I went into the Coast Guard for all the wrong reasons….my lease was ending soon, I had no job, no money. But, as it turned out, signing up for the Coast Guard was the best solution. I had a great recruiter who told me what I needed to be able to do to get through boot camp. So, I worked up to running 5 miles a day and doing 75 push-ups in one shot. By the time I got to boot camp, I was in great shape and just had to deal with the psychological stuff that was thrown at me. I ended being Company Commander and graduated 2nd in my company.

My first station was the Seattle small boat station. I loved it there! It was a very busy station…lots of search and rescue sorties. While there, I volunteered to go to Long Beach and work on the 1984 Olympic Task Force. What a great summer that was!

I was finally sent to Boatswains Mate “A” School in Yorktown, VA during summer of ’85 and went to Coxswain School. From there, I was assigned to Station Rochester as the first female petty officer they’d ever had. Many of the guys there were not thrilled, especially to be taking orders from a woman. I was given many of the youngest misfits as my crew. They turned out to be a great bunch. They worked their hearts out for me and followed every order without question.

In early summer of 87, my commanding officer, a really good guy, asked me to take a walk with him out on the jetty. He said he had a question to ask me. If I said no, the question would not come up again. If I said yes, well, we’d deal with it. I was pretty sure I knew what was coming. I overheard some comments in the mess hall and in the boathouse. Then my commanding officer asked,”Are you gay?”. I thought about my answer for what seemed like an hour but was only for a minute. I said, “Yes”. He said, “okay”, and we walked back to base.

Because I had a good reputation with Buffalo District Commander, I was told that if I left quietly, I would be given an honorable discharge. This was before “Don’t ask, don’t tell”, so I knew I had no choice. I was released later that summer.

Despite what happened, I’m still very proud of my Coast Guard service. I saved lives, enforced laws, and trained some damn good Coasties. It’s made lots of great stories to tell my middle school students!