No One Would Forget. . .

The following story is my response to "Court Bans Automatic Military Dismissal for Gays" (WSW, January, 1979). Only the names in this story are fictitious.

Static electrical currents sounded throughout the whole building that day in spring 1962 at Ft. McClellan, Alabama. Members of the Women's Army Corps Band felt tied up in knots. Hushed voices when I entered the kitchen for a bottle of pop. Doors were closed that were usually wide open. Secrets and rumors, but no one seemed to know what was happening. Where were the Commanding Officer, Lt. Jones and Master Sgt. Kindle?

A 3:00 meeting in the Day Room was called. I felt some relief to think that we would find out, but it would be big, for Col. Sands, the WAC Battalion Commander, the highest-ranking WAC on Post, would talk to us. People stayed to themselves or in very small tight groups. No Full Band in the rehearsal hall that day. The suspense mounted, for no one who knew would talk. At 3:00 about forty women quietly assembled, sitting in the various chairs and couches. A heavy weight of silence layered the tense waiting ' time.

"ATTENTION!"

Col. Sands appeared, followed by Capt. Oldham and First Sgt. Kopes. We stood. We sat.

"Lt. Jones and Sgt. Kindle have come to me today to tell me they thought it best for the Army to confess their abnormal' relationship and request a discharge."

Sgt. Kindle, with ten years service playing trumpet and conducting the Band at various times. No college but lots of experience and love for music. What would she do? Lt. Jones had not been with us very long, so we weren't as concerned.

"Because of the unusual situation, anyone who asks for a transfer to another unit will be granted one with no problems."

This is what it takes to get out?

*

"Capt. Oldham will take over duties until another Commanding Officer can be found. Lt. Jones and Sgt. Kindle are under arrest until their discharge. No one is to have any communication at all with either one of them. Anyone disobeying these orders will be jeopardizing their enlistment and may be putting

themselves under arrest and be dishonorably discharged.'

She said more, but I don't recall all of it. Some abrupt changes in seat positions voiced anger louder than words. Tears were streaming down the cheeks of some of the newest members. Shock was felt by all. No one would forget.

Visionary Mountains in Cleveland!

Many of you may have bought your planning calendars for 1979 already, but there's no harm in having another, particularly if it's Visionary Mountains. Created largely by Janet Century and Merle Graybill (formerly Merle Crews), this wall calendar has much more to offer than most. It is an interesting blend of original photographs (most by Janet), graphics and poetry that explores the network of alternative organizations in the Cleveland area. Although it provides specific information on many groups involved in such areas as health, legal services, feminist culture, services for aging persons, food, community publications, and personal growth · centers, it is not intended as a resource handbook. Rather, it attempts to show the variety of services available as well as their commonality.

Visionary Mountains is Janet and Merle's first large-scale project. As Conspect, Ink., they hope to do other similar work. They describe the creation of the calendar as an "exhilarating and painful experience of growth”: exhilarating in terms of the support they received from the groups they covered, the people who helped them (particularly Orange Blossom Press, who took a financial risk), and the invaluable skills they acquired in the process; painful in terms of the energy that went into meeting deadlines, the lack of money, equipment breakdowns, etc.

And they should be pleased with the results. Visionary Mountains will mean something to everyone and much more to the many women and men who have contributed to the Cleveland alternative network.

Visionary Mountains is on sale for $5.00 at local

Cover

bookstores and organizations, including Coventry Books, the East Side Food Coop, Publix Book Mart, Genesis, and WomenSpace. Or you can obain a copy from Conspect, Ink, 1653 Eddington Rd., Cleveland Heights, Ohio 44118. Please include $.50 postage and handling when ordering direct. Also, if you are interested in learning more about Conspect, Ink, call 321-9401.

-Linda Jane

Clio's Musings

January 1, 1849, Seneca Falls, New York: Amelia Bloomer brought out the first newspaper owned, operated and edited by a woman for women. Using the printing press next door to her home, she put out the Lily to protest the evils of the grape, but the Lily soon turned into a suffrage paper.

February 4, 1870, Manhattan, New York: Victoria Woodhull and her sister Tennie C. (for Tennessee) Claflin opened up the first brokerage firm run by female stockbrokers, called Woodhull, Claflin & Company. At least four thousand visitors thronged into the new brokerage to see Victoria and Tennie. The New York Herald, which dubbed them "The Queens of Finance" and "The Bewitching Brokers", decided that "Their extraordinary coolness and selfpossession...is far more remarkable than their personal beauty and graces of manner, and these are considerable. So many shocked financial wizards came to ogle the handsomely gowned occupants

1962

While we were in the Day Room, someone else was going through the building confiscating pictures and any other signs of the two women. Pictures were taken off private dressers and nightstands and off the public walls. Lt. Jones and Sgt. Kindle were being erased from the Earth.

The Brass left us to ourselves. Carrying the initial shock with us, we went our separate ways—some to cry, some to hide, some to throw things. Later a few of us went to the NCO Club to drink and to be together. Each person bought a pitcher of beer, even the woman who didn't drink.

"I don't care. I'm going to talk to Kim," "No, don't."

"But she's my friend. I can't see her in the Mess Hall and pretend I don't know her."

"It's unfair, unjust."

"Sandy and I know what it's like for us to be under guard, right Sandy?"

"Yeah. Three years ago the CO questioned all of us, one by one. The interrogators tried to wear us down to tell on each other. They didn't get anything from me. It was hell.''

"Remember, we were ordered to stay in our own living areas and practice alone while waiting to be called out. This went on for about three months. Six people who were innocent were court-martialed for unnatural acts."

"But we can't just stay away. Kim needs to know we're her friends,"

"Kim knows. She was here before. She knows that we are all under suspicion now. Another investigation could open up exactly like the hell three years ago. There would be no more WAC Band."'

Later that night and many nights afterward drums, trumpets, and other instruments sounded throughout the building from the rehearsal hall playing music from the classics to the blues-especially the blues.

-Paula A. Copestick

behind the walnut desks that the women were forced to hang a sign reading, 'All Gentlemen will state their business and then retire at once.'''

February 14, 1870, South Pass City, Wyoming: Esther Hobart Morris was appointed the first woman Justice of the Peace. Esther was almost six feet tall and weighed close to two hundred pounds. Though she served only a few months, none of her almost seventy decisions was overturned by a higher court, not even her charge of assault and battery against her husband. She slapped him with a fine and abandoned him when she moved to Cheyenne.

The above were excerpted from The American Woman's Gazetteer, by Lynn Sherr and Jurate Kazickas (Bantam Books, 1976).

Woman's Roots/Elaine Lindy

February, 1979/What She Wants/Page 9