Reply #25: That's because they can't control their sexual desires. And would

[haele]

f**k anything that would let them. I've known jerks like that. When stuck serving with them, carrying a ratcheting cable cutter with you could make the point "leave me alone". (Just flick it open, and start ratcheting it down as you looked them straight in the eye while they were trying to hit on you...)

I joined the Navy in '77. Went to "C" school in '78/'79 at the same command (and barracks complexes) that some Pac-deployed River-Rats (aka "Swift Boaters")were based, and knew quite a few of them while I was there and heard "all the stories" - or at least a good number of them - and saw some of the pictures that didn't get tacked on the cork-board next to their desks or shown to the wife and kids at home.
I'm not saying they were a swell bunch of guys - they liked shock value and pretty much only respected people who took them at their own value and didn't freak out easily.

These guys, some of whom were still rotating "in-country" supporting black-ops or the CIA, cared only that the guys serving with them 1) did their jobs without bitching and knew their limitations, 2) didn't get anyone else killed if or when they skirted the system (i.e., black market dealings or getting drunk), 3) didn't stink too much, and 4) weren't insufferable assholes who couldn't take a joke or got shocked too easily.

Looking back with a bit more of an experienced eye, I'm pretty sure that at least two of the 'Rats I played ping-pong or pool with at the barracks when there was nothing else to do were gay. No one cared about anyone else's personal lives unless there was drama that could become distracting to the mission.

A personal relationship or lifestyle that was not easily prosecutable (i.e. - consenting adults) and did not cause drama or hassle the command did not concern anyone in the military unless they were nosy idiots. Not when I first enlisted, not on my ship in the early 80's, not during Desert Shield/Desert Storm in the early '90s, not when I retired in 1998, not now while I'm still supporting the Navy and still have contact with the military "culture".

That congress-critter was playing to his crowd - and he was probably a Vietnam era REMP at best.

Bet his uni was always pressed and his shoes were always shiney...

Haele