Blast from the past

I'm talking to a friend right now who reminded me of an incident that occurred while we were stationed at 29 Palms, CA, just a few months before I would be discharged under the "don't ask, don't tell" policy. There are many people who are still shocked that people are discharged for homosexuality in the military, and many don't understand what the atmosphere can be like. This situation just touches on some of the attitudes we both dealt with there. The situation involved a Lt. Col who chose to put his ideas forth to the entire command structure through email. Unfortunately for him, someone in his email list happened to be gay. He knew my friend was also gay, and also had the balls to do something about this. Chuck was given a hard copy of the email, which he then anonymously forwarded to the proper media. I remember the first time he told me about it, we were both really excited. It isn't often you can do something substantial about this problem in the military. And it's even less often you can get a Lt. Col fired. It's been many years since then, and I can see the good and bad of both sides of this. What comes back to me as the saddest aspect of all is that the chaplain of the school received this email and did nothing. Absolutely nothing.

The original email in question is linked in this article below.
05 OCT 00: Marine Officer Disciplined for Anti-Gay E-mail to Subordinates Take a look into one aspect of the military you will rarely see unless you are actually in it.

A disclaimer: I'm not saying everyone in the military thinks this, however it's important that people know the kind of things that happen. Nor am I asking that everyone agree or disagree, just wanted to put the information out there. In the end I'm still proud of my time in the Marine Corps and support my fellow marines. There are just some that don't deserve the title at times.