My gast is totally flabbered............

In my time in the US Navy I saw several guys who claimed they were playing for the other team, even though every saturday they'd be out at the club trying to pick up someone in a "friendly lady's" uniform (I can neither confirm nor deny if they were actual "friendly ladies", but they certainly dressed the part).

We even had a cute little name for the pieces of paper that they signed to let you out: Rainbow Chits (Chit=Pretty much any semi-official piece of paper in the navy).

I dont know about back then, but I know now all it takes is actually saying it aloud. If he lied, I doubt he was the first, and I know it wouldnt have been the last time someone did that.

I've heard that that was common back then, in order to get discharged.... I could be wrong though...

Considering what was going on at the time, I certainly believe it. A lot of people were looking for a way out.

Bruce Springsteen made the same claim to keep out of the US army, according to the bography by Dave Marsh I read years ago....think he mentions it in live concerts in the preamble before "Independence Day". but I couldn't swear to it....

:D :D :D

Vic

i did 4 years in u.s. army, new a guy who wanted out so bad he went to the colonel, and told him he needed to be discharged because he was gay
from what he told me, the colonel said " really, ok suck my dick" and when he didn't do it , the colonel said " get the f outta my office" imagine that :?

That's why no one went to the CO on the base I was on. They went to the Chaplain.

I've heard that that was common back then, in order to get discharged.... I could be wrong though...

I think the word discharge needs to be avoided in this thread.

Don't care much for it. What would have been the use if he stayed there and possibly get shot? Seems kinda logical that he didn't really want to fight in some place he'd never seen nor cared about. Besides, it's just a theorie. Who knows what lame nonsense people make up to write interesting biographis.

It's probably true.

Military records are usually sealed for a long time - over 60 years - to protect privacy. Every few years, though, the military reviews the records, and can release them for people of 'exceptional prominence' who have been dead for at least 10 years. I remembered seeing a press release that Jimi's records were going to be opened.... I just checked the date, and sure enough - they've been public since June 11th.

That's barely seven weeks.

So... here's a guy who write biographies... and he's got one already written, coming out in September. A quick trip to the national archives to see if there's any dirt that'll help sell the books, and voila.

So this week there are lots of stories in newspapers and online about how the new biography reveals the truth about Jimi's discharge. Since that information was sealed until what - 51 days ago? - that kinda tells me there's not much else new in the book.... it's the only thing mentioned in the articles.

More than a dozen pages of Jimi's file has been posted on The Smoking Gun

No mention of the alleged homosexuality in the discharge request or other documents. Warning: it's still not all family stuff.

Maybe he really did sing "'Scuse Me, while I kiss this guy."
:lol:

Not really shocking, just shows you that he probably wanted out of the army. And given his general attitude towards service and the war in general it actually makes sense.

Well, if Hendrix did claim to be gay to get discharged, it wasn't to avoid the Vietnam War.

As you can see, he signed up for 3 years beginning in 1961, so he would have been out of the military well before we really started sending soldiers over there about 1965-66.

Some people just don't like the military. My younger brother joined after High School and hated it. He had lots of problems like Hendrix. He went AWL and finally got kicked out.

That doesn't mean there is something wrong with you. My brother owns his own business today and is pretty wealthy. He has built two homes in the last year including a 4 story beach house in Avon, N.C. about 2 miles from the famous Cape Hatteras Lighthouse.

He just couldn't stand for other people to tell him what to do. But he has done fantastic doing his own thing. I wish I was half as successful as him.

Hendrix did pretty good too.

Having read the pages on the Smoking Gun, it's easy to see how urban legends are created. The "addiction to masturbation" seems to be one incident, re-hashed in 20 different reports.
The discharge papers make no mention of his sexuality, whatsoever, simply that he was mentally not suited to any sort of military life.