Cheryl Ann Costa
Petty Officer First Class, U.S. Navy (1974-1981)
I am a transgender Vietnam veteran and 22-year employee of Lockheed Martin Corp., still serving our nation's defense.
In 1970, I was just finishing high school. I had wanted to serve in the military since I was a little kid. But I knew that I would never be allowed to serve if the military suspected I was transsexual.
So I adopted a stealth "don't tell, don't get caught" posture for myself. I signed up in the Air Force, attracted to the high-tech job training opportunities. The Air Force trained me as a cable splicer - a job in which I climbed telephone poles and fixed phone cables. With a shortage of qualified cable splicers in Vietnam, I volunteered. The war was ugly, but I did my duty. After Vietnam, I volunteered for extended duty in the Far East and ended up traveling to Japan and Korea.
I left the Air Force in 1972 to help my parents rebuild their home after our town was demolished by a hurricane. During the next 18 months, I figured out that I hadn't had enough adventure yet, so I joined the Navy and volunteered for submarine duty.
After two years of intense training, I flew to Scotland and joined my crew. For the next three years, I served on board a nuclear fast-attack submarine and became qualified in submarines. I proudly wore my dolphins. Fast-attack duty was challenging and something I can't talk much about, but certainly the stuff of which Tom Clancy writes. I had a blast!
To combat boredom during slower times, I picked up collateral duties as ship librarian and also became the ship's tailor. I frequently snickered when someone complimented my sewing skills and said that I would "make somebody a good wife someday!" Little did they know.
I finally joined the Reserves, settled down in Binghamton, N.Y., and was honorably discharged in 1981. From 1986 to 1989, I transitioned into the woman I always believed myself to be.
In 1991, perhaps due to some of the special skills I acquired during my Navy years, some special operations people came looking for me and wanted me to come join their Reserve outfit. They wouldn't take no for an answer over the phone. So I showed up at the unit to meet them, "Miss Dressed for Corporate Success," fully expecting to be tossed out of the office. My records listed me as a man, but I was very much a woman by this time.
However, the people at this unit indicated they were willing to arrange a waiver of some sort and overlook my remodeling. A month later, I stood flabbergasted as I read a letter from the deputy director for Reserve manpower inviting me to join the Reserves as a female. The invitation shocked my partner, who promptly took the letter from my hands and placed it in the fireplace saying, "You've been a warrior long enough, thank you." I decided it was time to give somebody else a chance.