Discharged gay sailor is called back to active duty
Discharged gay sailor is called back to active duty
Discharged gay sailor is called back to active duty #1
Posted: 5/7/07 at 10:36am
May 05, 2007
Discharged gay sailor is called back to active duty
On his wedding night in July 2004, then-Petty Officer 3rd Class Jason Knight finally accepted a truth he had fought against for years: he was gay.
Almost immediately, he moved to get his marriage annulled. He apologized to the woman he’d married. And when it came time to explain his changing circumstances to the Navy, he left nothing out. Under the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, he was quickly discharged from the service.
But now — whether through a clerical oversight or what some claim is an unwritten change in policy to keep more gay servicemembers in the ranks at a time of war — Jason Knight is back on active duty.
Since promoted to petty officer second class, Knight is finishing a scheduled one-year tour in Kuwait with Naval Customs Battalion Bravo. And, already kicked out of the Navy once, he sees no need to hide his sexual orientation.
“I thought it was a joke at first,” he said, remembering the day he received his recall orders. “It was the ultimate kick in the ass. But then I thought, there isn’t much they can do to me they haven’t done the first time.”
It was comments by Marine Gen. Peter Pace, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, that spurred Knight to come out publicly a second time. In defending the military’s policy, Pace called homosexual acts immoral and contrary to military values.
“Though I respect [Pace] as a leader, it made me so mad,” Knight said.
“I spent four years in the Navy, buried fallen servicemembers as part of the Ceremonial Guard, served as a Hebrew Linguist in Navy Intelligence, and received awards for exemplary service,” he wrote in a letter to Stripes. “However, because I was gay, the Navy discharged me and recouped my 13k sign-on bonus. Nine months later, the Navy recalled me to active duty. Did I accept despite everything that happened? Of course I did, and I would do it again. Because I love the Navy and I love my country. And despite Pace’s opinion, my shipmates support me.”
Those shipmates include his direct supervisors in the customs battalion.
“He’s better than the average sailor at his job,” said Bill Driver, the leading petty officer of Knight’s 15-person customs crew in Kuwait. “It’s not at all a strange situation. As open as he is now, it was under wraps for quite a while. It wasn’t an issue at work.”
http://gay_blog.blogspot.com/2007/05/discharged-gay-sailor-is-called-back-to.html
re: Discharged gay sailor is called back to active duty #2
Posted: 5/7/07 at 10:40amThey better give him back is 13k signing bonus!
re: Discharged gay sailor is called back to active duty #2
Posted: 5/7/07 at 10:44amI got stuck on the part where the guy figured it out on his wedding night. That's cutting it awfully close.
re: Discharged gay sailor is called back to active duty #3
Posted: 5/7/07 at 10:45amwow, when they need us I guess they feel it's ok. Damn hypocrites.
re: Discharged gay sailor is called back to active duty #4
Posted: 5/7/07 at 10:51am
I got stuck on the part where the guy figured it out on his wedding night.
Seems like that's where he got stuck, too.
re: Discharged gay sailor is called back to active duty #5
Posted: 5/7/07 at 11:08amWhat about the gay men who went to enlist and were turned away? Two of them spoke Arabic, something we are in desperate need of.DDo you know that the United States of America (land of the free) is one of the only countries on the planet who does not allow gays to serve in the military?
re: Discharged gay sailor is called back to active duty #6
Posted: 5/7/07 at 11:25amactually romantico, all muslim countries, Russia, all former eastern block countries also do not allow gays in the military, and that truly shows the company we are with, and this is just disgusting.
re: Discharged gay sailor is called back to active duty #7
Posted: 5/7/07 at 11:28amI got stuck on the first three words in the header...
blocked: logan2, Diamonds3, Hamilton22
re: Discharged gay sailor is called back to active duty #8
Posted: 5/7/07 at 11:28amYour right. I meant to write the US is one of the few. It is disgusting!
re: Discharged gay sailor is called back to active duty #9
Posted: 5/7/07 at 11:29amLet's face it...This was probably a clerical error and the guy is likely to just get stepped on and tossed out yet another time...
re: Discharged gay sailor is called back to active duty #10
Posted: 5/7/07 at 11:49am
I hope that this guy is allowed to continue serving, since it's clear that he really loves it.
This begs the question: if there were a draft, would one be able to dodge it simply by being (or claiming to be) gay and out?
re: Discharged gay sailor is called back to active duty #11
Posted: 5/7/07 at 12:18pmIt was dodge attempted by many to avoid Vietnam.
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