[QUOTE=alphaboi867]
The 60s were a very different time. Gay sex was a felony in almost every state. Homosexuality was considered a mental illness (it was not unheard of for gay men and lesbians to be commited to mental institutions by their families). being classified 4-F for sexual deviancy could follow a man for life. Besides it wasn’t as easy as saying “I like boys.”. Induction centers had psychologists ready to grill potential conscripts. Even convincing them that you were gay didn’t guarantee you wouldn’t be drafted. Local boards tended to put meeting their quotas above all else.
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I don’t remember it as quite that bad, but the social stygma was certainly much more prevalent than today.
The attitude toward drugs was much different then too. Meth wasn’t an issue, but amphetamines were fairly prevalent. They were commercially produced and many women were given scrips for weight loss. I remember moonlighting and using them occasionally to cope w/ the loss of sleep. They were used by the military, but on a very limited basis. I’ve done some searching, and some recollection, and I’m sure that there were no commonly used tests for drug use, especially pot. I’m fairly certain that urine testing wasn’t viable until very the late 70’s, or early 80’s and routine testing didn’t begin for a couple of years after that.
The antiwar fervor didn’t start gaining popularity until '68 and even then many people still supported the war.
[QUOTE=A.R. Cane]
I don’t remember it as quite that bad, but the social stygma was certainly much more prevalent than today.
The attitude toward drugs was much different then too. Meth wasn’t an issue, but amphetamines were fairly prevalent. They were commercially produced and many women were given scrips for weight loss. I remember moonlighting and using them occasionally to cope w/ the loss of sleep. They were used by the military, but on a very limited basis. I’ve done some searching, and some recollection, and I’m sure that there were no commonly used tests for drug use, especially pot. I’m fairly certain that urine testing wasn’t viable until very the late 70’s, or early 80’s and routine testing didn’t begin for a couple of years after that.
The antiwar fervor didn’t start gaining popularity until '68 and even then many people still supported the war.
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I remember the big purges in the Navy in the 70s and early 80s. Not only were they kicking out the druggies by the hundreds, they adopted a program called “Operation Upgrade” (which we all called “operation flush”), wherein they were dumping the most undesirable elements out of the service and back into society. I was asked by my company commander to give him a list of men I would like to see gone, and many of them did indeed disappear.