Proud To Have Served
If I remember correctly, it was a cold and gray Monday morning, March 4, 1968, my 18th birthday. I was a senior in high school and for the first time ever, I skipped school. Unbeknownst to my family, I drove from the farm town where I grew up, went to Cleveland, Ohio and enlisted in the United States Coast Guard. I got home early evening and my mother asked me why I skipped school. I answered, “I joined the service.” I don’t know just how mad she was, but she didn’t talk to me much for about a month. On January 4, 1969, I was sworn in and shipped off to basic training. Two days later, my draft notice showed up in the mailbox. The largest single draft call of the Vietnam Conflict took place in Ohio in January 1969. They took everyone with a draft lottery number up to 200. My number was 125. America was in the thick of a shooting war. There was a significant Coast Guard presence in Vietnam with Coastguardsmen making the ultimate sacrifice for their country. On January 4, 1969, I raised my hand and took the same oath as all service men and women take. I was transgender then, just as I am now.
If you haven’t read it or swore it, here it is for enlisted personnel:
The Oath of Enlistment (for enlisted):
“I, _____, do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. So help me God.”
When DADT — Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, was lifted and with Trans* people openly serving, I felt we had made a major leap in equality. We ALL could support and defend the Constitution and the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic. Now our President and Commander-in-Chief has proclaimed it is too expensive to have Trans* service members on active duty. A study published in the New England Journal of Medicine in September 2015 determined that 12,800 service members would be eligible for transgender health care, and 188 would use those benefits for transition services, at a cost of $4.2 million to $5.6 million. A Feb. 13, 2015, Military Times analysis of Defense Health Agency data that showed in 2014, the Pentagon spent $84.24 million on 1.18 million prescriptions for eight different erectile dysfunction drugs like Cialis and Levitra. How this president can declare Trans* personnel too expensive, yet spend such huge amounts of money just on erectile dysfunction drugs is beyond comprehension.
To add insult to injury, CNN reported on April 11, 2017, Donald Trump’s travel to his private club in Florida has cost over an estimated $20 million in his first 80 days as president. How many Trans* service members could be provided medical support for that $20,000,000? On Thursday, August 10, 2017, the president said ”He did U.S. military leaders a big favor by banning transgender troops from serving their country.” A check of many military and civilian leaders at the Pentagon show this is not the case.
I was proud to serve my country. The Trans* people currently serving are all volunteers and each one willingly took the oath. They are proud to serve their country. Mr. President, be the president of all of us in the United States. Be the Commander-in-chief of all the service members proudly wearing the uniforms of the United States of America. Do your duty, Mr. Trump, and we’ll do ours!
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Category: Transgender Body & Soul, Transgender Opinion, Transgender Politics
About the Author (Author Profile)
I am Cate, a mature transgender woman. I am a writer, blogger, parent, grandparent, sailor, activist and happy. I am a widow, and live with my yorkiepoo, Belle. I love music, reading, cooking, outdoors, DIY, theater, antiquing and flea markets, home brewing, and seeing what is around the bend in the road or over the horizon. I own the MatureTransgender.com website. It is an outreach, support and resource for mature trans* people and especially for those who, like me, came out after fifty.Subscribe
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I also served eight years and hid my stash of female things. I was flying with the Navy. Many years later I went to a drab lunch with RGA in Mountain View and ran into two guys from my squadron who also were crossdressers! We sure had some interesting conversation.
I was also proud to serve, and did so for over 20 years. It is very disappointing to see how far we have come in many ways, only to see those for who we hoped would have it better denied (potentially)