Dark Liberty: Don't Ask, Don't Tell
A True Crime story written and experienced by myself and as seen on the Investigation Discovery TV series “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” and on “The Lifetime Channel” the 1997 award-winning TV movie “Any Mother’s Son” which revolved around the the murder of a gay US Navy service member Allen Schindler.
Written by the only witness to the death of a fellow sailor, “Dark Liberty” provides an intimate, first-person narrative as the author shares a detailed, and never before published account of the murder of Radioman Allen Schindler before, during, and after his death. In this detailed first-person perspective, the reader will come to realize that this was the watershed even that instigated the Navy’s “Don’t Ask- Don’t Tell” policy.
The story also shares the life experiences of an 18-year old young man struggling to grow up in the 90’s; cutting classes, arguments at home and at school, fights, selling drugs, etc. He finally realizes that since he has no school, no job, no money and knowing his situation is dire, he decides to join the US Navy’s 7th Pacific Fleet aboard the USS Belleau Wood.
The narrative follows the author, visiting ports, meeting women, drinking, fighting and even saving a sex-trafficking victim. During one of his on-shore liberties, he coincidently witnesses an event that not only seriously affected the author, but left a fellow sailor beaten so badly that he was unrecognizable. And dead.