Gay soldier’s Iraq tale goes far beyond ‘don’t ask‘ - Entertainment, Books - Navy Times

Gay soldier’s Iraq tale goes far beyond ‘don’t ask‘

The subtitle might make you think this book is the overdue “do ask, I’ll tell” memoir about an openly gay soldier among straight soldiers in a combat zone.

Wrong. How the North Dakota Army National Guard soldier “survived a year in Iraq” without being discharged under “don’t ask, don’t tell” is simple: He never mentions his sexual orientation, and nobody inquires.

Dakotans do not date while deployed in the desert, which is familiar territory: Sun, scorpions and sand.

“These ruins ... are what remain of Babylon, but they are not what the troops will remember. What they will remember is the sand. The sand is what ancient civilizations left behind. ... We trounce around this country, kicking the ash of people as we go.”

Such observation elevates this book from much of the competition. Lemer teaches college English and writes as a Plainsman in Mesopotamia.

During a sandstorm, he realizes: “I’m used to the way the wind can make a man feel lonely. Winters are white. But as I’m now finding out, winters in Kuwait are tan. …”

Also atypical in war zones is the love letter Bronson (as in the actor Charles) composes for Jeremy, his long-lost boyfriend. It appears in segments and is one way Lemer can talk — to himself — about a love that dare not speak its name around his fellow troops. The same troops may speak its name, however, in jest:

“‘We don’t allow any fags inside our tent,’ [a soldier] says as he chases [another soldier] away. He shakes his fist, laughs and ducks back inside the tent. I want to say, ‘Well, you already have one living in the tent,’ but I can’t. I don’t want to ruin what I have going with these men.”

The relationship is notable for the Kosovo veteran who hates Guard drill and becomes “grumpy and angry at the thought of putting on that uniform even if it was only for a weekend. Mostly, I fear what will happen when the soldiers in my platoon figure out what I am hiding.”

He hides, but little escapes him.His sense of pop culture and humor is never obtuse:

• “The Charles Bronson inside of [sic] me” wants “the bad guys to attack our truck,” wants “to fend them off with his machine gun and anger,” wants to “gun down anyone who threatened our presence in this country.”

• A “naïve” lieutenant “is like a grown Ken doll in GI camouflage” who wants to die in his sleep. “I think we all hope for that,” Lemer laughs. The officer doesn’t get it, but readers will.