reason, we seemed to be attrac- ted to each other. Not doing as well as expected in my studies, I left after the second year and got a full-time job. A month after I became 21, we were married. She had no idea of my interest in crossdressing and I had no inten- tion of telling her. But now that I was no longer in my patent's home and my mother was not keeping an eye on me, destiny ran its course. My wife and I were about the same size, and I was soon regularly dressing again and enjoying every minute of it. But it was still a secret life, and I had a great fear of discovery. I loved my wife, but believed that she would not be able to under- stand. I thought many times of telling her, but never got the nerve for fear of losing her if she couldn't accept the "other me."

Who knows what might have happened if I hadn't re- ceived my "greetings" from Un- cle Sam. To obtain some choice of training, I enlisted for three years - in the army. Following basic training I was sent for

a year of advanced training, then for a year in Viet Nam. During these years was not able to dress, and thought, for awhile, that this would be my "cure." But it wasn't. Although I could not dress, it was always in my mind and I began to see that some adjustment would have to be made when I returned to my wife after my overseas tour of duty. On returning to the states,! was granted leave before having to report to my next duty sta- tion. I used this time to persuade my wife to give up her job and go with me to my next assign- ment.

I decided that this was the time that I would "tell all." { couldn't go on with the emo- tional strain of keeping my feel- ings a secret and still leave a normal life with my wife. Since I was afraid that my wife would not understand, or would make a terrible scene, I took the cowards way out and decided not to tell her until we had left home and were on our way to my new as- signment. That way, at least, she would not be able to run home to her mother. All day long, in the car, I tried to bring the subject up, but never could quite make it. All I did was hint, which did nothing more than make my wife more and more curious. I finally told her that I would talk to her in a motel. The time came when I could put it off no longer, so I finally came right out with it and said, "I like women's clothes." I didn't know what to say when she calmly replied, "So what, most men do." And then the light dawned, and repeated, "But I MEAN that I like to WEAR women's clothes." it took quite awhile, long into the night, to try and explain to her about a subject even I really didn't understand. All things considered, she took it quite well, much better than I

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expected. After hours of talk, she finally said, "Well, let's see what you look like," and handed me one of her nightgowns!! For the rest of the night I was in heaven.

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my dressing

During the next few days, while finding an apartment and getting settled in at my new duty station, my wife and I had many long talks. She really couldn't understand why I felt the way I did, but didn't see much harm in at least at that time. She said that I could wear anything of hers that i wanted. and from time to time bought me a few things of my own.Since I was an instructor at an Army School, kept regular office hours, and became accustomed to coming home around 5:00 in the evening, changing clothes and pitching in with the housework. I think that was the biggest rea- son my wife went along with me

she hated doing housework. This was the best year of my life. I was able to do what I wanted to do and not have to feel guilty about it. But my wife still did not understand just accepted what she couldn't figure out how to change. She allow me to dress, but was always trying to talk me out of it. Í also got a new name. My wife said, "If there is going to be another girl in this house, I'm not going to call her by a boy's name." So we settled on "Donna," and my "second self" started to become a person in her own right. During that year (1962) discovered Trans- vestia in a bookstore, and in a short time i gained some insight into myself, through the ex- periences of others who had similar problems and who had to make similar adjustments. I tried to interest my wife into reading Transvestia, thinking it would help her to understand a little more about me, but she wasn't Interested and after looking at