By this point, I was flipping out. I hated the Navy, I
hated my supervisors, I hated my work, I even hated the people that called
themselves my friends. I was just informed that my "PRD" had been
extended another two years, and I would be on the Kitty Hawk for a total of 5
years. A "PRD" is a projected rotation date, and that is the date
that you can get away from your post, and move on to your next. I was so pissed
off that I just walked out and went home. I guess they understood, because no one
said anything to me about it. It would also mean that I would make another 6-month
deployment on that ship. That would not have been so bad, but I would also have
to move to Japan when the ship went there to replace the USS INDEPENDENCE. I
would be no part of that, and with the stress levels just rising more and more
each day, I decided to do something that I had been against from the day I made
the realization I was gay. I was going to come out and get out!
I began by calling the Lesbian and Gay Men's Center for some assistance in my
little plan. I spoke to the military advisor for the center, and he asked me
all of the questions that would either one, tell him I was just mad at someone
and had not thought it out, or two had thought it out thoroughly enough and had
made a solid decision. After 5 minutes, he was typing a letter to my commanding
officer to tell him I was "by definition of Op-Nav Instruction" a legal
Homosexual. I thought it was the funniest piece of paper that I had ever seen,
though it also scared me that I was holding it. It was to be the biggest thing
that I had done with my life to date. I was basically telling the Navy that I
was gay, and in some small way, I was confirming it to myself as well.
Anyway, I held on to that paper for almost two weeks, before I got up the
courage to do anything with it.
The advisor had told me that I was to give this paper to the Executive officer,
and no one else. The morning that I had brought it, I walked up to the Executive
Officer's office door and knocked. I waited, and got no reply. I took this as
my chance to run! Finally I
decided that I needed to do it, so I knocked again, and waited. I figured he
was out, so I began to walk away again, when I heard him yell from inside
"ENTER!!!"
When I heard that, I walked in. He said "how's it going, Petty
officer?" I told him well, but I do not know how well you are going to
feel after you read this. I handed the letter to him, and he looked at it. Then
he just nonchalantly said "Well, I sure have seen a lot of these in my
career." I mean, as if it was an every day occurrence? Anyway, he asked
why I would want to do such a thing? I told him I could not live a lie anymore,
which was what the advisor said to say, and that I had not acted on it, but
that I had the "propensity" to act on it. I laughed when he said that
he could just forget that he had seen that, and when he assured me that there
would be no reason for me to get out this way. I told him thanks, but I would
take my chances in the real world, and he just sent me on my way to begin my
discharge procedures.
Needless to say, I was out in less than a week, on a vacation pending
discharge, and a week later I was a full-fledged civilian. Then I was
unemployed. I was out of work for
a couple of weeks. Then I found a job, and the rest is history.