Glad you cleared up this whole idea of lumping every service man into the same group for everyone. I also thought that people calling Sailors, Seamen, was a funny term as well as I have heard that most of my life. Our Army friends are however still closeted. A few have come out, but it’s been mostly the female majority that has done so. We have a couple of Army friends that are gay and they say that not much has really changed in the fact that other soldiers still are dismissive of gays in the military. This may never be the case as it still puts a bullseye on good service men’s backs and they will be overlooked for certain detail assignments and so forth. I think everyone figured that after DADT was thrown out the window, servicemen would just start jumping out of the closet. I also agree that the movies don’t portray the real life of being a gay serviceman, not from experience, but from what our few gay enlisted friends tell us about service life. Without service members like yourself, we would be in serious trouble. The key characteristics that make us those things are fleetsailor07: I totally agree with you, first I would like to give you a big heart felt “Thank You Very Much, Sailor” for your courage and commitment of protecting this nation. But at the same time I recognize that I do not have the training or experiences of a soldier.
It let me know that I was a part of the team/family. I worked with the Army for some time and some of them called me an Air Soldier affectionately. And we are very proud of our traditions and heritage(individually and as a whole). The important thing is to realize we are not all the same, different training, purpose, mission, language, culture, attitudes, etc. Try calling a Marine a soldier and you may not get a happy response. Sometimes saying the wrong thing can be offensive…like referring to a Okinawan as Japanese. It just goes along the lines if people asking if you’re a pilot when you tell them you’re in the Air Force. I do understand how the public generalizes the military because of the media, lack if education on how the military works, and the overwhelming numbers of soldiers compared to others. They still do, which is why I will return after I’ve made myself even more don’t personally take it offensively if someone calls me a soldier. You need to really work hard to get an other than honorable or even dishonorable! For me and everyone else I knew, if you were a valuable worker they would not kick you out – they needed you. DADT in my time and anywhere I went was just another tool to be able to use in order to remove a bad sailor because it takes a LOT to get anything but an admin separation. I could care less about DADT or not because it never stopped me, or anyone else who was a valuable worker. I plan on going back too, but now on my terms. I finished my time honorably, which was almost 3 years. In retrospect he wishes he had not been so hasty, and it was a very difficult period for me adjusting to his sudden disappearance until two months later I get an e-mail explaining what happened. It ended not because of anything to do with DADT but due to the nature of being forward deployed, poor communication skills, and a problem back in his home which he felt forced him to get admin separated so he could get home immediately. I managed to have a relationship with someone from another ship while I was in, and it was the best part of my time. I served all of my time during DADT as well as being FDNF.
I laugh when people call me a “Seaman” because while the Navy does have them – only specific jobs begin as “Seamen” I was a FIRE man, aka a SNIPE not a SNIPER that’s something again different altogether.Īs for this romance movie thing, I can’t watch these fake hollywood military movies because they get everything wrong and they hire people to act out roles they have NO CONCEPT to the reality of. You can call us service members, vets/veterans, or troops if you are talking about all of us as a whole but we are different. “Soldier” refers exclusively to the Army. Thank you everyone who said we are SAILORS.