Band of Brothers

Band of Brothers

07-11-2008

It's a race against time. More than a thousand World War Two veterans are believed to die every day and every one has a story to tell. Former army officer Lara Ballard has done her best to make sure there's one group that isn't left out.

When the Library of Congress decided to set up the Veterans History Project it was her task to help collect the videotaped oral histories from gay and lesbian veterans.

Frightened of coming out

And that was not as easy as you might think. For every openly gay WWII veteran that was only too happy to discuss their experience, there were another four or five who still felt that, after more than half a century, they still couldn't come out. Some were frightened that they might lose their pension benefits whilst others were terrified that their fellow survivors and friends from their former unit would find out and shun them.

Important source

Despite this, the Veteran's History Project, which relies upon volunteers to collect the interviews, now has an important source of information on the life of homosexual veterans from all the major wars of the past few decades. As well as one crucial account of life in the US military before the massive drafting that occurred following the bombing of Pearl Harbour in 1941.

Paul Jordan joined the army in 1933 during the Great Depression and his story might surprise those who think that pre WWII, the military was an even tougher place for homosexuals to serve. "Far from it," says Lara Ballard. It seems that it wasn't until the massive influx of men from civvie street and the introduction of their collective prejudice that military leaders realised it had to do something about it. "It had a PR issue to deal with."

http://www.radionetherlands.nl/thestatewerein/otherstates/081108-band-brothers