photo courtesy HRC
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Eric Alva,
Marine
by
Denny Meyer
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Eric
Alva always wanted to be a Marine,
and he did not let being gay get in
his way. His grandfather had
served in World War II and Korea,
and his father served in Vietnam;
Eric joined the Marines at age 19
and served for thirteen dedicated
honorable years, becoming a Staff
Sergeant. He served in
Somalia, Japan, and Iraq. His
decorations include a Purple
Heart, a Navy and Marine Corps
Commendation, five Navy and Marine
Corps Achievement medals, a
Joint Meritorious Unit Citation, A
Presidential Unit Citation, and a
Combat Action Ribbon, among others.
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During
a logistic convoy in Iraq, in 2003, he
stepped on a land mine and lost his
leg. This gave him the unenviable
distinction of being the first American
wounded in the war in Iraq. At Walter
Reed Medical Center, he was personally
visited by President and Mrs. Bush who, as
he put it, came to respectfully and
sincerely pay homage to his service and
sacrifice. He was medically retired
from the Marines in June of 2004. Two
weeks ago, on February 28th, 2007, he stood
with U.S. House Representative Marty Meehan
and Human Rights Campaign President Joe Solmonese
as they announced the reintroduction of The
Military Readiness Enhancement Act which
would repeal the Don't Ask Don't Tell policy
and allow open homosexual service in our
armed forces.
photo courtesy HRC
SSGT
Alva described his career in the Marines as
a huge sacrifice but one he very
intentionally chose. "You must
want to make it, its huge, but you choose
to sacrifice freedom to serve this
country," he said. I asked him
repeatedly what it had been like being a gay
Marine. His answers were consistently
about his focus on becoming and being a
Marine; his priority from the start was
first in passing the physical, getting
through boot camp, concentrating always on
his career and the dignity, discipline and
respect of being a Marine. He
described himself as a stern NCO and platoon
leader who held his troops to a high
standard where degrading others with the
usual jokes and insults was
unthinkable. When he confided that he
was gay to some peers, he never once feared
being outed. As I understood him, he
was so highly respected by his subordinates
and colleagues as a gung-ho kick-ass Marine
brother that no one dared dream of accusing
him of dishonor. Indeed, he has heard
from some of his former Marine commanding
officers who have personally contacted him
to express their support for what he is now
doing in working with HRC as a national
spokesperson demanding that gay and lesbian
volunteers be given the opportunity to
serve. For
many in the gay community, including those
who are veterans of a few years of service,
and in the general population, it is
difficult to comprehend why someone gay
would be willing to put aside their private
life and sacrifice the freedom of his or her
best years for a life in the military.
Those of us who have had military careers
can understand the motivation that kept us
going. Describing what drove us to do
it is another matter. In
an internet interview last week, I asked
openly gay Australian Navy Chief
Petty Officer Stuart O'Brian, who is
currently serving in Iraq, to explain in his
own words why a gay person would devote his
life to military service. Insightfully,
he said, "Why does a straight man do
it, and why the difference?
To me, people join the military to serve
their country because it's something they
believe in. We all hide things -
sometimes it's who we are, or where we come
from - but at the end of the day - to serve
can be one of the most rewarding things... .
We all join the service for different
reasons but we become one family regardless
of our background or sexuality" To
gain insight into why someone, gay or
straight, would take on the ultimate
challenge of becoming a Marine, I asked
openly gay retired Marine Colonel Hank
Thomas, who served in combat in Vietnam; who
said, "I was looking for a career that
would place me amongst what others would
view as one of the finest organizations in
the world; with people who have an extremely
high level of honesty and integrity and who
truly work together and live together as a
team. It just so happened that all or
many of these qualities come together in the
United States Marine Corps. It is
something that is sometimes referred to as a
band of brothers. The Marines also place a
strong emphasis on individual performance,
both physical and mental. To
accomplish all these qualities, which make
it an elite organization, if you meet these
criteria and are accepted as part of it, it
would place you in what many would say a
step apart from the rest of society.
The point being that to be able to meet the
challenge and be accepted into the Marine
Corps and to be successful within the Marine
Corps has no bearing on whether you are gay
or not, except that you know that if others
find out that you are gay, you will be
dismissed. So you are forced to live
with that sword hanging over your head at
all times, which has nothing to do with
meeting all the criteria. It is the
ultimate challenge." That
may help to explain the sense I got that
SSGT Alva is exceptional in his square-jawed
determination, both to have been a Marine,
and now to be an openly gay spokesman for
the right to serve. He said, "I
am in a unique position to stand up for
rights; I sacrificed for this country and I
have a point to make." Loosing a
leg changed his life, he said. To give
some meaning to that and to being the first
American to have been injured in Iraq, he
now wants gay and lesbian service members to
have the opportunity "to be judged for
what we do." Noting similar
discrimination that other minorities who
were integrated into the armed forces
suffered, he said that the fears about the
effect upon unit cohesion were proven to be
unfounded once people are given the
opportunity to serve. "We have
the best military in the world; all men and
women should be given the chance to serve
for who they are. The transformation
may be difficult when it happens," he
said, "but it will happen." He
is currently studying to become a social
worker. His new mission in life, he
said, is to advocate for social
justice. Eric Alva was an outstanding
Marine. There is little doubt that he
will be an outstanding advocate for the
right to serve. He could have been one
hell of a recruiter for the Marines; and,
perhaps some day soon, he still could be
when all Americans, regardless of sexual
orientation, have the right to choose to
volunteer to serve their country.
photo courtesy HRC
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