Serving in Silence

Cammermeyer joined the Army in 1961, served in Vietnam with the 164th Evacuation Hospital, married a fellow officer, raised four sons and rose to the rank of colonel and chief nurse in the Washington State National Guard. In 1989, at the age of 47, she answered a routine administrative inquiry by identifying herself as a lesbian. The Army she loved discharged her. This memoir, written with freelancer Fisher, is one of the finest military coming-out books published so far. Since her discharge in 1992, Cammermeyer has devoted herself to what she calls her most important mission: dispelling stereotypical concepts about gays and lesbians by speaking out as the highest-ranking officer to have challenged the Army's anti-gay policy. On June 1, 1994, a federal court in Seattle ruled that policy unconstitutional and ordered her reinstated, a decision now under appeal. Movie rights to Barwood Productions. (Oct.)