CHS grad reflects on military career under DADT

By Jay Turner

In the fall of 2004, during her third deployment to Iraq as a combat photojournalist, U.S. Army Specialist Blanka K. Stratford signed a sworn statement admitting to being in a sexual relationship with another woman. A few weeks later, on November 19, she was sent home with an honorable discharge in accordance with the military’s official policy at the time on homosexuality, known colloquially as “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.”

Introduced in 1993 by President Bill Clinton after Congress made a push to continue an outright ban, DADT permitted gays to serve in the military as long as they did not disclose their sexual orientation or engage in homosexual conduct. Although sold as a short-term compromise measure, the policy lasted for nearly two decades before it was repealed by a congressional act in December 2010.

The repeal, which officially took effect on September 20, 2011, is being hailed as an historic milestone for the military and for American civil rights. However, during the 18-year history of DADT, more than 14,000 troops were found in violation of its provisions and subsequently discharged — including Stratford, a former Canton resident and a 1998 graduate of Canton High School.

By her own admission, Stratford was actually luckier than most in her position. Not only did the military uphold its end of the bargain — the “Don’t Ask” part — but her fellow soldiers also treated her with respect despite the fact that she made no secret of being bisexual.

“As far as I was concerned, my sexual preference was never discussed as a problematic issue, but instead arose as a general topic of conversation between human beings,” explained Stratford in an email to the Citizen. “Some of my military counterparts were very curious; others simply inquisitive and still others didn’t care at all.”

Instead, Stratford decided on her own to violate the “Don’t Tell” component of the policy after realizing that her long-distance relationship with the woman she loved was on the verge of falling apart.

The two had met, ironically enough, during basic training at Fort Jackson, South Carolina. It was the late summer of 2002 and Stratford, who had just finished up her junior year of college, was still reeling from the events of the previous September.

“I had been deeply affected by the events that transpired on September 11, 2001,” she said, “and found that enlisting in the military would not only answer the call to serve, but also aid in establishing some much-needed discipline and structure in my life.”

Along with the Oath of Enlistment, Stratford had to sign a blue DADT form stating her awareness of the policy and agreeing to adhere to its guidelines.

Shortly thereafter, she met the woman for whom she would eventually leave the military. And while the two of them managed to obey the “rules of the establishment” while at Fort Jackson, their relationship came under suspicion after they were seen “hugging and kissing each other goodnight.”

Stratford still remembers the interaction she had with the drill sergeant after being informed of the complaint.

Stratford in a Blackhawk helicopter

“I politely smiled,” she said, “and explained that on account of my European background and her South American background, hugging and kissing was natural behavior between two people who loved each other and that we performed this daring feat every night. He stared at us blankly for about two minutes, then shook his head and said, ‘Try to change that.’ We tried for a while. Eventually I buckled.”

Having survived those initial accusations, Stratford went on to serve a scandal-free, two-year stint as a combat photojournalist, including nearly 16 months in Iraq during the early stages of the war.

Arriving at Camp Doha in Kuwait in March 2003, Stratford endured a difficult first few weeks as both sides traded missile strikes around the clock — an experience she described as frightening as well as extremely draining.

“We would be woken up at odd hours of the night to the wail of the air raid siren as Hussein’s SCUD missiles headed in our direction,” she recalled. “We would don our nuclear-biological-chemical gear and quietly wait for the missile attacks to cease. Then we’d try to sleep. In daytime, it was the same routine: maintain composure and continue with the mission at hand.”

She was at the chow hall one morning when a SCUD nearly wiped out the operations center at Camp Doha.

“I remember holding onto [a fellow soldier] and diving underneath a bunker, looking overhead as a deafening roar filled our ears,” said Stratford. “It had been a cloudless day until our Patriot missiles were launched, searing the bright blue sky with a plume of white smoke. Seconds later, an even louder blast shook the ground. Seconds. Our missiles intercepted the SCUD within seconds of it meeting its target.”

Two months later, she flew into Baghdad and was stationed at the Abu Ghraib Palace. There she encountered militant fire and roadside bombs. She returned to Baghdad for her second deployment and later joined the 13^th Sustainment Command at Camp Anaconda in Balad, Iraq.

Stratford’s closest brush with death came at Camp Anaconda, although at the time she didn’t even know it. Stepping out of the public affairs building with her morning cup of coffee, she “noticed people taking off in the opposite direction and yelling at [her] to run.”

“In a large pile of rubble, about 20 feet away from where I slept, stuck out the tail of a rocket,” she said. “It had landed at some point during the night, and the rocks had stopped it from detonating. It was an electrifying experience, to say the least.”

Despite experiencing firsthand the violence and brutality of war, Stratford also had many positive experiences during her time in the military. For instance, she aided in the delivery of school supplies to impoverished areas of Balad, where the schools lacked basic necessities such as floors, toilets, windows or fans to circulate the air.

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