Ousted as Gay, Aging Veterans Are Battling Again for Honorable Discharges

[n2doc]

By DAVE PHILIPPS

COLUMBUS, Ohio — When the Army discharged Pvt. Donald Hallman in 1955 for being what it called a “Class II homosexual,” the 21-year-old was so scared of being an outcast that he burned all his military records, save for a single dog tag he hid away.

Mr. Hallman, a coal miner’s son who sang in a church choir in rural Alabama, says he never mentioned his military service again. He married a woman he had met at work, had children and wore a suit and tie to work each day.

“I hid it because it would have ruined my life,” Mr. Hallman said in an interview at his home here.

But this summer, Mr. Hallman, now 82, retrieved the dog tag from a keepsake box and began working through an application to the Department of Defense, asking that his decades-old discharge be upgraded from “undesirable” to “honorable.”

more

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/07/us/gay-veterans-push-for-honorable-discharges-they-were-denied.html?_r=1

[Old Union Guy]

1. I expect there will be a lot of this.

I know so many. Mostly Vietnam era.

[shenmue]

2. He deserves what he wants

He has served our country and deserves respect and kindness.

[Faux pas]

3. It's the very

LEAST that should be done for these vets. They should be thanked for their service not given the finger.

[RandySF]

4. Can Obama do this on his own

or does it require an act of Congress?