Army Won’t Send Lesbian Reservist to Gulf : Military: After declaring sexual preference, woman based in San Diego is transferred and may face discharge from service.

A U.S. Army reservist scheduled to be deployed to the Persian Gulf with her medical unit is instead facing possible discharge after telling her commanding officer that she is a lesbian.

Specialist Donna Lynn Jackson, who was scheduled to leave for the Persian Gulf this month with the 129th Evacuation Hospital from Ft. Ord in Northern California, was transferred to a garrison unit that will not be deployed. Her orders for the Persian Gulf were canceled after her revelation, said Master Sgt. Richard Czizik at Fort Ord.

Czizik said that Jackson, whose rank is equal to that of a corporal, was reassigned Friday to a company in a Combat Support Brigade attached to the 7th Infantry Division at Ft. Ord. The brigade, which includes administrative, maintenance and engineering troops, will remain in the United States.

However, on Friday evening Jackson, 25, said she had not received a new set of orders. “As far as I know, I will still be deploying with my hospital unit,” she said in a telephone interview.

But another Ft. Ord spokesman, Maj. Steve Hill, said Jackson is likely to be discharged because of her sexual preference.

“Department of Defense policy is that homosexuality is inconsistent with military service. In keeping with that policy, homosexual soldiers are discharged from the service,” Hill said.

Jackson’s case “will be properly processed and investigated,” and a decision about her military future “is expected by the end of the month,” Czizik said.

Jackson, who enlisted in the Army in 1983 and served almost two years on active duty, has been in the reserves since 1986, and her current enlistment ends in March, 1993. She decided to make her sexual preference public because she wanted the Army “to acknowledge it.”

“I wanted to serve my country and be sent to the Middle East. I was going to a war zone, and I wanted an acknowledgment that I was being sent there as a lesbian,” Jackson said.

In addition, once in Saudi Arabia, Jackson said she did not want to face “the harassment that could come later.”

“Since the Army is my life now, it’s making a real different situation. I want to be myself. I wanted to be able to say that I have a girlfriend back home; not a boyfriend or a husband. And I want to be able to talk about that,” she said.

Jackson is now living off the installation with her lover, Christie Carr, 42. The couple are staying in a nearby motel.

Jackson, who works as a warehouse shipping clerk in civilian life, said she notified her unit’s commanding officer, Col. Victor H. Lidner, of her sexual preference two weeks ago. On Tuesday, she also notified Ft. Ord’s commanding general by a facsimile letter.

Lidner and other members of her unit responded “very positively” when they learned of her homosexuality, Jackson said. Army officials had a different reaction.

“I asked the post commander for an acknowledgment of my letter. Instead, they sent me to an Army psychiatrist on Wednesday. The psychiatrist said I was normal. I’ve also been told that the Army will evaluate and investigate my situation,” said Jackson.

She does not know what she will do if the Army decides to discharge her because she is a lesbian, Jackson said.

“I guess I’ll seek legal advice. But I hope it doesn’t come to that. I’ve been ready to go and serve my country in the Middle East since Thanksgiving,” she said.

James Woodward, a former naval officer and co-founder of the San Diego Veterans Assn.--an advocacy group for gay servicemen and women who are retired or on active duty--is assisting Jackson.

Woodward and other gay rights activists applauded her efforts. Her actions also serve as a challenge to the military’s ban on gay and lesbian soldiers during the mobilization for possible war in the Middle East, Woodward said.

“She is doing what I hope more gays, lesbians and bisexuals will do. I think we should let the military know that we have fought a war from the closet for the last time,” said Woodward. “They can take us or leave us. . . . If they aren’t going to, then President Bush can fight this war without us.”

Jackson’s reserve medical unit is normally stationed in San Diego. About 55% of the unit’s 400 troops are women. The group is a combat support hospital comprising of physicians, nurses, technicians and other support personnel.

The reservists run a mobile 400-bed hospital capable of treating battlefield casualties. The unit’s doctors can perform a variety of medical operations, from open heart surgery to dental care in their environmentally controlled, inflatable structure.

Jackson, a graduate of Monte Vista High School, is in charge of the unit’s showers and laundry facility.

Times staff writer Nora Zamichow contributed to this story.