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Barrack Buddies And Soldier Lovers
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Book Synopsis Barrack Buddies and Soldier Lovers by : Steven Zeeland
Download or read book Barrack Buddies and Soldier Lovers written by Steven Zeeland and published by Routledge. This book was released on 1993 with total page 293 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Gay servicemen are obliged by bitter necessity to keep their sexual orientations a closely guarded secret. But now, 16 soldiers and airmen, all in their 20s, reveal stories of their sex lives in the armed forces. Barrack Buddies and Soldier Lovers is a voyeuristic glimpse into the secret lives of gay GIs, touching on many of their concerns.
Book Synopsis Barrack Buddies and Soldier Lovers by : Steven Zeeland
Download or read book Barrack Buddies and Soldier Lovers written by Steven Zeeland and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2014-06-03 with total page 582 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Among all the literature published on gays in the military, Steven Zeeland’s first book remains one of a kind. Barrack Buddies and Soldier Lovers is a raw, unsanitized personal record of conversations the author had with young soldiers and airmen stationed in Frankfurt, Germany. Zeeland’s intimate involvement with these men enabled him to document in honest, visceral terms the day-to-day reality of gay military men’s lives and how they work, play, and, in many instances, how the military actually helped them come out. Ironically, despite the military’s antigay policies, these men found that military service placed them in environments where they had to come to terms with their erotic feelings for other men, and sent them overseas to places where they found greater freedom to explore their sexuality than they could have back home. While a few of Zeeland’s buddies were targeted for discharge, most portray an atmosphere of sexually tense tolerance and reveal a surprising degree of openness with straight co-workers and roommates. The 16 fascinating interviews in Barrack Buddies and Soldier Lovers challenge popular assumptions and stereotypes about gay men in the military and provide significant information on: gay military sexual networks male sexual fluidity in barracks life strategies for survival as a gay or bisexual male in the U.S. military German-American relations attitudes toward the gay ban The casual, conversational structure of Barrack Buddies and Soldier Lovers makes it a richly entertaining read. No other book provides such a warm and intimate portrait of the lives of young gay soldiers and airmen. Visit Steven Zeeland at his home page: http://www.stevenzeeland.com
Download or read book Military Trade written by Steven Zeeland and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2019-07-18 with total page 318 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A same-sex attraction for soldiers and sailors spans the globe and predates the term “homosexual” by several thousand years. But these days “military chasers” are likely to be seen as doubly incorrect. Most are gay men who pursue straight men. And, many of them do it in public. What continues to motivate so many men to brave arrest, violence, and the scorn of gay leaders who condemn any non-gay homosexual desire as “internalized homophobia”?In Military Trade (now updated to include an expanded photo insert!), Steven Zeeland, author of Sailors and Sexual Identity, The Masculine Marine, and Barrack Buddies and Soldier Lovers, brings together an edgy, enlightening, and richly entertaining collection of voices with a passion for servicemen, including: a TV talk-show host who pimped Marines to Hollywood stars a heavy metal superstar who dreams of being reincarnated as a Marine boot a women “trapped in a gay man’s body” who seduces Marines online then dominates them in person with strap-on dildos a former Force Recon Marine who complains of being chased by civilians but is now a Marine-chaser himself By turns steamy, hilarious, appalling, and deeply moving, Military Trade challenges assumptions about both chaser and chased and poses pointed questions about the wisdom of those who seek to divide the world into “straight” and “gay.” The interviews and essays collected in this book suggest that, paradoxically, for many men the advances of the gay rights movement have actually made it more difficult to form affectional bonds with other men. Gay sex has never been more openly advertised. But the military love of comrades is something that gay life can’t offer. Military Trade offers groundbreaking insight into: the difference between “military chasers” and uniform fetishists why gay men prefer sailors and Marines over soldiers and airmen the surprising range of sexual, “buddy,” and even love relationships “chasers” form with servicemen the nuances of “trade” and civil-military male prostitution what has been overlooked in the “sex panic” debate about men who have sex in public places For anyone interested in queer theory, the construction of masculinity, or sex between men outside of gay urban culture--and for anyone who has ever thrilled at the sight of a man in uniform--Military Trade is must reading.
Book Synopsis Sailors and Sexual Identity by : Steven Zeeland
Download or read book Sailors and Sexual Identity written by Steven Zeeland and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-08-21 with total page 575 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Sailors and Sexual Identity, author Steven Zeeland talks with young male sailors--both gay- and straight-identified--about ways in which their social and sexual lives have been shaped by their Navy careers. Despite massive media attention to the issue, there remains a gross disparity between the public perception of “gays in the military” and the sexual realities of military life. The conversations in this book reveal how known “gay” and “straight” men can and do get along in the sexually tense confines of barracks and shipboard life once they discover that the imagined boundary between them is not, in fact, a hard line. The stories recounted here in vivid detail call into question the imagined boundaries between gay and straight, homosexual and homosocial, and suggest a secret Pentagon motivation for the gay ban: to protect homoerotic military rituals, buddy love, and covert military homosexuality from the taint of sexual suspicion. Zeeland’s interviews explore many aspects of contemporary life in the Navy including: gay/straight friendship networks the sexual charge to the Navy/Marine Corps rivalry the reality behind sailors’reputations as sexual adventurers in port and at sea men’s differing interpretations of homoerotic military rituals and initiations sex and gender stereotypes associated with military job specialities how sailors view being seen as sex objects Everyone interested in the issue of gays in the military, along with a general gay readership, gay veterans, and gay men for whom sailors represent a sexual ideal, will find Sailors and Sexual Identity an informative and entertaining read. Visit Steven Zeeland at his home page: http://www.stevenzeeland.com
Download or read book The Bear Handbook written by Ray Kampf and published by Psychology Press. This book was released on 2000 with total page 164 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Maneuvers written by Cynthia Enloe and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2000-02-01 with total page 441 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Maneuvers takes readers on a global tour of the sprawling process called "militarization." With her incisive verve and moxie, eminent feminist Cynthia Enloe shows that the people who become militarized are not just the obvious ones—executives and factory floor workers who make fighter planes, land mines, and intercontinental missiles. They are also the employees of food companies, toy companies, clothing companies, film studios, stock brokerages, and advertising agencies. Militarization is never gender-neutral, Enloe claims: It is a personal and political transformation that relies on ideas about femininity and masculinity. Films that equate action with war, condoms that are designed with a camouflage pattern, fashions that celebrate brass buttons and epaulettes, tomato soup that contains pasta shaped like Star Wars weapons—all of these contribute to militaristic values that mold our culture in both war and peace. Presenting new and groundbreaking material that builds on Enloe's acclaimed work in Does Khaki Become You? and Bananas, Beaches, and Bases, Maneuvers takes an international look at the politics of masculinity, nationalism, and globalization. Enloe ranges widely from Japan to Korea, Serbia, Kosovo, Rwanda, Britain, Israel, the United States, and many points in between. She covers a broad variety of subjects: gays in the military, the history of "camp followers," the politics of women who have sexually serviced male soldiers, married life in the military, military nurses, and the recruitment of women into the military. One chapter titled "When Soldiers Rape" explores the many facets of the issue in countries such as Chile, the Philippines, Okinawa, Rwanda, and the United States. Enloe outlines the dilemmas feminists around the globe face in trying to craft theories and strategies that support militarized women, locally and internationally, without unwittingly being militarized themselves. She explores the complicated militarized experiences of women as prostitutes, as rape victims, as mothers, as wives, as nurses, and as feminist activists, and she uncovers the "maneuvers" that military officials and their civilian supporters have made in order to ensure that each of these groups of women feel special and separate.
Book Synopsis Fatherhood for Gay Men by : K. J. McGarry
Download or read book Fatherhood for Gay Men written by K. J. McGarry and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2003 with total page 134 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The author details his successful efforts to adopt a Vietnamese boy as a single gay man and gives advice to other prospective gay adopters. He discusses the psychological barriers to the decision, summarizes the steps of the adoption process, explores the financial costs, and looks at the current legal climate for gay adoption. Annotation (c)2003 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com).
Book Synopsis The Masculine Marine by : Steven Zeeland
Download or read book The Masculine Marine written by Steven Zeeland and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-04-03 with total page 234 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This exciting book was listed as #1 on The Advocate’s (ital) bestseller list for December 1996! In The Masculine Marine, author Steven Zeeland records, for the first time ever, what active-duty Marines have to say about what it means to be a man, to be a Marine, and to desire other men. As the foremost surviving icon of traditional masculinity, Marines are often considered the opposite of “gay.” Yet in contemporary gay culture, Marines are stereotyped as likely to play the passive role in sexual encounters with other men. By vividly illustrating some of the startling ways in which gay and Marine attributes can coincide, The Masculine Marine uncovers the wild sexual contradictions built into military hypermasculinity. From ordinary grunts to a major who flies a combat jet, Zeeland’s Marine interviewees provide thoughtful and articulate insight into aspects of this rarely documented culture, including: homoerotic bonding among Marines how gay Marines reconcile their sexual identity with the ethos of “hard” Marine supermasculinity how some Marines eroticize the pain and humiliation of Marine Corps boot camp Marines in all-male pornography male attitudes toward women in the Marine Corps hazing and institutional violence These Marines talk candidly about what motivated them to join the United States’most elite fighting force, and they reveal how becoming Marines has shaped their sexual and gender identities. For the student of gay or military studies or anyone sexually intrigued by men in uniform, The Masculine Marine must reading. Visit Steven Zeeland at his home page: http://www.stevenzeeland.com
Download or read book The Mentor written by Jay Quinn and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2014-04-23 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Examine a moving, personal narrative about growing up gay in the south! Students, teachers, and anyone interested in gay studies and experiences will find that The Mentor: A Memoir of Friendship and Gay Identity (a 2001 Lambda Literary Foundation Gay Male Biography/Autobiography Award finalist) delivers a captivating and honest look into the challenges of growing up gay through the context of firsthand experiences, revelations, and realizations. This unique book is an intelligent and personal narrative that considers the social, religious, and emotional aspects of what it is like to grow up as a gay male in the south and examines the enormous social changes regarding homosexuality that have taken place in America during the last half of the century. Written to reveal the importance of the author's mentor in helping him form his self-identity and educating him about being gay, this book challenges the stereotypical idea that, unlike heterosexuals, gay men are not able to form nurturing, fulfilling bonds between themselves. The Mentor delivers an inspiring story about accepting and understanding your sexuality with the help and guidance of other men who have traveled the road to a successful gay identity. This unique book offers the courage, strength, and support of a mentor to help guide you through the trials that many young gay men experience, such as: recognizing the possibilities of exploitation by older gay men due to a lack of emotional and social experience creating a loyal relationship with a man that does not include sex but which satisfies emotional needs that many gay men need and long for discovering the importance of a mentor to gay youths, since there are few homosexual role models to learn from Sincere and well-written, The Mentor provides insight into everything from the author's experience with intolerance of homosexuality by certain religions to struggles with fidelity and infidelity, illustrating the difficult yet universal challenges of life relationships. The Mentor contains suggestions that will help you recognize that your feelings of desire and love and your quest for human connection as a gay man are not the distorted reflections of a heterosexual image, but a healthy gay identity. With this unique book, you will discover how to make the shift from confusion to full acceptance of your gay identity, you will understand that you are not alone, and perhaps you will be encouraged to pass on the legacy of a mentor to other young gay men.
Book Synopsis Longtime Companions by : Alfred Lees
Download or read book Longtime Companions written by Alfred Lees and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2018-10-24 with total page 266 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Longtime Companions: Autobiographies of Gay Male Fidelity provides a sophisticated alternative to “anything goes” gay literature. Challenging the stereotype that gay men are incapable of lasting and successful relationships, 15 long-term gay couples share slices of their own lives to give you insight into their present relationships, while some discuss life after their mates have passed on. You will find that their stories offer an inspirational and richly fulfilling alternative to an empty life of promiscuity that lacks true love.Through a treasury of autobiographical essays, Longtime Companions documents how committed gay male unions can be as enduring, nurturing, and diverse as heterosexual marriages and proves that loving commitments and life-sharing are not exclusive to heterosexual unions. A celebration of gay diversity, this book offers you insights from contributors of different ages, professions, geographic locations, and attitudes. You will learn the intimate details of the couples’lives, including: how they met their partners how soon they committed to each other how long the couples have been together--from 14 years to over 50 years their keys to leading successful, happy lives the ways in which their relationships fulfill their personal needs and contribute to community lifeYou will come to realize the true strength of these men’s relationships as you share in their struggles within a society that offers them little recognition or support for their successful relationships. Co-editor Alfred Lees explains in the introduction to Longtime Companions, “We’ve all worked diligently to make our partnerships sound, nurturing, and enduring. We’ve done this without any social motivation, largely without role models, in the face of ‘official’disapproval or contempt. We’ve told our stories here to refute--by the simple facts of our experience--the grotesque misrepresentation of gays as being incapable of stable, committed relationships.” Will add more. . . Through a treasury of autobiographical essays, Longtime Companions documents how committed gay-male unions can be as enduring, nurturing, and diverse as heterosexual marriages and proves that loving commitment and life-sharing are not exclusive to heterosexual unions. A celebration of gay diversity, contributors vary in age, profession, geographic location, and attitudes. You will learn the intimate details of the couples’lives, including: how they met their partners how soon they committed to each other how they managed to collaborate on successful, fulfilling lives how some have maintained their commitment as part of an open relationshipYou will come to realize the true strength of these men’s relationships as you share in their struggles within a society that offers them little recognition or support for their successful relationships. Co-Author Alfred Lees explains in the Introduction to Longtime Companions, “We’ve all worked diligently to make our partnerships sound, nurturing, and enduring. We’ve done this without any social innovation, largely without role models, in the face of ‘official” disapproval or contempt. We’ve told our stories here to refute--by the simple facts of our experience--the grotesque misrepresentation of gays as being incapable of stable, committed relationships.”
Book Synopsis Homosexual Rites of Passage by : Marie Mohler
Download or read book Homosexual Rites of Passage written by Marie Mohler and published by Psychology Press. This book was released on 2000 with total page 144 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Homosexual Rites of Passage: A Road to Visibility and Validation will help you, as a gay or lesbian individual, work through identity issues, come out, and become visible in a healthy and safe manner. You will find this unique book to be an excellent resource for validation and support during your courageous acts of personal growth. Furthermore, you will discover a positive affirmation of homosexual identities as well as issues that impede or prevent your positive homosexual identity formation. Homosexual Rites of Passage facilitates your journey toward visibility and personal validation by naming fear and shame as obstacles of your growth and describing affirming homosexual rites of passage so that you will not feel alone in your journey through life. Throughout Homosexual Rites of Passage, you will explore the essential relationship between homosexual identity development and rites of passage, or life experiences or events that mark emotional, familial, and growth transitions in your life and that they are different for homosexuals than for heterosexuals. Compelling and informative, this important book discusses how homophobia and homosexuals'internalized shame often cause these rites of passage to be ignored or not considered valid rituals for gay men and lesbians. You will find helpful and insightful ideas in this informative book to help you affirm your homosexual identity, such as: discovering the definitions of the stages of homosexual identity formation and their significance in defining your view of self and others examining outlines and descriptions of obstacles that prevent positive homosexual identity development, such as fear, shame, and guilt learning to address the role and significance of rites of passage in creating personal identity and space analyzing the description of rites of passage that is specific to the homosexual community and that covers developmental milestones from birth to death, such as coming out or choosing a life partner Homosexual Rites of Passage will assist your homosexual identity development through the celebration of homosexual rituals and rites of passage in a positive effective way. This valuable book addresses the issues that may impede your positive homosexual identity development and provides you with strategies to heal wounded and shamed identities, as well as providing you with a thorough description of homosexual rites of passage to help you understand and validate your homosexual identity.
Book Synopsis Gay and Lesbian Literature Since World War II by : Sonya L. Jones
Download or read book Gay and Lesbian Literature Since World War II written by Sonya L. Jones and published by Psychology Press. This book was released on 1998 with total page 268 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Gay and Lesbian Literature Since World War II chronicles the multifaceted explosion of gay and lesbian writing that has taken place in the second half of the twentieth century. Encompassing a wide range of subject matter and a balance of gay and lesbian concerns, it includes work by established scholars as well as young theoreticians and archivists who have initiated new areas of investigation. The contributors'examinations of this rich literary period make it easy to view the half-century from 1948 to 1998 as the Queer Renaissance. Included in Gay and Lesbian Literature Since World War II are critical and social analyses of literary movements, novels, short fiction, periodicals, and poetry as well as a look at the challenges of establishing a repository for lesbian cultural history. Specific chapters in this groundbreaking work trace the development of gay poetry in America after World War II; examine how AIDS is represented in the first four Latino novels to deal with the subject matter; and chronicle the birth of lesbian-feminist publishing in the 1970s--showing how it created a flourishing gay literature in the 1980s and 1990s. Other chapters: outline the history of The Ladder from its initial publication in 1956 as the official vehicle of the Daughters of Bilitis to its final issue as a privately published literary magazine in 1972 examine Baldwin's 1962 novel Another Country and discuss the complicated critical history of this work and its relation to Baldwin's literary reputation--racial, sexual, and political factors are taken into account chart how Other Voices, Other Rooms, by Truman Capote, and The House of Breath, by William Goyen, reveal contradictory genderings of male homosexuality--suggesting an absence of a unified model of mid-twentieth-century male homosexuality argue that the 1976 novel Lover, by Bertha Harris, can be considered an exemplary novel within discussions of both postmodern fiction and lesbian theory. (The author calls for Harris to be added to the group of writers such as Wittig, Anzaldúa, Lorde, and Winterson, who are discussed within the context of a postmodern lesbian narrative.) examine the short fiction of Canadian lesbian novelist Jane Rule in an effort to shed light on lesbian creative practice in the homophobic climate of postwar North America argue for an understanding of Dale Peck's novel Martin and John as an attempt to link two apparently different processes of import to contemporary male subjects through examination of the novel alongside selected passages from Nietzsche and Freud focus on the pragmatic issues of developing and maintaining accessible research venues from which to cultivate the study of racial and cultural diversity in lesbian lives Document the history of the Lesbian Herstory Archives, one of the first lesbian-specific collections in the world, from its birth in the early 1970s to the present.
Download or read book Ask and Tell written by Steve Estes and published by Univ of North Carolina Press. This book was released on 2009-11-30 with total page 295 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Don't Ask, Don't Tell" was the directive of President Clinton's 1993 military policy regarding gay and lesbian soldiers. This official silence continued a collective amnesia about the patriotic service and courageous sacrifices of homosexual troops. Ask and Tell recovers these lost voices, offering a rich chronicle of the history of gay and lesbian service in the U.S. military from World War II to the Iraq War. Drawing on more than 50 interviews with gay and lesbian veterans, Steve Estes charts the evolution of policy toward homosexuals in the military over the past 65 years, uncovering the ways that silence about sexuality and military service has affected the identities of gay veterans. These veteran voices--harrowing, heroic, and on the record--reveal the extraordinary stories of ordinary Americans, men and women who simply did their duty and served their country in the face of homophobia, prejudice, and enemy fire. Far from undermining national security, unit cohesion, or troop morale, Estes demonstrates, these veterans strengthened the U.S. military in times of war and peace. He also examines challenges to the ban on homosexual service, placing them in the context of the wider movement for gay rights and gay liberation. Ask and Tell is an important compilation of unheard voices, offering Americans a new understanding of the value of all the men and women who serve and protect them.
Book Synopsis Secrets of a Gay Marine Porn Star by : Rich Merritt
Download or read book Secrets of a Gay Marine Porn Star written by Rich Merritt and published by Citadel Press. This book was released on 2017-05-31 with total page 500 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: YES, IT ALL REALLY HAPPENED JUST LIKE THIS... Here’s the story of Rich Merritt—the good son, teacher’s pet, Southern gentleman, model Christian student at Bob Jones University, Marine officer, and the not-so-anonymous poster boy for a New York Times Magazine article on gays in the military—whose complicated sexual past caused an international scandal when The Advocate “outed” him as “The Marine Who Did Gay Porn,” putting his life in a tailspin. It’s the compelling, poignant story of how a boy who never listened to pop music, never cursed, and didn’t have his first drink until he was eighteen exploded into a life of drugs, alcohol, promiscuity, prostitution, and pornography. And above all, it’s a triumphant story of self-forgiveness and identity, of a man who refused to allow himself to be defined by the standards of anyone else—gay or straight. Along the way, Rich Merritt writes with humor, compassion, insight and naked truth about: • What it’s really like growing up behind the “Fortress of Fundamentalism” and how he ultimately came to despise their views • The harsh realities of military life under the “Don’t ask, don’t tell” Clinton policy • A real insider’s experience of working in the male porn industry—the good, the bad, and the extremely hot • Why he chose not to reveal his porn past to the New York Times journalist • What it felt like to be the most notorious marine in the world and what it took to come through the fire By turns harrowing and heartbreaking, angry and affirming, Secrets of a Gay Marine Porn Star is that rarest of memoirs—a fascinating slice of life that reads like the most absorbing fiction, but is all true.
Book Synopsis Reader's Guide to Lesbian and Gay Studies by : Timothy Murphy
Download or read book Reader's Guide to Lesbian and Gay Studies written by Timothy Murphy and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-10-18 with total page 762 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Reader's Guide to Lesbian and Gay Studies surveys the field in some 470 entries on individuals (Adrienne Rich); arts and cultural studies (Dance); ethics, religion, and philosophical issues (Monastic Traditions); historical figures, periods, and ideas (Germany between the World Wars); language, literature, and communication (British Drama); law and politics (Child Custody); medicine and biological sciences (Health and Illness); and psychology, social sciences, and education (Kinsey Report).
Book Synopsis Reader's Guide to Lesbian and Gay Studies by : Timothy F. Murphy
Download or read book Reader's Guide to Lesbian and Gay Studies written by Timothy F. Murphy and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2000 with total page 762 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A guide to existing academic literature on issues, persons, periods, and topics important in lesbian and gay studies. With a focus on book-length studies in English, entries offer a very brief introduction and a more detailed overview of the secondary literature, including the relative merits of each source under consideration. While the overall arrangement of entries is alphabetical, other means of access include a booklist, general indexes, cross references, and a thematic list (African American culture, AIDS, art and artists, Asian studies, biological sciences, lesbian and gay culture, education, family, gender studies, history, law, literature, media studies, medicine, music, performing arts, politics, psychology, philosophy and ethics, and others). Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR
Book Synopsis For You, Lili Marlene by : Robert Peters
Download or read book For You, Lili Marlene written by Robert Peters and published by Univ of Wisconsin Press. This book was released on 1995 with total page 132 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Drafted into the U.S. army in 1943, Robert Peters was a shy and devout eighteen-year-old from a remote and impoverished Wisconsin farm. Now one of our leading poets, he has written a lyrical memoir of a young man coming of age in the middle of World War II, making his way through personal land mines of morality and sexuality. In this sequel to Crunching Gravel, his celebrated account of a rural boyhood, Peters writes with humor and honesty of his self-revelations. After a moving leave-taking from his family and the wilderness farm he loves, he is thrust into army life. The close quarters of the barracks, the horseplay among the men, the bravado regarding war and women, and the unshakable military taboo against "perverts" throw him into confusion. Troubled by homosexual feelings, he struggles to get through basic training in South Carolina without earning the label "sissy". Inspired by patriotism and Hollywood war movies, he carefully practices his salute. Disillusioned by a cynical post chaplain, he abandons his plans to become a Lutheran minister. As awkward with his M1 rifle as he had been at home with a deer rifle, Peters is classified as a clerk and shipped to England. He hangs back in turmoil as London streetwalkers proposition him and older soldiers flirt with him. On leave in Paris, where he finally shares a prostitute with a friend he silently loves, he visits the Louvre and waits for hours in line to see the glamorous Marlene Dietrich. Through the war and the post-war occupation of Germany, as Peters's diligence and growing confidence result in promotion to battalion sergeant-major, the voice of Dietrich singing "Lili Marlene" stays with him, evoking love and beauty in themidst of destruction and deprivation.
