Posted on 08/01/2005 2:00:02 PM PDT by Former Military Chick
The music world came dangerously close to never being blessed with Jimi Hendrix's unparalleled guitar skills.
According to a new biography on the icon, Hendrix pretended he was gay to avoid being sent to Vietnam and was discharged from the 101st Airborne in 1962, according to to The Associated Press. While Hendrix claimed he was allowed to leave the army after breaking his ankle on a parachute jump, Charles R. Cross' new biography, "Room Full of Mirrors," finds no record of the injury in the musician's medical records.
Instead, Cross found that Hendrix complained to the base psychiatrist at Fort Campbell, KY in Sprin 1962, that he was in love with a squad mate and had become addicted to masturbating, claims that eventually led to his discharge for "homosexual tendencies."
The rest of Cross's novel focuses on Hendrix's childhood, growing up with parents who both had drinking problems, and interesting anecdotes about his life.
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Jimi Hendrix: How To Quit Army
Jimi Hendrix pretended to be gay so he would be discharged from the army, according to claims in a biography that has used his military medical records.
The rock legend said he left the 101st Airborne Division aged 19 in 1962 after being injured on a parachute jump. But Room Full of Mirrors by Charles R Cross says army records show he was discharged for "homosexual tendencies," reports BBC News.
Mr Cross says Hendrix had a legendary appetite for women - he even had an affair with actress Brigitte Bardot. But he had told a base psychiatrist at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, he had fallen in love with a fellow soldier, the book claims.
However, Jimi did not leave because of objections to the US role in Vietnam, but simply because he wanted to play music, according to the biography.
Room Full of Mirrors is being published to mark the 35th anniversary of his death from a sleeping pill overdose in London in 1970.
Did we actually deploy the 101st Airborne to Vietname in 1962?
Smart move.
Oh yeah!
Excuse me while I kiss the ___.
So maybe it really was "scuse me while, I kiss this guy"?
D'0h!
Sure did with a whole bunch of helos.
So that's what was going on in the watchtower....
I misread your question. Don't think they went until after 67.
God forbid that the world should have been denied such a talented guitarist.
>>Jimi Hendrix's unparalleled guitar skills<<
Needs the /sarc tag :)
Yeah, I'm getting the drift that the author wanted to twist in a little barb at the US military for discharging sexual deviants.
I remember how shocked I was when I first heard on the radio what sure sounded like, "scuse me while I kiss this guy". I always considered him the "purple guitarist".
Good question??? But this sounds like more pro-gay, anti-war, anti-military propaganda to me.
check this link: http://www.173rdairborne.com/rvnunits.htm
It seems that the combat divisions arrived long after 1962.
These liberal liars are counting on fooling the under 45 generation that did not experience the war as adults
Hoo boy, he opened up a can of worms with that statement. I'll start: Stevie Ray Vaughn played Hendrix better than Hendrix ever did. Flame away.
On another note, Hendrix was very supportive of the military during the Vietnam War, an unpopular stance for a musician to take.
Sixty Two was before any regular troops were being thought of for Vietnam. Johnson started that after the Gulf of Tonkin, mostly. I was also a 19 year old in 62 and was in Germany. Most Americans couldn't find Vietnam on a map in 62.
That's my take on it as well. The leftists are in such a deep mind rut that they drag their biased falsehoods into everything they touch.
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