My name is David Bradford.
I served in the Australian Army
from February 1967
through till December 1968.
I was a CMF full-time Duty Officer.
I had the rank of Captain
and my position was Regimental
Medical Officer for 4th Field Regiment
of the Royal Australian Artillery,
and I served with that unit in Vietnam
from May ‘67 to May ‘68.
I was aware that I was
same-sex attracted.
However, I was in
not in self
denial about it, but I was in denial
to everybody else.
After
I got out of the army, after Vietnam,
I went to England
to pursue a surgical degree.
And it was when I first got to London
that I at last, for the first time,
talked to someone, another
medical colleague who is a good friend,
about the fact that I knew I was gay.
In fact, I remember very clearly going
to talk to him and saying, ‘Frank,
I think I might be’...
‘And it took me a long time
to say... a homosexual’
He said,
‘You think you might be or you are?’
And I said, ‘well, I guess I am’.
And so, it was really my service
in the Army,
and particularly in Vietnam,
that made me accept my own sexuality.
I think that
we need to think too
about the contribution that
LGBTQ+
people have been able to make too.
Whether they did it
outwardly, being outwardly
accepting of themselves,
or whether they did it
and had to - as
I had to - serve in silence.
They made a great contribution.
Sexual diversity is a fact of life,
and the fact that,
admittedly very belatedly,
the Australian Defence Forces
have come to recognise this is
this is a major step.
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