“brownsfan, I was in the Navy ‘69 to ‘73 and I assure you there were lesbians serving.”
I was in the Navy from 77-81, and I assure you that there were gays, both male and female in the Navy at the time. However, they kept it to themselves, both figuratively and literally. And, there were no women on combatant vessels. There were no female fire control technicians.
FTM2 brownsfan.
There was a “Don’t ask, Don’t tell” policy long before it was official.