The Year Was 1965. I Was in the USAF. I was 19 years old. DADT Didn't Exist.

MineralMan

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Fri Jul-22-11 12:36 PM
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The Year Was 1965. I Was in the USAF. I was 19 years old. DADT Didn't Exist.

Edited on Fri Jul-22-11 12:36 PM by MineralMan

I had finished Basic Training and was in the casual barracks while waiting to go on leave before reporting to the Russian Language School at Syracuse University. The casual barracks sucked, basically, but I was there because of the timing of the next class to enter the language program. While you're on casual status, you're available to be assigned all sorts of duties. We cleaned out a warehouse (where I scored a rare field jacket liner), did KP all over Lackland AFB, and did various other duties for a month, just biding time and waiting for our chance to head home on leave, then travel to the school.

One day, I got assigned to do night guard duty in some barracks building. I reported there. It turned out that the barracks was full of people waiting to be discharged after not completing Basic Training for one reason or another or for other reasons. About half of the barracks was guys about my age who were being discharged for being gay. I was a small town kid, and hadn't really encountered any gay people that I knew about, and people were still closeting themselves pretty securely in general. During that night, I talked with a number of the men in that barracks. There, I met a number of people who truly wanted to serve in the Air Force, but who were not allowed to do so because they were gay. I heard some of their stories.

Frankly, due to my age and small-town background, it was all new to me. It didn't take long, though, before I could see just how unfair the policy was. This wasn't DADT. This was, "You're a homosexual and that's just like being a criminal." These men were getting bad conduct discharges. I was confused as to why they couldn't serve. I was just a lowly A1C and could do nothing about it, either. It seemed unfair and stupid. But I was just 19, and couldn't figure out what I could do about it. In reality, there wasn't anything I could do at the time, except be sad at how these people who wanted to serve were being treated.

It was during that night on guard duty that I actually became aware that gays were a minority who were suffering severe discrimination. A few months before that, I had been standing in Montgomery, Alabama, listening to Dr. King speak. Now, here was another group who were experiencing discrimination. For a 19 year old small town kid, it was vastly confusing. I had joined the USAF to have some time to integrate some of the things I had learned and to buy some time before making my next life decisions. Also, I was due to be drafted after dropping out of college after becoming disillusioned about my life.

That started my support for GLBT rights. I was already firmly committed to racial equality, and now I had another issue to consider. Figuring out what I could do took up a lot of my four years in the USAF, but I started working on the issues even while still in the service.

Today, it looks like DADT is finally going to disappear. I'm celebrating. I'm also frustrated at how long it took. We have a black man as President, today. Tomorrow, we may have a gay man or a lesbian woman as President. I'm certain that we'll have marriage equality before long. It's gratifying, but still disappointing in how long all this is taking.