Gays In The Military: 1971

Over at The Daily Dish, Chris Boddener posted his father's account of serving with the gays in Vietnam:

When brought to the battalion's recon platoon, I made only one request of the battation's commander. I asked to bring my rifle platoon's "point man" (the scout, the first-to-the-front when traveling in file). He had very keen senses, was an excellent shot, and was strong as an ox and walked like a cat. His reputation among soldiers was that of a "John Wayne." I believe he had probably saved my life more than once.

However, the very intense members of the recon platoon were convinced that they already had the best point man in the battalion. To my surprise, the point man of this predominately-Southern, white group of men was a 20-year-old black Cajun soldier with a very slight build, noticeably effeminate speech, and who even wore a gold ring in his left ear. "Cajun" was quite a contrast to the other men, to say the least, particularly compared to my new platoon sergeant -- a self-described "redneck" from Georgia who had already served 6 tours in Vietnam and was so conservative that he voted for the segregationist George Wallace in '68.

Over the course of my time as recon leader, "John Wayne" and "Cajun" served superbly as dual point men, most notably the time we had to secure the perimeter around the second-worst air disaster in Vietnam history (when a Chinook helicopter carrying 30 men lost its rear transmission and rotor upon take-off and crashed, killing everyone aboard).

What I eventually came to realize before we redeployed to the U.S. was that BOTH of my point men were gay. The main point of anything that can be or has been said of these fine soldiers is ... so what?! To some degree, probably every one of the 700 men in the battalion owed their welfare to these two men. Their personal habits and their being "non-heterosexual" didn't concern anyone in the small group of very focused and highly intense young men who lived and slept very near both of them. It didn't bother me in 1971 and it certainly doesn't concern me one damn bit in 2008. A fine soldier is a fine soldier, period.