SAN DIEGO -- Nearly 70 years after expelling Melvin Dwork for being gay, the Navy is changing his discharge from "undesirable" to "honorable" – marking what is believed to be the first time the Pentagon has taken such a step on behalf of a World War II veteran since the repeal of "don't ask, don't tell."
The Navy notified the 89-year-old former corpsman last month that he will now be eligible for the benefits he had long been denied, including medical care and a military burial.
Dwork spent decades fighting to remove the blot on his record…..
The Board for Corrections of Naval Records said it would reinstate Dwork's benefits retroactively. But exactly what that means – whether, for example, the Navy will write him a check for the benefits he missed out on over a lifetime – is unclear, his attorney said….
Dwork said he had assumed his love letters had fallen into the wrong hands and led to his discharge. After he recently learned the truth, he contacted his former boyfriend, who had long ago married and had children. The man did not want to discuss the matter, Dwork said.
Dwork said he does not blame his former boyfriend; he said the young man was pressured into giving up names as part of a "witch hunt."
The above is an excerpt from the Huffington Post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/09/16/melvin-dwork-record-cleared-gay-soldier_n_967197.html
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