Fort Bragg Wedding Ceremony

Ever notice how unbelievably happy same sex couples are when they finally get married?  Ever notice how somber and serious many of the straight couples are when they get married?

Bill sent me this link about two soldiers getting married at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. See here. This one has special significance for me because just last summer I was threatened with physical violence by a distant cousin of mine when he asked me if I was gay (actually he said "There is a rumor that you practice the gay lifestyle?  Is that true?"  When I answered "If you're asking me if I'm gay, I am."  Then he said to me "If you step foot on my parent's property (I was visiting with Bill and my cousin Bob T. and his wife researching our family history) you have me to deal with!  You got that bud?"  

My cousin Jerry R. (the big guy in green) with his parents (his mother is my cousin) during a more friend visit two years ago before he heard the rumors I was "Quare"

Well, I'm not ashamed to admit that I was intimidated because I was in those western North Carolina mountains near the Tennesse border where my father grew up and where homophobia is alive and well and abysmal ignorance like my cousin's flourishes.  They have guns up there.

Bill with my cousin's husband - this shortly after he complained to Bill about President Obama putting "all those quares" in office.  We got a laugh out of his pronunciation at the time.  I didn't realize the seething hate underneath until last year when we tried to visit again.  Must be terrible to live in a pit of hate like this.  I wonder how people like this feel when they see the world closing in around them and they realize there are more people in life and not just straight, white people? And the ironic thing about this man is he is God fearing.  See why I'm not a fan of organized religion?  For someone so "God fearing" to harbor so much hate in their heart and to be so judgmental.  It is a shame.

I was in a section of the country where gay men like me are referred to as "Quares".  This is the same North Carolina that has outlawed marriage equality.  The same North Carolina that has the most restrictive voting in the country.  

I also have a tenuous link to Fort Bragg.  When I was in the Army, I attended Army Security Agency training at Ft. Devens, Massachusetts.  

Goofy me at Ft. Devens (give me a break, I was only 18 years old)

After schooling we were given a choice of our next assignment (which was to last the remainder of our tour of duty, 2 1/2 years for me) based on our standing in class.  I was seventh in my class.  My good friend (who I later found out to be gay) was eight.  I wanted to stay with him.  When it came down to choosing I said "We're going to Ft. Bragg together, right?"  

Me (left) with my buddies Bill A. and Dick E. at Ft. Devens, a break between the classes)

He wanted to be closer to his home in Norwood, Pennsylvania (a suburb of Philadelphia) and said he was going to choose Ft. Meade, Maryland, home of the National Security Agency.  There was only one allocation left for Ft. Meade.  I wanted to be with him because he was my good friend (no romantic interest, never was even after I found out he was gay) but I did have a great friendship with him.  So when it came time to choose I chose Ft. Meade instead and thus had probably the best 2 1/2 years of my life. 
 

Me (fourth from the right in the back) with my buddies/classmates at Ft. Devens April 1960

Even though the NSA and Ft. Meade was notorious for gay witch hunts I survived and made two good gay friends (both gone now).  But every time I see a reference to Ft. Bragg I think of what could have been and how much my life would have changed.  

Sal and Ron H., my gay (and best) friends at Ft. Meade standing before the poster of the Broadway type show they put on at the Service Club at Ft. Mead (I made the poster, they did the show, I missed that "Broadway Show" gene) 

But here I am rambling when I just want to show you this heartwarming video of a wedding in Ft. Bragg.  My, my how times have changed.

Me (second from left) with my Army buddies at Ft. Devens, spring of 1960

NSA

Most of you by now have heard about the latest "scandal", the government is monitoring who you call.  This comes as no big surprise to me.  For you see, the big secret is out now.  Our government spies.  

Now here is another secret that you may or may not know (depending on how long you have been reading my blog). During my tour of duty in the Army I worked at the National Security Agency at Ft. Meade, Maryland for two and a half years.  

Me in the barracks with my ever present cigarette hanging out of my mouth - 1962

Back "then", everything was hush-hush.  Especially for me being a gay man.  If they found out that I was a gay man and thus a "security risk", (a typical Catch-22 situation that the government and armed services are so well at doing), I would have lost my clearance and been kicked out of the Army as an undesirable.  

Me dressed for the weekly Wednesday night dance at the Service Club - 1962

Thus I had that burden to carry for two and a half years and the other burden was that I could tell no one what I did for a living other than I was "stationed at Ft. Meade, Maryland."  When I got out I was debriefed that I was to wipe my memory clean of everything I knew (think "Manchurian Candidate") or else there would be "consequences."  Probably "Bradley Manning" consequences now that I see how the government if pillorying him and making him a scapegoat for the failings of our government but I digress.

Me on the south lawn of the White House 1962 - Ft. Meade if located equal distance between Baltimore and Washington D.C.

So after I departed service on January 27th, 1963 I breathed a sigh of relief.  My time at Ft. Meade was enjoyable and revelatory. I met my first gay friends at Ft. Meade - non-sexual by the way for those of you whose minds drift towards the carnal inclinations every time you hear the word "gay". 

Once a year we had to play soldier and qualify on the firing range.  Here I am with my good friend Jim Harris from Binghamton, New York - 1962 (we qualified)

I arrived at Ft. Meade when I was 18 years old and left when I was 21 years old, perhaps the most formative years of my life.  I could not have spent then at a better place on this earth.  

Here I am "Soundmaster" of a Broadway type production that my gay friends Sal and Ron (another "Ron") used to put on at the Service Club - 1962 - yes, even back in the early Sixties I was "producing" music to a show much like I do now with my iMovies - I think I missed my calling - I could have been one of those technical guys whose you never heard of who accept Academy Awards for sound mixing or some such thing 

The pictures I have included in this post were all taken during my time at Ft. Meade.  I think I've posted them all before but not in this "Ft. Meade" context.  Of course I could post no pictures of me actually at work (God forbid).  

By the way, I always worked in the basement.  In the whole 2 1/2 years I was at NSA I was NEVER on any of the upper floors.  Never.  I went in, got the elevator to the basement, spent all day there, and got on the elevator at the end of the day and left.  Even the coffee shop was in the basement.  I never saw the light of day until I left the building.

I always wanted a picture of the NSA building where I worked but of course in those days no such photos were available (God forbid).  This morning I came across this ariel photo of the National Security Building, the second largest in the world (second to the Pentagon).  See that little white canopied portico in the middle bottom portion of the photo?  That's where I entered the building everyday, showing my ID photo (attached by a necklace chain around my neck) to the Marine guards.  Looks like nothing much has changed.  By the way, I didn't have to worry about parking, I walked from my barracks to the NSA building, a ten minute very pleasant walk.  Yes, I had it very easy.

I do have some photos of the barracks where I lived but I can't find them now.  I'll post them if and when I find them.  

So what did I do for my two and half years?  Very simple (and boring).  I made tape copies of transmissions of intercepted communications from Communist China and Russia and forwarded it to an analysis unit in another part of the NSA building.  One side wasn't supposed to know what the other side knew.  "Need to know" was the operative word and rule.

I find it ironic that not much as changed since the early Sixties when I worked at the NSA, they're still intercepting communications, only now of American citizens.  Well, I guess some things have changed.