Feb 08, 2008  |  By: CHRIS JOHNSON  | COMMENTS     

A Vietnam War veteran expelled from the Navy 40 years ago after being accused of homosexuality, has filed a petition to change his “other than honorable” discharge to an “honorable” discharge.

The Navy designated Seaman John Dokken, 59, as homosexual during his military service. Dokken said he was a virgin at the time and that he was thrown into a military prison, where a fellow inmate raped him.

From 1968 to 1969, Dokken served aboard the U.S.S. Ticonderoga, which was positioned offshore from Vietnam. His duties included running the ship store and loading bomb skids. While serving on board, he received word that his father was dying of bone cancer in Wisconsin, and the ship chaplain arranged for him to return home, promising an honorable administrative discharge.

On his return to the United States, Dokken was given an exit interview in which the interviewer repeatedly asked whether he was homosexual. Even though he repeatedly said he was heterosexual, Dokken was incarcerated at a military prison on the charge of being gay.

On the first night that Dokken was imprisoned, a fellow inmate forced him to perform oral sex, according to Dokken’s attorney. Days later, the same inmate anally raped him in the prison bathroom. The latter incident caused Dokken’s rectum to bleed significantly and made defecation a painful act for years to come, according to Dokken’s petition. Later, Dokken was forced to appear before fellow sailors in his dress uniform, where he was beaten and told he was a disgrace, he claims.

When he was released, Dokken received his “other than honorable” discharge. Dokken returned to Wisconsin to find that his father had already slipped into a coma. His father died shortly afterward. The reception from his family was much colder after they learned that the Navy had deemed him homosexual.

In 2002, Dokken wrote to the Veterans Affairs Department to determine why the Navy thought he was homosexual. The department responded that the service made the determination because Dokken acknowledged being a homosexual during the exit interview, even though he repeatedly said he was not gay.

The revelation prompted Dokken to file the petition. Dokken first went to the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network for help, but the organization referred him to the legal firm McDermott, Will and Emery.

Dokken said he waited almost 40 years after his military discharge to file his petition because for a long time he felt powerless to do anything about the incident and thought he could just forget about it.
“It took me a long time to realize that the only shame I have any right to feel about my discharge was that I lacked the courage to stand up for what was right,” he said.

Dokken said the Navy continues to commit the same injustice every time it discharges a service member “for something as petty as their sexuality.”

Christopher Man, a gay attorney for McDermott, Will and Emery, filed the petition on Dokken’s behalf.

“The Navy cannot redress that injury or erase the years of suffering Mr. Dokken has endured as a result of the Navy’s wrongdoing, but the Navy can wash away the blight of the [other than honorable] discharge that remains on Mr. Dokken’s military record,” Man argues in the petition.

Man says the designation of Dokken as a homosexual was “procedurally unfair” because under the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy, the Navy had no grounds to inquire Dokken about his sexuality, particularly after he repeatedly said that he was heterosexual.

Even though “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” was not in place in 1969, the exit interview was improper because the interviewer asked Dokken to incriminate himself, which is a violation of the Fifth Amendment, Man argues. Dokken was also entitled to a hearing where he could contest the allegation that he was homosexual and argue that his service did not merit anything other than an honorable discharge, Man argues.

Man expects the Navy Board of Correction for Naval Records to make a decision on Dokken’s case within the next couple of months.