“Hey, we’re all going to take a shower. Do you want to put your socks on?"

One of the theses of Allan Berube’s Coming Out Under Fire: the history of gay men and women in World War Two is that the gay community in the US was strengthened by the mass mobilization required for the prosecution of the war. Huge numbers of men were suddenly living in single sex communities, and many of them were discovering they were not alone in their same-sex attractions. I was hoping the book would contain some love stories. I knew it would trace the military’s anti-gay policies and campaigns, the sort of thing one needs to know but which make for discouraging reading. Berube includes no love narratives, though there are hints, a few informants who mention love affairs or who met a longterm lover while in the service. 

This anecdote emphasizes the relative tolerance of het crewmates in the extremis of a ship at sea heading into combat:

Maxwell Gordon recalled what happened on his [aircraft]* carrier when two men were caught sleeping together. ‘Early one morning in chow line I was standing with some friends and there was a commotion ahead, and we all looked over the rail, and there was a gun tub below. The canvas had blown back, and there [were]** two fellows down there. I knew one of them. And they were naked, except the older one had on black socks. And they were wrapped in each other’s arms, front to back. They’d obviously been screwing all night long. People started throwing pieces of bread down on them till they woke up. They were very embarrassed — hundreds of people saw them. [The other men]** were whistling and saying, “Oh, wake up! It’s morning!” The one fellow who was a bos’n’s mate was kidded for weeks and months after about his socks. They said, “Hey, we’re all going to take a shower. Do you want to put your socks on and come along?” Because that’s all he had on.’

___________

*my interpolation … ** author’s interpolation

Berube does not present any follow-up about the progress of this exposed affair or whether the bos’n’s mate was known to have any others. 

The second anecdote is more affecting:

Ben Small remembered, a lieutenant who had been injured was being shipped back to the States, so the men ‘all went to the plane to see him off that night. It was an amazingly touching moment, when he and his lover said good-bye, because they embraced and kissed in front of all these straight guys and everyone dealt with it so well. I think it was just this basic thing about the separation of someone you cared for, regardless of sex.’

Again, the emphasis is on the unusual exposure of the male-male relationship. Letting others see same-sex love was dangerous. The consequences ranged from teasing to hostile interrogation, the stockade, prison, a locked mental ward. Thousands were tossed out of the armed forces with dishonorable discharges which prevented them from accessing the benefits of the GI Bill. Come the anti-homosexual crusades of the ‘50s, this queer branding by the military lost many a person their job, especially among the ranks of the civil service.

These anecdotes stand out for offering a glimpse into the many relationships that must have gone on but had to be kept hidden. I wish Allan Berube had given us at least one full account of a romance. 

source:

Coming Out Under Fire: the history of gay men and women in World War Two

by Allan Berube

1990. The Free Press / Collier Macmillan, NY