No Fags in the Foxhole
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The Last Deployment: How a Gay, Hammer-Swinging Twentysomething Survived a Year in Iraq (Living Out: Gay and Lesbian Autobiog) a Year in Iraq
by Bronson Lemer
University of Wisconsin Press
236 pages, $24.95

THERE’S SOMETHING a little wonderful about this exploration of alienation, secrecy, privacy and privation—though it’s probably not what the author had in mind when he wrote it. A National Guard engineer in the early 2000’s, six months before he was due to finish his service, Bronson Lemer was sent to Iraq under the protection and prohibitions of the “Don’t ask, don’t tell” (DADT) policy. Already disenchanted with military service, the 22-year-old left behind not only his country but also a year-long romance and his identity as an openly gay man.