Serving in Silence

In 1989, in a routine interview for top-secret security clearance - a requisite for admission to the Army War College - Colonel Margarethe Cammermeyer was asked about her sexual orientation. After pausing for a moment to take a breath, she said, "I am a lesbian." Thus began an ordeal that continues to this day. Intense media coverage of the former colonel's dismissal from the U.S. Army has stirred debate all the way to the presidency. Her Bronze Star for duty in Vietnam, her being named Nurse of the Year by the Veterans Administration, and her role as Chief Nurse of the Washington State National Guard marked a long and distinguished military career. Her goal to become Chief Nurse of the entire National Guard was abruptly ended in 1992 by her discharge based on sexual orientation. With the same calm, assured articulation that won her one leadership position after another, Cammermeyer writes of her decision to challenge official policy on homosexuality and of her recent victory in Federal District Court. But this is not only a book about what she described in Time as "sticking around to get beaten up." It is also about coming of age, being a mother, and finding one's center; about "coming out," the daily horrors of nursing in Vietnam, and a female soldier's life.… (more)