Book Review: Gulf in the War Story

When author Robert David Graham joined the Navy in 1988, the sea service was prepared for war with the Soviet Union. When Petty Officer Graham finally went to war, the USSR was a thing of the past. His war was the Gulf War, and he was stationed aboard the aircraft carrier USS Ranger.

His book, "Gulf in the War Story: A U.S. Navy Personnel Manager Confides In You," is a diary of his time aboard the ship in the Persian Gulf. He welcomes you, the reader, aboard the Ranger and into Fighter Squadron One. "Top Gun" fans know it as the "World Famous Fighting Wolfpack," the Navy Fighter Weapons School adversary squadron. 

However, readers of "Gulf in the War Story" won't be getting a story about competing naval aviators. This book is the diary of a closeted bisexual sailor at a time when "Don't Ask Don't Tell" is years away from being Defense Department policy - and serving openly seems like a pipe dream. 

The book is definitely a war story, documenting the long days and the work sailors aboard a carrier put into running the ship and preparing fighter aircraft for sorties. Graham's book captures the ups and downs of life aboard a ship at sea and in wartime. It also reveals what life was like in the real-world "Top Gun." 

"Gulf in the War Story" is a play-by-play documentary of history as it's being made. Not just the fighting history of the U.S. Navy in the Gulf War, but the personal accounts of real sailors and the history of the LGBT community in America, fighting its own war for recognition. 

It is also the perspective of a sailor's emotional pain from the treatment received at the hands of his commanding officers. It's a look inside what really went on behind the scenes of a ship at war. The realism and truth between its covers has been confirmed by those who served aboard the Ranger at the time, including many who were a part of Graham's unit. 

Graham could not write the book while still serving. Like Leonard Matlovich's battle with the Air Force, Graham purposely outs himself to protest the military's anti-homosexual policies. He wrote a letter to then-Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney to voice his concerns, signing it as "a gay man" with two weeks left in service. Within five days, he was outed in his command and helped out of the Navy. 

The exposé is cataloged in the U.S. Naval War College, the U.S. Naval Academy, and at Harvard University under its original title, "Military Secret," for a reason. It's a brave retelling of the experiences of a sailor who volunteered to serve but was unable to be himself and suffered for it. 

"Gulf in the War Story" is not just a must-read for those interested in the history of minorities in military service; it's a chronicle of the life of a sailor serving in the military during a tumultuous time. When the book was first published in 1993, Graham moved to Germany, where he married a German woman and had three children. In his post-military life, he became an award-winning screenwriter, a career which he continues today.

Robert David Graham's "Gulf in the War Story: A US Navy Personnel Manager Confides in You" is available for purchase on Amazon for $18.95.