thereby violating the Cadet Honor Code. The entire situation had become so sordid that the Academy did not allow his case to be tried by a cadet honor board. A board of officers was forced to meet and determine that he had violated the Honor Code and would have to leave the Academy.

Perhaps, at long last, this absurd and discriminatory (and certainly unconstitutional) policy will finally be overturned. DADT was an interim policy, a temporary compromise never meant to continue indefinitely. It was certainly better than the policy I served under which almost always automatically required discharge of the service member.

But any policy that forces gay service members to be discharged needs to end. And it needs to end now.

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