Customer Reviews

Guilty As Charged: The True Story of a Gay Beret

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The military culture Hatheway reveals in "Guilty As Charged: The True Story of a Gay Beret," isn't the idealistic world of the posters. There are a lot of things the military isn't telling Pres. Bush (but what would he know about military life, anyway?) This is a place where soldiers routinely get drunk, many smoke hash or even shoot drugs, and heterosexual promiscuity is rampant. And may you find mercy if you're even suspected of being gay.

Even so, Hatheway felt relatively safe for a time as he met other gay men discreetly for sex at his unit in Bod Tolz, Germany, and elsewhere. Homosexual activity, he found, was more common than he first thought. Gays still had to be careful: there were several really gung-ho men who got wacked out about them. But if you didn't get caught, it wasn't all that bad.
Unfortunately, that's what happened to Hatheway. Just days before he was due to be discharged, an enlisted man invited him to his room for a drink. A bottle of scotch later, they found themselves in a sexual situation. Nothing unusual, until one of the man's roommates barged in. Hatheway's entire future blew up before his eyes.

His careful recounting of the subsequent ordeal is fascinating, particularly his allegations of military misconduct in the prosecution of the trial. If true (and we have no reason to believe they aren't), they're deeply disturbing. Hatheway was lucky he didn't end up at Leavenworth. Instead, he became a successful professor of German history at a college in Wisconsin.
Someday America's gays and lesbians will be able to serve their country without having to sneak around. Look for it to happen in about 2025. But it may take a couple of generations after that before the American military stops treating them like it did Hatheway. The monster of homophobia isn't going to die an easy death in that super-macho atmosphere. I know.

Jay Hatheway served with distinction for four years in the Army as a Green Beret -- the army's elite combat force. Jay was indistinguishable from his fellow Green Beret's in training, ability, dedication, and service. But there was one difference that the military establishment could not abide and which overrode all other aspects of Jay Hatheway's military career and performance -- he was a homosexual. In Guilty As Charged: The True Story Of A Gay Beret, Jay has candidly recorded his experiences while in service, including his court-martial, and his dedicated work in behalf of lesbians and gays concerned about their civil rights as men and women serving their country through military service. Guilty As Charged clearly and persuasively details the first constitutional challenge to the prohibition against homosexuality in the armed forces. Enhanced for the reader with footnotes and index, Guilty As Charged is a welcome, articulate, and much needed contribution to the on-going national dialogue on gays in the military and the constitutional issues involved with respect to one of the last bastions of state supported, federally sponsored discrimination. Highly recommended reading, Guilty As Charged puts a human face to a hot-button social issue, and in doing so well serves the entire military community, gay or straight.

Riveting. This is author Jay Hatheway's story of the nation's first gay Green Beret court martial. Compelling. It happens to be a first person account, as defendent Hatheway, who survived those dark days, remembers the events surrounding the tragic injustice. Transcripts from the actual trial add immediacy to the "you are there" narration.
     There is an inclination to think of Jack Nicholson's despicable character in A Few Good Men, but Guilty As Charged is especially vile in that it lays bare the military's bent for public degradation and humiliation of a gay man -- by innuendo and inference. Hatheway's chiling story just quite possibly could have been our own. The telling is painfully detailed.
     Hatheway never denies to the reader that he has engaged in homosexual activities; the focus here is on the trumped up charges brought against him two decades before the Clinton compromise of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell." In the military, fraternizing with subordinates is one matter of concern; sex between men -- actual or presumed -- is tantamount to treason.
     Now it's Hatheway's turn, and he takes us from the cool marble of boyhood infatuation to the companionship of flesh without fatigues that also defines "Special" Forces. Except for names and places, his story could be mine -- or yours.
-- Stonewall News Northwest

"GUILTY AS CHARGED firmly places the 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' policy within the larger scope of civil rights. The issue comes alive in Hatheway's writing with all of its scarring implications. He is frankly honest, revealing a side of the military seldom discussed, as he boldly describes a world kept hidden and greatly ridiculed. A noteworthy and extraordinary memoir, GUILTY AS CHARGED comes very highly recommended for both gays and straights."
--Cindy Penn, Senior Editor, WordWeaving...

"This is a terrific look at the justice system gone horribly wrong. Whether you agree with the concept of gays and lesbians serving in the military or not, this is a story that you can't afford to pass up reading, and may very well affect the way you approach this hot topic in the future. Well worth the read!"
--Jay Hartman...knowbetter...