Staying on course
by
Lee Reinhart
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Editor’s note: What follows is one
man’s personal first-hand narrative of
his reenlistment and deployment
experience, following the repeal of DADT,
after having been discharged for being
gay. As anyone who has ever served
knows, nothing is ever as simple and
rewarding as one might have hoped or
dreamed, when it comes to serving in
uniform. No matter how patriotic and
gung-ho you might be, the reality is
still gritty, full of hurry-up-and-wait,
frustrating, dangerous, and
discriminatory. Having served before,
he kind of knew what he was getting
into; but he told me that he did it in
order to “finish what I started when I
first volunteered,” and to do it for
those others who had been discharged due
to DADT, who could not get back in due
to age, health and other criteria. Lee
is my kind of Gay Hero. He sacrificed
his own personal comfort and freedom to
serve his country after 911, and to
honor all those LGBT patriots who could
no longer serve. |
There I was,
participating in a fire drill onboard USCGC
Hamilton when a female crew member informed me
that I was being investigated for being gay. It
was spring 2002 just 3 months after returning to
active duty following that horrible day in our
nation’s history. By late summer I was
discharged under DADT, my career was over. I
was in complete shock, for you see, for me, I had
previously served in the Navy from 1995-99 and
was able to serve openly to my shipmates, but
not to my superiors; and I never had any
problems serving openly to my peers, and I wanted
nothing more then to do my part once again after
911.
A few years
would pass, but when I arrived in Chicago in 2006
a spark was lit and thus began years of phone
calling, town hall meetings, petition drives and
visits to DC. The day that the President signed
the repeal of DADT, there I was in the same room
with the President of the United States, not
knowing for sure if I would ever return to
wearing the uniform myself, but I knew it was
the right thing for those currently in uniform
and those coming into the service for the very
first time. Not knowing if I would succeed
didn’t stop me from pursuing getting back in.
I wanted
nothing more than to return to military life.
The day it finally happened, it could not have
been any better. Relatives, friends,
politicians and military personal all came to
witness the ‘first’ Illinoisan to re-enlist
after DADT repeal. I knew the chances were high,
but didn’t know how soon, but within the first
year of being back in I was preparing for a
deployment to Afghanistan.
I was told
that I would go for six months with the option
to stay a year. However, I had to decide if I
wanted to stay a year before I was “boots on the
ground” meaning before we arrived in
Afghanistan. I volunteered to do so.
The night we
touched down in Afghanistan it was cold and rainy
at 12 AM. The headaches, long waits and minimal
sleep, when it came to the traveling process,
was a preview to what my traveling experience
would be for the next 12 months. There was never
an easy, smooth, or on time flight and it stayed
that way with two exceptions. Once, when I got
lucky and flew from Kabul to Kandahar on a
Commandant’s Marine Jet, and when I was medevaced
out of Afghanistan to Qatar. I had a love for
flying before this past year, but I think I will
stay out of the skies for some time now.
The majority
of my time was spent in Kandahar , Afghanistan
also known as KAF. Unlike smaller bases
throughout Afghanistan, Kandahar had a weekly
social group of LGBT members. It was quite
different from past deployments in the sense
that we
all were in uniform on the boardwalk proudly
socializing with LGBT enlisted, officers and
civilian workers alike.
Soon after
arriving we began talks about having the first
ever gay pride event on KAF. We decided on a
panel of four with me being one of the feature
speakers. As planning begun we ran into a few
problems. First was the flyer we chose that
said “Afghanistan pride,” resulting in the fear
that the locals would not like their country’s
name associated with the word 'pride' so
“Afghanistan” was removed. Next came getting a
unit to sponsor us, which was needed to be able to
do the event, which took some time.
The day of the
event we prepared the hall and no one would give
us an American flag to put on stage with us. So
my unit (which was a civilian organization)
brought the American flag to the event. Once
there, the sponsoring unit said it would be best
not to have the flag up there with us. So we
realized it wasn’t about not finding a flag, but
that the sponsoring unit didn’t want us to have
one.
I wanted to
make a statement and have my unhappiness
regarding the flag known, but we decided to move
forward with the event. Besides the two wrinkles,
it was attended by over a 100 people, enlisted,
officers and civilians. I had officers,
civilians and enlisted members of my own unit
attend. However, one of my superiors said he
could not come and support me due to his
beliefs. He stated that he was glad to see my
passion and respected and supported me to do the
event but would not support me by attending.
Little did I know how this may have affected the
remaining deployment when it came to potential
career opportunities.
Summer 2013 in
Afghanistan was hot, long and stressful.
Getting adjusted to working with different
branches of service, plus civilian workers, was
taking a toll on me; and the lack of leadership
and support took its toll as well. On July 4th,
I had a mini breakdown; and could not see
lasting until March 2014. Yet I pushed through
and continued to follow orders, complete tasks
assigned, and took on greater responsibilities
throughout the summer in hopes of advancing my
career. But for whatever reason, no future
career opportunities were offered.
In late August
as I was sitting in an office and went to get
up, I had a sudden pain in my stomach. It was
determined that I had umbilical hernia and I was
soon flown to Qatar for surgery where I would
remain until early October 2013.
Once I
returned to Afghanistan; many of the positions I
had when I left were changed or given to
others. So, I was tasked to go on more off-base
missions, much like most of my co-workers had
been doing the entire deployment. At first I
was disgusted and angry that I had lost the
positions I had worked so hard for, but soon
realized that the missions were all about ‘why
we were there,’ and thus gave me a genuine sense
of doing the job I had volunteered to do when I
reenlisted.
By December I
had given up on any hope that I could use the
deployment as a spring board to career
advancement. The lack of support and
limitations possibly due to some of my
superiors’ personal reasons were not in my
favor. So I decided to carry on doing the
missions I was assigned, go on R n R in late
December and come back and finish the deployment
as strong as I could.
In late
December I returned home to Chicago for 15 days
R n R. I was happy to surprise my family by
arriving a day earlier than planned. I was able
to see the Harley Davidson bike I had purchased
through the military exchange program. I tell
folks it was my gift to myself for doing a year
of active deployment, considering I don’t even
know how to ride a motorcycle.
Returning to
Afghanistan from R n R was much harder then
returning from Qatar after my surgery in the
fall. What kept me going was that I knew once I
got back in mid-January, I would only have about
a month and half left and then it would be all
over for good. My final month and
half went fairly quickly and little
stress due to having tons of people and little
work for us to do.
The journey home
took longer then I wanted it to, but eventually
it came to an end. Overall, I have no regrets for reenlisting and no regrets on volunteering
for the
second six months of deployment in Afghanistan. Would I do a year again if
ever called back up to active duty? Most likely
not. Will I reenlist in the reserves when my
contract is up in 2015? That is still to be
determined. The military has adapted well to
the repeal of DADT but (my opinion and my
experience ) those in leadership still have and
can use their personal issues with LGBT members
to affect our careers. Much to think about what
direction to go next.
I need to express
here that the lower ranks seem to have adapted well
to DADT repeal
and have carried out their missions accordingly;
but I personally feel those in leadership
positions who have personal issues with lgbt
members can use that to harm a members' future
opportunities, or I perceive that is what is
happening.