GOLF ALPHA YANKEE

I know personally 2 soldiers who happened to be gay. I was introduced to them while in AIT at Fort Meade last year. "Adonis" (not his real name of course ;-) was color of brown sugar and hailed from some South Pacific island. He was flamboyant and had the habit of putting on his barracks lounge act wearing his polka dotted housecoat and fuzzy slippers whenever new soldiers arrived at Student Company. As new soldiers where getting briefed about life at Student Company, usually in the evenings when they just arrived fresh from Basic, Adonis would suddenly appear in the door and mimic that classic seductive pose seen in black n' white noir movies. There would be looks of anxiety/surprise/horror/discomfort by the newbies. We'd laugh and then introduce our newbies to Adonis. Adonis was our Klinger but a soldier. I remember becoming slack jawed after my first few days there and hearing one of the best cadance calling voices and seeing it was Adonis getting his march and cadance on. He would often come by the rooms at night drunk, announcing how drunk he was. He was a drama queen in a fun sense but a soldier. His flamboyance was known and for the most part tolerated by the cadre. Of course there were a few who couldn't stand him and his kind and spoke freely about it. Don't ask , Don't tell didn't apply to Torres nor was it much of an issue at Student Company. Gay/Straight -the issue should be allowing people to serve their country no matter if their personal flag is rainbow color or a pink triangle. In combat, it's all about who has your back
and you theirs.