Get Off My Ship

In 1975 Ensign Berg became the first Naval Officer to challenge the Navy's ban on homosexuality. He is a Naval Academy Graduate who placed in the top 10% of his class. The trial took two weeks during which each side presented expert testimony. Dr. John Money came from Johns Hopkins University Medical School, and Vice Admiral William P. Mack the Suprintendent of the Naval Academy testified that he thought that Ensign Berg should be retained despite what the policy was.The most compelling testimony came from his father a Presbyterian Minister and career Navy Chaplain who won a bronze star while serving in Viet Nam. He testified of knowing undetected homosexual officers in the ranks of Commander, Captain and Rear Admiral. He also testified that he knew openly gay combat marines serving in Viet Nam. For his testimony Chaplain Berg was forced to retire from the Navy and later died of a horrible cancer having been sprayed by agent orange in Viet Nam. The Berg case was settled in 1981 with an agreement made between the Jimmy Carter White House and the Pentagon to give only fully honorable discharges to all gay men and women discharged from the military. They also made this policy retroactive so that all persons who had ever been discharged could apply and have their discharges up graded to fully honorable. This is a great book. Compelling, sad, infuriating, and informative. I cry every time that I read the passages of testimony by his father. The father's love for his son is so strong that he willingly gives up his carrer by testifying for his son and against the present Pentagon policies. It's also a great love story between Berg and his lover who is the author of this book