Friday March 23, 2007 SGN.org |
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Volume 35 Issue 12 |
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Saturday, Aug 30, 2008
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Seattle Gay History - Ted Ireland: Kilroy was here! (1943-1947) |
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| Seattle Gay History - Ted Ireland: Kilroy was here! (1943-1947) | |
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by Don Paulson -
SGN Contributing Writer During the Second World War there were 1.6 million Gay and Lesbian servicemen and women fighting for the freedom of a homophobic world. During the war, restrictions against Gays were relaxed as every person was needed but, after the war, the military -- always seeking out an enemy -- began a witch hunt for perverts. Gays who were discovered faced deep humiliation, prison, loss of veterans benefits, dishonorable discharge and loss of jobs and respect from family and civilians. Many committed suicide. Gay citizens today owe a debt of gratitude to those fallen servicemen and women and others who survived the horrible events of five years of war that killed 60 million people across the planet. Ted Ireland joined the U.S. Army in 1943 at age 17 to honor President Roosevelt's call to the nation to become an "arsenal of democracy." He recounts his experience: "I enlisted because everyone did, not to do so would be a disgrace. I trained under the 'Army Specialized Training Program,' a special program for seventeen year olds fresh out of high school. German defeat was expected so we were trained to handle the occupation troops after the war was over, but a last big push toward victory was on. Regardless of who you were or what you were trained to do, if the army needed front line soldiers, you were it. Every man was desperately needed so they cancelled the program, put us through basic training and shipped us off to the 'Maginot Line' in France, a thousand mile long concrete and steel defense fortification/wall for big guns and troops with hundreds of miles of tunnels, built after the First World War for possible invading German forces. "I managed to get the job as Jeep Driver through various Gay connections. I had no weapon except a carbine and a 30-caliber machine gun mounted on the Jeep (the most recognized vehicle ever made). My gunner and I pulled a trailer filled with 88 millimeter mortar ammunition to the front line. Bombs exploded and bullets streamed overhead but we were never hit. One day the cooks borrowed my jeep to take food to the troops and ran over a land mine, blew out the tires and injured the driver. "With no jeep, they didn't know what to do with me so they gave me the most dangerous job they had, carrying a 60 lb. radio on my back the size of a suitcase. The radio operator and my job was to sneak up as close as we could to the German lines and report back the enemies gun emplacements so they could be bombed. At one point we were spotted and dove into a fox hole. We were okay but a bullet shattered the radio. For our efforts we got a bronze star and a special award for bravery. I don't remember ever thinking I may get hurt. I was young enough and dumb enough at 18 to think I was invincible. It reminded me of Boy Scout Camp. I'm not the type to be a hero; 'the paths of glory lead but to the grave.' "Allied forces had already cleaned up Africa, Egypt and Italy so we basically chased the Germans out of France and into Germany, fighting street to street like in Hollywood movies. Everyone was miserable as it was one of Europe's coldest winters. Victory was soon ours but the war on Queer people continued. Witch hunt Army officials and psychiatrists believed Gays made poor combat soldiers and their presence would threaten morale and discipline, but they were courageous battle scarred soldiers and not weak and incompetent. They were fighting two wars: Hitler and homophobia on the home front. "I stayed on in Berlin after the war ended in the Berlin district headquarters. I was assigned to filing, indexing and cataloging correspondence for the commanding General of the American sector. His secretary and the assistant commanding general's secretary was Gay. The one thing I noticed was that Gays were everywhere in the army and on the street. War never stopped anyone from having sex. Sex on the front lines happened as well. We tricked anywhere from the back of a Jeep, pup tent, foxhole and in some farmers hayloft. "If there was a lifted eyebrow, a dropped eyelash or a wink and a smile we were going to do it one way or another. The Maginot tunnels had all sorts of dark little corners for sex but space and light was limited so there wasn't much anal sex, mostly between the legs, oral sex, hand jobs and smooching -- a lot of smooching. On the front lines, everyone was a little ripe. I have plenty of pleasant memories from that time; most of them were sweaty bodies. "Berlin had a surprisingly active and colorful Gay life in the late forties with the bars and parties and all that association with the street refugees and the other allied occupation troops. I took advantage of my time in Berlin but, on the base, Gays would see each other a lot so we cruised each other in discreet ways as not to get exposed. Some soldiers wore a pinky ring to identify they were Gay and some used the 'secret homo handshake' where you scratched another's palm while shaking hands. "There were three Gay bars in the English sector of Berlin: the 'San Francisco,' 'Barts' and one other that had drag shows. The drags didn't look very glamorous but they put on a good show sung in German or French to live music or a recording. The Gay bars were packed and very much like the bars of today but you had to keep it down. I went with these two army women to a dyke bar that existed before Hitler took over Germany. It was formal, crystal and linen tablecloths and exclusively for women. Men could be admitted but only if you were with a group of woman. A lot of the women were still in their uniform after being discharged from the French, English and even the German army. They had no place to go or money so they got into the black market to survive. "The Gay bars usually had 'sponsors' who got their booze from the U.S. Army PX black market. Most of the liquor, Germans confiscated from the French, then the Americans confiscated it from the Germans. Since we couldn't have booze legally in the PX, they had all these black market setups. Everybody was into the black market. Everything was in short supply for civilians but we could buy PX cigarettes, candy, tooth paste, clothing, etc. and sell them to the Germans for profit and they would sell them to the Russians for even more. I got a Leica camera from a Gay Colonel for twelve cartons of cigarettes." Everyone was into the black market, especially the refugees/street people: thousands of destitute 12 to 16 year old orphans, older youth, those from Hitler's youth army and adults; trading, stealing, begging and breaking into what was left of the ruined cities. Street people were in all the occupied countries. World War II caused the greatest dislocation of people ever recorded in history. "Most of these kids and adults had no place to go, families dead, homes bombed out. So, they survived by the black market and hustling for whatever they could get." He continued: "A few Gays who had money from the black market who were into 'chicken' found spaces to rent for their own private harem, or shared it with others for fun and even profit. The kids didn't seem to mind because they got food, candy and a place to sleep instead of an alley or a cold bombed out building. Sex was incidental. They were not being raped or doing anything unwillingly. I was not into chicken so I didn't pay much attention to the scene but I would have heard if there was a problem. "During the war, there was a story on the base, probably propaganda, about a 19 year old soldier having so much satisfaction giving the street orphans candy when suddenly the kids ran away on cue. One had pulled the pin on a grenade the soldier had slung over his shoulder and it exploded. The enemy would also booby trap a dead soldier and if the body is looted by the opposition it would explode. "There are war things I don't want to talk about but I did what had to be done." |
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