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Stroud is an Air Force veteran marching with American Veterans for Equal Rights. John W, Stroud smokes a cigarette while waiting for the start of the Pride parade on Sunday Jat downtown Denver, CO. However, Harry noted that there was an unspoken agreement at the time that if you got caught for being gay you were on your own. Some of them he’s still in touch with to this day. He didn’t experience any witch hunts or hate speech and was able to connect with other gay soldiers on base, who he said were a secret society of support and honesty. “My story is not as traumatic as some,” Harry said, of his time spent in the military’s closet. As a staff sergeant in the Air Force, Harry was stationed for two years in Washington state, eight years in California, and served overseas in the Middle East, Europe and South Korea. Then 9/11 happened and Harry said he was right where he needed to be. Enlisting was a familiar fitįor Harry that he saw mostly as a way to help pay for college. The former farm kid from Arkansas was third-generation military thanks toĪ Navy veteran dad and an Army veteran grandfather. “ This is not the John Harry show.” An understandable position given Harry’s humble beginnings. “It’s been a struggle over the years to be OK with being in the public eye,” Harry said.
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While he understands the curiosity and signi cance some see with his being the new face of Post 1, Harry is reluctant to take credit or center stage. Harry, who served his 10 years, four months and three days in the Air Force entirely under “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” is now openly gay. Back at Cheeseman Park, veterans John Kelly, Cecil Bethea and Carl Shepherd enjoyed a smoke, sitting in their wheelchairs at the starting line as Harry continued to sweat. Harry became official on June 18, and the next day, he and members of Post 1 and AVER led Denver’s Gay pride Parade.Īs temperatures soared, Harry was out and about picking up veterans who needed a lift to the parade. In April he stepped down as president of the Rocky Mountain chapter of American Veterans for Equal Rights, also known as AVER.Ī week later he was elected as post commander with 95 percent of the vote. Photo by Carl Glenn PayneĪ retired Air Force veteran turned IT project manager with Denver Health, Harry is the new commander for Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 1 in Denver, the oldest VFW in the country. Harry is an Air Force veteran and the first openly gay post commander for VFW post 1.
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John Harry, center, Veterans of foreign Wars Post 1 commander, helps carry a 30 foot American Flag during the Pride parade on Sunday Jat downtown Denver, CO. In true military form, John Harry had already done more in the early morning hours of June 19 than most people had done all day.