Epitaph: "They gave me a medal for killing two men and a discharge for loving one"

[Rose Siding]

The airman’s dress blues are faded; the footlocker he carried through three tours in Vietnam has gone to rust. Yet the epitaph he chose to mark his grave is as fresh as the morning headlines:

“When I was in the military, they gave me a medal for killing two men and a discharge for loving one.”

Preserved under acrylic glass, Leonard Matlovich’s medals, uniform and other personal effects make up the centerpiece of “Out Ranks,” a new exhibit that documents the tortured relationship between gay troops and the U.S. military from World War II to the present.....

The goal of the show, though, is to illustrate that gays are and always have served their country, often with honor and always under the threat of dishonorable discharge......“People are afraid of change. This is not a change,” said Steve Clark Hall, a U.S. Naval Academy graduate and retired nuclear submarine captain whose story also is told in the exhibit.

http://www.armytimes.com/news/2007/06/ap_gay_veterans_070616/

[zanne]

1. That's powerful. nt

[Veronica.Franco]

2. That link has gone awol? ...

do you have another? ...

[Cerridwen]

3. The link in the OP wants a forward slash '/' at the end of it

Apparently DU's software didn't like the slash -

this may help

http://www.armytimes.com/news/2007/06/ap_gay_veterans_070616/

copy and paste the link above into your browser

[Rose Siding]

4. Thanks

How did you remove the "hot" from the link, so that it can be copied in full? -I hope that makes sense :crazy:

[Cerridwen]

5. Yep, it made sense to me...:D

When you create a post, there are a couple of places you can 'click' to format your message. The top one next to Message format is Check here if you want to format your message in plain text. Use for posting code snippets. Place a check mark there.

If you're like me, you probably don't even notice it as it's right at the top of the 'form' as you post - it's hiding in plain sight - I hate that!

LOL

[Rose Siding]

7. Got it

Ta Da:

http://www.armytimes.com/news/2007/06/ap_gay_veterans_070616

thanks again.

[Prophet 451]

6. It's a stupid rule

I;m a Brit. Here, we have openly gay people serving in our forces and, since we have gay marriage in all but name, getting the usual marriage benefits too. In fact, one of the very first gay marriages in this country was between two women in the Army who got married in full dress uniform (and looked very smart too). We allow survivor benefits to be paid to same-sex partners too.

Net effect? Need to build a few more married couples quarters. That's it.