wev's What? Again? 366/2016

RON_RIP

Senior Member
Not my picture and probably taken with an old Kodak, but I came across this looking for something else today and I'm posting it up anyway, as it seems fitting on this Veteran's Day. This is my great aunt Dorothy Tessen, then a major, taken in Korea, where she was chief surgery nurse of the 8076th Mash Unit. She joined up in 1939, spent WWII in the Philippines, New Guinea, North Africa, Italy, France, Germany, and England. She was in Korea for the duration of that mess, was chief of nurses at Fort Sam Houston, did two stints in Vietnam, and finally retired a full colonel in 1974. Though she was among the five ranking female officers at the time and the only one given a Bronze Star for action in combat, she was passed over for a General's star because she was known (unofficially, of course) to be a lesbian. She never made a deal of it, just said 'we are what we are, they do what they do.' When she passed in 1986, she specifically declined to be buried at Arlington.

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The back says "Dec '52 -- bout 15 deg"
God bless her and keep her in the palm of his hand. In 1963 I met a gentleman who had the Navy Cross and was on a fast tract to make Admiral until was outed as gay. He resigned his commission and went to work for the NSA and eventually became President Kennedy's daily intelligence briefer. And he would go on to serve three Presidents and yet, when he passed away in 1982, some desk jockey at the Pentagon tried to block his internment in Arlington and it was necessary to go all the way to the President to allow him to be buried there. Our military establishment has robbed this country of the services of many dedicated men and women by it's backward attitudes. One wonders if it will ever end.
 

wev

Senior Member
Contributor
12 November

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wev

Senior Member
Contributor
It was nice of the flicker to sit right out in the open, but did he need to do it 45 feet up in a palm?

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