Becky Kanis
The Challenge
of Service
by Denny
Meyer |
|
West Point graduate Becky
Kanis is the sort of woman who is attracted to a
challenge. This is exactly the sort of person
our armed forces seek out to serve as officers
in leading our troops. She was the responsible
eldest of seven children in a Catholic family, a
high school soccer athlete, and was encouraged
to excel in everything that she did. While she
was selecting a college to attend, she was
repeatedly cautioned against the difficulty of
attending West Point; she was told that it was
"miserable," and that military service might
include having to fight an unjust war. The more
discouragement she heard, the more she knew that
attending West Point was exactly what she wanted
to do. Her SAT scores were exactly what they
sought. A military academy could not have hoped
for a better cadet. She was offered early
admission and a full scholarship. West Point
captured her imagination. She wanted the
education and adventure; she was attracted to
the underlying value of contributing to
something greater than herself along with the
sense of service to American ideals and
leadership.
Becky Kanis entered West
Point in 1987, was commissioned in 1991, and
served in the US Army Signal corps until 2000,
leaving as a Captain. During her service
she earned a Meritorious Service Medal, two
Humanitarian Service Medals, an Army
Commendation Medal, an Armed Forces
Expeditionary Medal, a Senior Parachutist's
Badge, and an Air Assault Badge.
While at West Point, she
studied political science and was encouraged to
think critically about American foreign policy.
She described her years at West Point as a
"normal growing up process," during which she
learned what it means to put ideas and people
before her own self interest. The longer
she served in the military, she said, the more
loyalty and responsibility she felt toward the
lives entrusted to her as a leader.
|
Like any healthy young adult
might do, she fell in love during her second
year at West Point. She fell in love with a
woman. Like many high achievers who have always
been focused on excelling, serving, and leading,
until that moment her personal orientation had
not occurred to her. She saw dealing with it as
yet another challenge, wonderful as it was. She
was honest in reaching out to and having
dialogue with trusted fellow cadets, most of
whom fully supported her. Like most who first
come to realize themselves, she was naive at
first; yet her colleagues saw only that she was
happy and supported that. Nevertheless, there
was a brief investigation into her sexual
orientation which led to naught, but could have
resulted in her dismissal from West Point and
banned her from military service. She had to
reconcile herself with her sense of integrity,
spirituality and religious values; yet she did
not see any conflict with continuing the
challenge to prepare for and serve in America's
armed forces. One wonders what her grandfather,
who earned a Purple Heart in WWII, would have
thought. Perhaps to him, the will to serve and
sacrifice would have been more important than
minor details about who one falls in love with. |
In fact, she went on to serve
exceptionally as a US Army officer for nearly
ten years. She began her career as a Signal
Corps Platoon Leader during which she had two
humanitarian service deployments - one to Haiti
for peacekeeping and one to Kauai for hurricane
relief. During her second tour, at Ft. Bragg,
she became the first female company commander in
the 112th Signal Battalion, (Special Operations)
(Airborne), charged with providing
communications support to special operations
forces, as well as later being company commander
of a special missions unit.
|
She enjoyed leading her
soldiers to support special operations forces on
missions and operations. She especially enjoyed
fulfilling her duties as a jumpmaster, leading
soldiers to jump out of airplanes.. She never
felt that she was under a microscope, but she
was careful in assessing whether or not to trust
her colleagues with the truth about her personal
life and gradually confided to a wider circle of
military friends. Over the years, several of
her straight colleagues were so supportive that
they attempted to introduce her to potential
partners. Her philosophy was to be as honest as
possible with those who would have to trust her
if they were deployed into battle. In the
current era, she found, people training and
serving with her simply did not care about what
her sexual orientation happened to be. |
She found her work extremely
rewarding in that she had achieved her goal of
serving and leading. Only after she had matured
in life and in her military career did she
realize that she did not want to have to lie;
"Its not about conduct," she said, "its about
who I love." And when she did ultimately find
herself in a serious relationship that had to be
hidden, she resigned to fully embrace life and
love honestly.
|
The military's loss of this
trained talented woman with ten years of
leadership experience is nearly incalculable.
She has worked for the past six years, in
leadership positions, for a non-profit agency
dedicated to eradicating homelessness. She has
piloted a 'street to home' program, and has
worked to transform street outreach programs to
reduce homelessness. "In my work," she noted,
"I draw upon lessons learned during my military
service to solve social problems." Currently,
as a 'Director of Innovations,' she deals in
system level problem solving in social services,
outreach, healthcare and other areas as she
travels the country examining the gaps in cities
which lead to homelessness. |
In March she became the
Chairwoman of Knights Out, an organization of
LGBT and Straight West Point Alumni dedicated to
repealing the Don't Ask Don't Tell policy and to
helping West Point prepare for change when open
service is permitted.
©
2009 Gay Military Signal |