THE PUBLIC MIND: READER BELIVES HOMOSEXUALS HAVE NO PLACE IN THE MILITARY

To the Editor:

I have served in the U.S. Navy for 20 years and have observed the quality and professionalism displayed by naval forces in combat and everyday routine situations. I feel the need to address some issues not usually known by most civilians. Most people know of our civilian justice system; however, all the military forces live by a separate set of rules known as the (UCMJ) Uniform Code of Military Justice. We think of our laws as innocent until proven guilty; not so with the UCMJ. These articles are so precise and so well written that few escape the opposite feeling, guilty until we have proven ourselves innocent.

Commanding officers and superior officers require absolute control in every situation, whether it is an emergency, battle action or an everyday circumstance. Because of this military code to live and rule by, a common trust or bonding develops between serving shipmates. In the night watches when the boilerman keeps the fires lit and the steersman keeps the ship on course, and with all the other duties of watch teams, the sum of all their actions allows you to sleep at night with the confidence that when the new day dawns, you may be alive to enjoy it. Your very life depends on everybody who understands and exercises the "night orders" and meets the responsibility to "follow all the rules and standards." Because of the close proximity of living with one another, you eat together, sleep together, breathe each other's air, read each other's mail, and share the same colds and viruses. The military goes to great expense to vaccinate you against the elements that keep you from doing "your duty" overseas, in combat, at sea, under sea, in flight and ashore.

A homosexual has no place in any military! I have seen the combat arm-to-arm transfusions, I have seen self and first aid in the combat field. By keeping homosexuals out of the military, it is considered by most commanders and senior enlisteds as another safeguard to protect themselves and those who serve and protect the freedoms of this great nation from possible HIV infections and AIDS. The old way of thinking was to consider homosexuals as security risks, or people with serious physiological disorders. We now know what a potential health hazard it presents and the best way to control it is to continue with the current policy of no homosexuals. You don't have to be a homosexual to have these diseases, but homosexuals have been identified as "high risk" carriers.

In you are concerned, please contact your representatives in Washington and tell them how you feel you it. They won't care if you don't either.

Irvin E. Holderbaugh

U.S. Navy (Retired)

Cape Girardeau