Lesbian Scheduled for Gulf Duty Faces Discharge

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

Spec. 4 Donna Lynn Jackson, who was scheduled to leave from Ft. Ord in Northern California for the Persian Gulf this weekend with the 129th Evacuation Hospital, was transferred to a garrison unit that will not be deployed. Her orders for the Persian Gulf were canceled following her revelation, said a Ft. Ord spokesman, Master Sgt. Richard Czizik.

Czizik said that Jackson, whose rank is equivalent to 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, Jackson, 25, said Friday evening that 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. She said 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 acknowledgement 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.”

“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.

Now, Jackson is living in a motel near the base with her lover, Christie Carr, 42.

Jackson, a warehouse shipping clerk in civilian life, said she notified her 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, 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.

Jackson’s reserve medical unit is usually stationed in San Diego. About 55% of the unit’s 400 troops are women. The group is a combat support hospital composed 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.