Quotes on the topic of the Military
If you quote materials from the OLOHP website, please make sure to give us the credit!
If you quote materials from the OLOHP website, please make sure to give us the credit!
Mary, born 1936
In public health, there was this wonderful boss I just adored. She came to me one day and told me that the chief nurse found these letters I had, and I have to see her at one o'clock. She said, "Mary, we put our men out of service for this." And she said. "It'll be the same. You'll be asked to resign." I was devastated because I knew by this time that I wanted a career in the Army. As luck would have it, the chief nurse was a straight woman, but very kind. She said, "I've shown these letters to the chief of psychiatry and he says they are definitely homosexual content." And so I didn't deny it. I just said, "Uh, yes I did have some happenings with this woman." I said, "It was so upsetting to me that I went to a civilian psychiatrist." And she said, "Well, that could have some bearing on your case." She said, "What's her name?" And I told her. And she said, "I will have the chief of psychiatry talk to her and I'll let you know." A couple of days later I was called back into her office shaking, and she said, "Our doctor talked to Doctor Smith and everything's fine." I took those letters home and burned them in my little wood-burning stove!
In public health, there was this wonderful boss I just adored. She came to me one day and told me that the chief nurse found these letters I had, and I have to see her at one o'clock. She said, "Mary, we put our men out of service for this." And she said. "It'll be the same. You'll be asked to resign." I was devastated because I knew by this time that I wanted a career in the Army. As luck would have it, the chief nurse was a straight woman, but very kind. She said, "I've shown these letters to the chief of psychiatry and he says they are definitely homosexual content." And so I didn't deny it. I just said, "Uh, yes I did have some happenings with this woman." I said, "It was so upsetting to me that I went to a civilian psychiatrist." And she said, "Well, that could have some bearing on your case." She said, "What's her name?" And I told her. And she said, "I will have the chief of psychiatry talk to her and I'll let you know." A couple of days later I was called back into her office shaking, and she said, "Our doctor talked to Doctor Smith and everything's fine." I took those letters home and burned them in my little wood-burning stove!
Skip, born 1925
I wound up being in the Second Signal Service Battalion just outside of Washington D.C. at Arlington Hall. I loved it. It was just wonderful. I'd been, I guess I'd been there a little over a year, and I was not out to anybody. I did not have any relationships at all in my life. And… that was my first physical experience, sexual experience. And I thought, "Well this is what I was supposed to have been feeling for the fellows all this time." You know.
Carol, born 1938
When I was stationed on Oahu Island, the Navy decided to use me to solicited other women to enlist in the Navy. I was contacted by a Navy photographer who was very young. The story and pictures would go in the Navy Times, a popular Naval newspaper. They had also contacted my mother and interviewed her as to how she liked my enlisting. The article was in a Fort Wayne magazine that was part of the paper called the ROTO. One of the first things the young sailor said to me was: "So which are you, a whore or a lesbian?"
When I was stationed on Oahu Island, the Navy decided to use me to solicited other women to enlist in the Navy. I was contacted by a Navy photographer who was very young. The story and pictures would go in the Navy Times, a popular Naval newspaper. They had also contacted my mother and interviewed her as to how she liked my enlisting. The article was in a Fort Wayne magazine that was part of the paper called the ROTO. One of the first things the young sailor said to me was: "So which are you, a whore or a lesbian?"
