WITCH HUNT AT PARRIS ISLAND
Lynch, Jim
WITCH HUNT at Parris Island The Marine Corps targets lesbians BY JIM LYNCH Sergeant Mary Kyle was on leave, waxing her truck, when a colonel called her in for a talk. Kyle slipped into her...
...There were certain words that just twisted the whole meaning of it," she said...
...It was allegedly packed with statements from women Marines who "had been with her...
...A Pentagon directive requires the discharge of anyone who engages in or attempts to engage in a homosexual act...
...The Corps fit her quick mind and tough body...
...It wasn't a normal friendship kiss on the cheek that two friends would do, was it...
...The statement NIS obtained was later deemed inadmissible evidence, because nobody had read Knox her rights...
...Hearsay...
...The Marine Corps maintains that the Parris Island inquisition began as a routine follow-up to an October 1986 report that two women Marines were found naked in a motel room together...
...Miller testified that the NIS fabricated an entire paragraph in its account of her six-hour interrogation...
...At the July court-martial of Sergeant Cheryl Jameson, two women Marine sergeants testified as character witnesses for Jameson, stating that she was a good soldier and that they would be willing to work with her again...
...And where on your bodies did you kiss each other...
...From 1982 through 1987, 447 men and 213 women were ousted from the Marines for homosexuality...
...kicked open a motel-room door...
...Judge Gordon noted that the Army "continually characterized homosexuals as a group defined by the desire and intent to engage in criminal acts of sodomy...
...What, if anything, did Corporal Baum say after you kissed each other on the lips...
...If a woman Marine is a little too friendly, she's a slut...
...Kyle is still happily married...
...After reviewing the Army Reserve's refusal to re-enlist Sergeant Miriam Ben-Shalom because of her admitted homosexuality, Gordon declared, "The elimination of all soldiers with homosexual orientations from the ranks of the Army is not rationally related to the advancement of any compelling Government interest...
...At this writing, a Marine captain with eleven years of impeccable service faces allegations of fraternizing with a civilian homosexual...
...Baum sat through days of testimony dissecting that evening...
...Private L.M...
...She did not want to risk a felony charge in an unfair court-martial proceeding...
...One of his clients, charged with making an "indecent assault" on another Marine, had wrapped a comforting arm around a weeping colleague...
...without a break and without food...
...It's just the humiliation they put you through," she says...
...We just kissed, sir...
...Judge Gordon ruled that the Army's policy also violated Ben-Shalom's Fifth Amendment right to equal protection under the law...
...He has defended eight women Marines against allegations of homosexuality...
...Six months later, Kyle was expelled from the U.S...
...He observed that the regulation unfairly burdens homosexuals, and that the Army has provided no evidence that homosexuals are "incompatible with military service...
...If she doesn't smile at all, she's a dyke...
...She was repeatedly urged to admit to having had sexual relations with Kyle...
...There's a chapter in there on interrogations...
...In its defense, the Army claimed it could not re-enlist admitted homosexuals on the same grounds that it could not re-enlist confessed kleptomaniacs or arsonists—for fear the soldiers would commit criminal acts...
...Those close to the inquisition simply call it "the witch hunt...
...Her superiors called her the prototype of a "hard-driving" woman Marine who could be counted on in combat...
...Before NIS agents cornered Sergeant Kyle late on the afternoon of January 11, 1988, they grilled Naval Petty Officer Terry Knox...
...How long did the kissing on the lips between the two of you on this occasion last...
...Bates was furious that years of espionage by Navy man John Walker and his spy ring had gone unnoticed...
...Private Michele Hodkoskie testified in the Kyle hearing that "everybody's trying to put words in my mouth, sir...
...A 1984 Congressional report estimated the Pentagon spent $336 million on its homosexuality probes in 1983 alone...
...Approximately, how many times have you sent flowers to a fellow Marine, roughly speaking...
...Kyle wanted to laugh, maybe call her husband and chuckle over the prank...
...Kyle slipped into her uniform and hustled to the Marine Corps base...
...Gordon did not accept the analogy and cited it as an example of the Army's "hostility" toward homosexuals...
...The Navy leads the armed forces in moving against alleged homosexuals...
...Military investigating officers review evidence at hearings, acting as one-man grand juries, and decide whether cases warrant court-martial proceedings or lighter consequences...
...We kissed each other on the lips, sir...
...Agents warned Knox she could lose custody of her six-month-old daughter if she did not cooperate...
...It is also the only employer that prosecutes consenting adults for what they do together in private...
...Marine Corps is purging women from its ranks at the Parris Island Recruit Training Depot, a boot camp skirting the South Carolina coast, where all women Marines start...
...When Neill Robins testified at the Knox hearing in March 1988, he said the NIS does not threaten witnesses or coerce statements...
...The U.S...
...The woman Marine who sent the dozen roses to comfort a depressed colleague decided to get out rather than answer more questions...
...The agent claimed that there were photographs, too, and that a Navy petty officer had admitted to kissing and masturbating with Kyle...
...Jim Lynch is a reporter on the staff of Washington columnist Jack Anderson...
...Marine Corps she had served and loved for five years...
...Like Ben-Shalom, Wat-kins had an impeccable military record, but was denied re-enlistment after his admission of homosexuality...
...We just—we were just like testing each other out to see...
...Knox later testified that the statement was false, that she signed it to end the questioning...
...military still holds homosexuality taboo...
...This is their big bust of the year, their big secret mission," she says...
...I'm getting real tired of your bullshit," she said...
...Others suspect the mandate came directly from the Commandant of the Marine Corps, General A.M...
...Kyle asked...
...But the investigation gained momentum in May 1988, after NIS agents persuaded a woman Marine, whose credibility was later demolished in court, to accuse some sixty women Marines of lesbian activities...
...On June 10, 1988, Corporal Baum was convicted of sodomy, indecent acts, conspiring to obstruct justice, and obstructing justice...
...J.L...
...Press on...
...The NIS is accustomed to criticism...
...In 1987, 773 were discharged, compared to 335 by the Army and 282 by the Air Force...
...In Milwaukee, Judge Myron Gordon ruled in January that the Pentagon's policy violates First Amendment rights and is basically irrational...
...The captain is outraged even though she is certain the allegations are so shabby that her record will not be stained...
...She was promoted to corporal after just two years of service...
...Since women constitute only 5 per cent of Marine Corps strength, Pentagon statistics indicate women are eight times as likely as men to be discharged for homosexuality...
...Naval Academy for forcing Joe Stef-fan out of the Academy after the midshipman admitted being gay...
...Are you aware of any other Marines sending flowers...
...to about 3 p.m...
...He was so thoroughly convinced of Ben-Shalom's right to re-enlist that he suggested the Government ought to pay her legal costs...
...The Army is expected to appeal Judge Gordon's decision in the Ben-Shalom case...
...He wrote that there is "no proof' that Ben Shalom engaged in homosexual acts or made advances to other soldiers...
...As an added punch, NIS agents left Knox alone with her estranged husband and monitored the heated exchange from the other side of a two-way mirror...
...On January 11, 1988, NIS agents also questioned Sergeant Jacqueline Hickey...
...I thank God every day that I'm a male Marine in this male Marine Corps, and I say that because of what I know to be the reality in the Marine Corps," Captain Guy Richardson testified in the Kyle hearing...
...Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco reached similar conclusions in a case involving Sergeant Perry Watkins...
...For homosexuality...
...The Marines tried to charge Knox with perjury, but later dropped the charge...
...She cooperated to the tune of fourteen hours of questioning, but was locked up anyway...
...In 1984, the Center for Investigative Reporting had disclosed that the NIS had an undercover agent keeping tabs on nuclear-freeze groups, despite restrictions forbidding military intelligence organizations from investigating private citizens...
...In 1985, Representative Jim Bates, California Democrat, proposed that Congress abolish the NIS and pass its functions to other agencies...
...But she didn't get the chance...
...That's how Kyle recalls part of the interrogation she endured on January 11, 1988...
...Gray, who took over the Marines in 1987 and has been billed as the hardest-boiled Marine ever to lead the Corps...
...Her trial transcript ran to 129 pages, padded with detailed, seemingly voyeuristic questioning...
...The Ben-Shalom decision came less than a year after Judge William Norris of the U.S...
...But the Parris Island lesbian hunt is more than just one military-intelligence agency running amok...
...They weren't long...
...Hodkoskie charged that an NIS agent had changed her answers to questions about whether Kyle stared at recruits in the shower...
...Lambda said the Ben-Shalom and Watkins decisions should help bolster the Steffan case and compel the Pentagon to modify its policy on homosexuals...
...The military is not bending, however...
...A soldier can be ousted for a casual kiss or hug, if the military decides that some sexual interest is involved...
...No sir, I'm not...
...The jilted lover tried to keep the women hostage and called the NIS...
...Knox was interrogated from 8 a.m...
...If she doesn't smile at all, she's a dyke.' ual: "It is considerably easier to successfully interrogate the anxious subject whom the interrogator observes is on the verge of losing self control, than the calm, collected individual who is in excellent self control...
...He also found that barring homosexuals from the armed services "chills the right of freedom of speech...
...Most of the testimony at her court-martial tracked back twenty months to an early-morning incident when a man found his former lover in Baum's arms after he Illegal and Irrational Federal judges are beginning to find glaring constitutional flaws in the military's harsh stance on homosexuality...
...After her hearing, in which seventeen people testified that she was a top-notch drill instructor, Kyle reluctantly accepted the Government's offer of an administrative discharge...
...Rather than go through the hearings to prove her innocence, Hickey resigned from the Marine Corps last April...
...In December, the Lambda Legal Defense Fund, a gay-rights group in New York City, filed suit against outgoing Defense Secretary Frank Carlucci and the U.S...
...Kyle lived for the Marines...
...To the average taxpayer financing the investigation, the lesbian hearings might sound like Monty Python satire...
...Some of the women who have seen the investigation believe that report gave the NIS license to use any tactics necessary to stamp out the imagined scourge of lesbianism...
...A Marine Corps spokesman explained that there was a "loss of confidence by their superiors based on the content of their testimony under oath in the Jameson case...
...An NIS agent waved a thick manila folder in Kyle's face...
...The public accepts openly gay athletes and politicians, but the U.S...
...The Marines and the NIS claim there is nothing unusual about the investigation...
...Yes, sir...
...After almost seven hours, a drained Terry Knox signed a statement, written by an NIS agent, that said she and Kyle had kissed on two occasions and had masturbated together...
...If a woman Marine is a little too friendly, she's a slut...
...The information proved far too insubstantial to permit pursuit of homosexuality charges, but the alleged friendship with an alleged homosexual civilian was enough to let the Marines charge the captain with "conduct unbecoming an officer...
...Pressed by a defense attorney as to whether the NIS had an interrogation manual that encouraged such tactics, Robins said no such manual existed...
...They weren't very long...
...Homosexuality is incompatible with military service," says the Defense Department's policy...
...She was discharged from the Marines, dropped in rank to private, and sentenced to a year in a military prison...
...Kyle called it all ridiculous...
...When Gray became commandant, he criticized the slack condition of his troops and made clear his plans to tighten discipline...
...They also threatened to tell her mother, who was critically ill at the time, about the lesbian allegations...
...Barbara Baum was, by all accounts, an excellent Marine...
...The lesbian hunt may be a side-effect of a major challenge confronting women in the military—finding respect in a traditionally male field...
...That [excerpt] is from the manual on NIS procedures...
...The agent bristled...
...The decisions do not question the Pentagon's right to discharge soldiers who have committed homosexual acts...
...When she arrived, gruff agents from the Naval Investigative Service led her to an office with a two-way mirror and urged her to "come clean" on her homosexual activities...
...Kyle's voice tightens with anger when she explains that she had to admit guilt to false charges to get her discharge...
...The Naval Investigative Service has taken to its lesbian hunt with a passion, as though it were ridding the Marines of enemy spies...
...Her promotion was denied...
...Baum's sentence violated a reported promise of clemency if she cooperated with the Government prosecutor...
...Repeated clemency pleas by her attorneys finally won Baum's release from prison six months later...
...During one stretch of her career, Kyle was "Marine of the Month" for six months running...
...He marches the halls of the Pentagon in camouflage fatigues, chomping on a cigar...
...Robins was the NIS special agent in charge at Parris Island before leaving the post last summer...
...Along the way, civil liberties have been trampled...
...When I read that excerpt to Sandy Mandell, an NIS agent at Parris Island, he explained Robins's statement: "There is no interrogation manual," he said...
...If sodomy or indecent acts are alleged, the military can pros-, ecute them as felonies...
...You're going to find your ass in the county jail tonight...
...Testimony at military hearings reveals that NIS agents have twisted and tailored witnesses' statements to fit charges...
...Her suit is still in the courts...
...For what...
...About six times, sir...
...Other cases involving the rights of gays and lesbians in the military are pending...
...I wanted to be in the Marine Corps until they said, 'Sergeant Kyle, you're seventy-five years old and you can't be a Marine any more.' I loved it...
...It's been by the book," says a Marine spokesman at Parris Island, but that is, at best, a dubious assertion...
...It also reflects concerns stressed in a 1987 report on women in the military which took note of rumors that a women's Marine base was known as "Lessy Land...
...For their support of a woman Marine who pleaded guilty to indecent acts and fraternization, both sergeants had their rank reduced and their pay cut...
...Corporal Baum pulled back and said, That wasn't bad.'" "Objection...
...The military is the only workplace in the country where homosexuality is legal grounds for dismissal...
...I've never seen such flimsy charges brought by the Government before," says North Carolina attorney Vaughn Taylor, who has practiced military law for twenty years...
...Mary Kyle now drives trucks across the country for a living...
...I still love the Marines...
...Kyle is one of eleven women Marines recently ousted from Parris Island for alleged or admitted homosexual activities...
...Naval investigators seem to give women Marines the closest scrutiny...
...The agents took turns questioning Knox and kept pointing toward a box of video tapes and cassettes, insisting that NIS already had proof...
...They weren't short, either...
...Bates was also aware of civil-liberties violations by the NIS, which seemed to be a cowboy intelligence agency out of control...
...Captain Dusty Pruitt was about to be promoted to major in the Army Reserve in 1983 when The Los Angeles Times published an article in which she admitted to being a lesbian...
...The captain first heard about the allegations when she was cornered by an NIS agent who said, "I'm glad I'm not you, because you're going to jail...
...Since then, almost half of the 246 women Marines stationed at Parris Island have been questioned...
...Kyle's attorney asked Marine Corps Captain Leah Watson, "Is there a stereotype associated with female drill instructors who have short hair, who drive pickup trucks, and they may not walk like Cheryl Tiegs...
...The NIS quoted Miller on Kyle's alleged relationship with a lieutenant whom Miller had never heard of before...
...Despite Robins's claim, this revealing interrogation tip appears in an NIS manthank God every day that I'm a male Marine in this male Marine Corps...
...But the humor rings hollow for the women who have seen their careers trashed at these hearings, or for the three women Marines who were tried by court-martial and jailed in 1988...
...The two rulings challenge the military's right to expel soldiers because of their sexual orientation...
...Many women Marines have resigned, opting for honorable discharges rather than endure hearings or trials on humiliating charges...
...Knox insisted the allegations were false, that Kyle was her friend...
...The obstruction and conspiracy charges amounted mostly to hearsay evidence that Baum tried to persuade other Marines to bluff NIS agents...
...But Jameson went to jail and the message to those "lenient on homosexuality" had already been sent...
...She credits overzealous NIS agents with cutting her career short...
...No...
...No, sir...
...The American Civil Liberties Union filed charges alleging unlawful command-influence on the part of the Marines...
...I personally believe that a woman Marine in the normal course of a day confronts more stress and more bullshit than a male Marine would in twenty years...
...When they couldn't pry the right answers from her, they told Hickey she was bound for jail...
...But last June, at age twenty-three, she was on trial...
...not just drill instructors, any woman Marine, sir...
Vol. 53 • March 1989 • No. 3
