Jason Pickart blended in with the lunchtime crowd at Oregon Emporium on Thursday afternoon: stylishly spiked blond hair, casual chic attire, microscopic silver cell phone nestled in the palm of his hand.
To look at him, you'd never guess he'd rather be somewhere else at that moment. Somewhere far, far away from the world of cappuccino and cell phones — war-torn Iraq.
When he watches CNN, when he listens to NPR, the 20-year-old former senior airman can't help imagining himself there, deployed as a field medic: "When I see our soldiers coming off the plane and going into military hospitals, I can't help thinking, 'I'm supposed to be there.' "
Only a few months ago, Pickart expected to be deployed to Iraq, providing triage to patients at a field hospital.
That was before Thanksgiving, when he made a mistake that cost him his job at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. "I said the right thing to the wrong person," said Pickart, a former medical technician at the base hospital.
When a friend asked what he was doing during Thanksgiving break, Pickart answered, "I'm going home to St. Louis to come out to my father." The friend promptly reported the comment to a superior.
On Feb. 28, just weeks before the United States entered into war with Iraq, the airman received an honorable discharge. The reason cited on his papers: "Homosexual conduct."
"Here we are deploying these hundreds of thousands of soldiers, and the Air Force is discharging an active-duty field medic," he said.
His discharge, chronicled by reporter Amelia Robinson in Tuesday's Dayton Daily News, has left many former co-workers indignant. "We miss having him here as a person, but most of all for the work he did," said Melinda Holder, a fellow medical technician. "He came to work to work, and he did a good job."
Because of "don't ask don't tell," Holder has decided she won't re-enlist: "I could never enforce this policy."
The problem goes far beyond the hundreds of gay military personnel — 906 in 2002 — discharged every year under "don't ask don't tell." How many talented people are discouraged from going into the military? How many servicemen and women live in fear of being found out?
"The policy didn't affect my morale too much, because I was being true to myself and honest with my co-workers," he said.
His father, who is retired military, hasn't spoken to him since his discharge. "He said he was disappointed in me," Pickart said. "That really hurt. But my stepmom is working on him."
Pickart is a pragmatist: "If you look at this from a business standpoint, this is bad business. In the civilian world, if you don't work, you get fired. In the military, you can do virtually no work and not get fired. Or you can work hard, and because of one ridiculous rule, you can get fired."
Another irony goes unspoken: While American soldiers are fighting for the freedom of the Iraqi people, Pickart is being denied the fundamental freedom to be himself.
Contact Mary McCarty at mary_mccarty@coxohio.com or 225-2209.
[From the Dayton Daily News: 04.23.2003]