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Loading ...Neff: A fallen sailor, betrayed by his country
Maybe on Memorial Day you’ll lower an American flag to half-staff and observe a moment of silence.
Maybe your family will place flowers by a grave, or a wreath on a memorial.Maybe you’ll think of the many who have died in conflicts from the Civil War to today, or maybe you will think of one servicemember lost.
I think often of one servicemember, on Memorial Days, on Veterans Days, and on random other days as well, and I never knew him.
I have met Allen R. Schindler Jr.’s mother. I have interviewed people involved in the effort to keep his killer imprisoned. I have reported on the Chicago veterans who annually honor Schindler, gathering at his grave in Evergreen Hill Cemetery in Crete, Ill.
Schindler joined the Navy in 1988, at the age of 18, and he expected to record a great many great adventures in a notebook he purchased on his tour. But by 1991, Schindler was enduring a hellish existence aboard the USS Belleau Wood. He was a gay man in an institution that tutored its recruits in homophobia, that by policy and practice said gays are not to be treated equally, are not fit to serve. At least two sailors, Airman Apprentice Terry Helvey and Airman Charles Vins, took that to mean not fit to exist.
Schindler died not in combat, not in war, but in a public rest room while on shore leave in Sasebo, Japan, on Oct. 27, 1992. Helvey punched, kicked, kneed and stomped Schindler. Airman Charles Vins mostly watched, but occasionally joined in the beating. The pathologist described Schindler’s injuries as like those suffered in a high-speed car crash or a low-speed airplane accident. Worse, the pathologist said, than a man being trampled by a horse. A witness said Helvey’s stomping was so violent it looked like a dance.
Schindler’s death took place prior to the adoption of “don’t ask, don’t tell,” and I know the current policy cannot be blamed for the murder.
But the current policy is only a new version of a very old policy of banning gays from serving openly in the Armed Force. The arguments for keeping “don’t ask, don’t tell” are the same arguments employed to maintain the blanket ban on gay servicemembers that “don’t ask, don’t tell” was intended to soften.
Schindler knew the military mentality when it came to gay servicemembers, and he was afraid. Helvey knew the military mentality when it came to gay servicemembers, and he killed one.
To say that the military’s anti-gay policy was not a factor in Schindler’s death is like saying government-sanctioned segregation was not a factor in the slaying of blacks during the civil rights era.
This Memorial Day, our representatives and senators and president will make speeches about how men and women in the Armed Forces gave lives for the protection of the nation and its citizens.
But when will they seriously start talking about the servicemembers sacrificed under the discriminatory, misguided, dumb gay ban? Schindler lost his life and many, many more have lost their careers, in part, because of cowardice or incompetence in Washington.
Now is an opportune time — and the opportunity may not last long — to repeal “don’t ask, don’t tell.”
Congress can and should act this session to repeal “don’t ask, don’t tell.”
But the Obama administration need not wait for Congress. The president has the authority to suspend discharges of gay servicemembers and he should execute that authority. He is the commander in chief.
Many servicemembers have died in U.S. conflicts, some posthumously earned medals for courage, valor and sacrifice and are remembered as great soldiers, fighters, strategists in the service of their country.
But it’s a sailor from Chicago Heights, Ill., I’m thinking mostly about, a sailor whose death exemplifies his country’s disservice to gay servicemembers.
We should not forget Matt Shepard either.
Matthew Wayne Shepard (December 1, 1976 – October 12, 1998) was a student at the University of Wyoming who was tortured and subsequently murdered near Laramie, Wyoming. He was attacked on the night of October 6–7, 1998 and died at Poudre Valley Hospital in Fort Collins, Colorado, on October 12, from severe head injuries.
Wyoming state law, crimes committed on the basis of sexual orientation are not prosecutable as hate crimes. During the trial, witnesses stated that Shepard was targeted because he was gay. His murder brought national as well as international attention to the issue of hate crime legislation at the state and federal levels. Laramie has not enacted any laws protecting gay people. Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-N.C., used the word “hoax” to describe the killing of Matthew Shepard. See Seattle Post Intelligencer 04/30/09.
President Obama has forgotten the prejudice that black Americans are suffering with every day. This prejudice that simmers just below the surface of “civilized society”, while gay prejudice is OPEN and only acceptable prejudice that is vocalized in the pulpit and on TV, radio, news, books and internet. Homophobia is a learned thing, we are not born with hatred. Until we as a society come out of the stone ages, Allen R. Schindler Jr. and Matthew W. Shepard deaths won’t shock the public enough to say we won’t tolerate this hatred and bigotry any more! It must stop now. America must be a hate free zone.
Pres. Obama should suspend all discharges and bring back those who have been separated from the service. For the good of the country, we the people, need those service members unjustly dismissed. Harry Truman said “the buck stops here.” Barack Obama should exercise his power and do it NOW. The BUCK stops with the Commander-in-Chief.
My barracks mate told me he would “KILL ANY COCKSUCKER”. He was not good looking but had this insane phobia he would be attacked by “queer” as he called ‘them’
That experience and what happened to Allen Schindler, was what kept me so far in the closet in 1965 that I didn’t have sexual contact with another person until 1971 when my reserve time expired. I had a SECRET clearance and didn’t want to jeoparize that.
I have found the middle path taught by the Buddha, which is the practice of non-extremism: a path of moderation away from the extremes of self-indulgence and self-mortification He proclaimed he was AWAKE or Enlightened. Throwing off the chains of ignorance, hatred and substituting love and compassion. We have forgotten the truth of unconditional love for each other. This is truly sad that hatred has overtaken love.
My comment is in honor of a dear friend, one of the victims of the witch hunts in the eighties in Parris Island, South Carolina.
Vicky Martorano, was a bright light in a small, dull l town, she was lesbian, a great spirit and a kind soul, Vicky served, as have many other gay people, in a military hostile to lesbian and gay people.
Unfortunately, she, and many other lesbians in Parris Island, were dishonorably discharged following a witch hunt, pitting one against the other amidst a climate of fear and isolation.
Following her discharge, she returned home to Vero Beach, Florida. Her family, not very accepting or enlightened, sat idly by, while Vicky deteriorated, psychologically and physically, until she ended her life, it was one of the saddest events, she was an exceptional person and friend.
So, this memorial day, it is you, Vicky, I will be memorializing. To hell with flag waving propaganda, to hell with shame and fear, I will remember you, fondly, with love and regret.
I wish you had gotten out of that conservative retirement village in Florida and realized there was another life beyond your family and the military, but as we were all aware, at the time, it was all we knew.
I still miss you. You were so beautiful, Rest in Peace.
Now his presidency of 100 days has passed. I haven’t seen any concrete movement made by Obama on a number of gay rights. I already begin to view Obama as a COWARD on equality for all Americans. He already flipflopped on the torture issue. Don’t count on my vote and financial donation for 2012 if he including Demoractic Party has done nothing (period).
Unless President Obama has a very devious strategy to bring the federal government into line with the promises of the Constitution that this is a nation of laws and all citizens are equal under those laws, I will vote for returning President Obama to the status of civilian with an award for hypocrisy.
I took the liberty of copying and pasting this story (with credit to Lisa Neff) to the President through whitehouse.gov. He needs to understand that inaction is hurting not only our soldiers, but our country…
I think this terrible policy’s continued existence may partially stem from the demographics of servicemen. In the all-volunteer armed forces, volunteers come predominantly from the South and Southwest regions of the United States because of a cultural ethic of military service. So not only the servicemen, but also the high-ranking influential military brass, are far more likely to come from these regions, where respect for LGBT people tends to be extremely low. Fortunately, it need not be this way. The military is not a sovereign entity – it answers to elected civilian commanders.
i don’t even understand how this absurd policy still exists (it shouldn’t have existed in the FIRST place!). It’s so stupid, unfair and blatantly homophobic! There’s absolutely no reason it should stay intact. Obama needs to f*cking do something…like keeping his word perhaps!!??!!
Thank you Lisa. How many of us have given our lives for our country and because of it at the same time.
I will remember.
I, too, am from Illinois and was in the military at the same time that Allan Schindler was enlisted. I am also a gay man. I was lucky and did not have to endure this kind of treatment, although I was in the Air Force, they still hunted gays down. We called them “witch hunts”. I remember hanging out with gay military friends one day and then hearing about how they were discharged the next. Not for being bad soldiers, but for loving another man. Ridiculous. I am no longer in the military and I am very GLAD that I do not have to hide. Don’t ask, don’t tell does not work.
I retired after 20 yrs in the Army in 2001. I have waited for a true leader to step up and stop our country’s discrimination on it’s own servicemembers. We give up more than the average soldier, we lose our freedoms in our own county!
Please continue to fight and be counted!
Lisa, that was one of the most beautiful articles I’ve ever read. You actually brought a tear to this jaded musclebear’s eyes.
Thank You.
The problems lies when one gets into office and cannot/or choose not too, in the name of safety, coerciveness, or whatever it be that the he chooses to believe is in everyone’s best interest, in order to avoid the correct and honorable decision for those who serve, and get victimize many times over!
This self described “fierce advocate for civil rights” is the new emperor without clothes. He has backed away at best and changed positions on FISA, gun control, war funding, off shore drilling, release of the torture photos, justice for the architects of torture etc… This fierce advocate didn’t even congratulate our community, families and friends over historic progress towards equality in Iowa and Vermont. He is silent over the stalled Matthew Shepard bill. Silent over honest Gay and Lesbian service members being kicked out over Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell and on and on. He’s a disgrace. President Obama’s leadership is a serious disappointment.
Obama is not interested in doing what is right. He is concerned with offending, upsetting, alienating the Christian Taliban in this country and in congress. And isn’t that more important than saving the lives of a bunch of sexual deviants who are living a life of sin and are hated by man’s created image of their none existant god? Hate, bigotry, and the macho mentality will win out on this one because it is supported by the scrum that sits in church every friggin Sunday singing “praise Jesus.”