Originally posted by CADdrafter:
Hendrix's Army ploy: `I'm gay'
Published August 2, 2005
Jimi Hendrix might have stayed in the Army. He might have been sent to Vietnam.
Instead, he pretended he was gay.
And with that, he was discharged from the 101st Airborne in 1962.
Hendrix's subterfuge, contained in his military medical records, is revealed in Charles Cross' new biography, "Room Full of Mirrors."
Publicly, Hendrix always claimed he was discharged after breaking his ankle on a parachute jump, though records don't mention such an injury. But in regular visits to the base psychiatrist at Ft. Campbell, Ky., in spring 1962, Hendrix said he was in love with one of his squad mates and had become addicted to masturbating, Cross writes. Finally, Capt. John Halbert recommended Hendrix for discharge, citing his "homosexual tendencies."
Hendrix's legendary appetite for women negates the notion he might have been gay, Cross writes. Nor was he politically motivated: Contrary to his later image, Hendrix was an avowed anti-communist who exhibited little unease about the U.S. role in Vietnam. He just wanted to escape the Army to play music, Cross writes.
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