WAC Sergeant Johnnie Phelps became legendary for a conversation she had with Eisenhower when she served on the general’s staff during the postwar occupation of Europe. … Eisenhower… called her into his office and said he had heard reports that there were lesbians in the WAC battalion. He wanted a list of their names, he said, so he could get rid of them. …
“Yes, sir,” Phelps said to the general, according to her later account. She would make the list, if that was the order. Then she reminded Eisenhower that the WAC battalion at his headquarters was one of the most decorated in the Army. …
Getting rid of the lesbians would mean losing competent file clerks, typists, and a large share of the headquarters’ key personnel. “I’ll make your list,” Phelps concluded in her crackling North Carolina accent, “but you’ve got to know that when you get the list back, my name’s going to be at the top”
Eisenhower rescinded the order.
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Randy Shilts, Conduct Unbecoming: Gays and Lesbians in the U.S. Military. © 1994 by the Estate of Randy Shilts.