Turning Point


The turning point where I started to really question my faith and Christianity began while station in Germany but came to a head while I was serving in the Persian Gulf war.

Mark Landes and a captured Russian T72 tank

I am not going to type my story, as I relayed my story to Steve Estes as part of a collection of LGBTQ Veteran stories he was gathering for a book he was writing called Ask & Tell. The link takes you to a pdf copy of my story from that book. The transcript of the interview and a digital recording of the conversation is now part of the Veterans History Project digital collection at the Library of Congress. If you feel like torturing yourself here is the link to the digital collection: Veterans History Project Digital collection.

Besides, the impact that my homosexuality had on my life and if you read the transcripts or listen to the interview, you will notice another issue I face on a daily basis, and that is my memory. I have one of the most abysmal memories of anyone I know. In the interview back in 2004 I did not remember that the class I had to retake at West Point was pre-calculus and not algebra when describing Rock Math.  It was not until last week some 13 years after the interview when I was talking to my partner that the class was pre-calculus.


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