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My scholarship was the only way for me to stay in college, so I knew I couldn’t be discovered. Hepner co-founded the Military Partners and Families Coalition, which supports same sex military partners and their families.
“There’s a journey that takes place between first acknowledgement and being honest [with yourself],” Smith said of coming out in a 2021 article for the Army website.
The Prussian, French and British armies worked as a unit. It was an economic choice for me – I had to put myself second.”
After she graduated from college, Smith kept her personal and work lives separate and then commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Quartermaster Corps.
Benemann said he is leery of placing a label on von Steuben’s sexuality.
The Continental Army “was an amalgam of local militias and random men who stepped away from their plow to take up a gun for the cause,” Benemann said. I felt full, authentic and complete performing that ceremony with my family,” Smith shared in a 2012 NPR interview.
Following her promotion, Smith served as the commanding general of the 98th Training Division (Initial Entry Training) at Fort Benning, Georgia, as well as deputy commanding general sustainment in the Eighth Army, in Yongsan, South Korea.
Gen. Tammy Smith: Live Authentically
Tammy Smith struggled to hide her sexuality while serving in the Army.
The thing they mostly agree on is that von Steuben was never openly gay. Following basic training at Fort Lee, Virginia, Smith’s first assignment was as a platoon leader in the 193rd Support Battalion at Fort Clayton, Panama.
The Quartermaster Corps works in logistics, assisting with supplies like fuel and water, but also the identification and retrieval of deceased military personnel. And it shouldn’t be what defines von Steuben. This policy prevented non-heterosexual people from openly serving, and it was grounds for dishonorable discharge.
“The department created the statement on paper where we had to explicitly state what our sexual orientation was,” Smith said in an article for the University of Oregon Alumni Association.
She became the Army’s first openly gay general officer in military history in August that same year.
“The fact that I was able to have my military family in the front row, there with me, supporting me in the role, following the tradition of participating with my dad promoting me was – it was just absolutely fantastic.
Benjamin Franklin was in Europe at the time, desperate for an officer with von Steuben’s rank and experience to give the tattered patriots back home some hope.
But this was problematic as she was preparing to enter the Army during the era of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. General Taylor attained the highest Military rank of those LGBT service members serving openly and is the only openly gay male general or flag officer in the Department of Defense.
He most recently served at the Pentagon as the Army Chief Information Officer/G-6’s Director of Architecture, Operations, Networks, and Space.
While reading her FFA magazine, she saw an Army Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) advertisement captioned, “Can’t afford college? He is a graduate of the U.S. Naval War College.
Hailed as the architect of drilling and discipline that continue to shape the U.S. Army today, Baron Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben is honored by many.
“No one needed to know about von Steuben’s sexuality. While in a committed relationship with Hepner, Smith was unable to acknowledge her as her partner.