Melvin Dwork, Gay World War II Vet, Gets Name Cleared

From Third Age: Melvin Dwork, Gay World War II Vet, Gets Name Cleared
World War II Veteran Melvin Dwork won a decades-long battle with the Navy over his 1944 discharge for being gay. His discharge is officially being changed from “undesirable” to “honorable," the Navy Times reports.

“I resented that word ‘undesirable,’” said Dwork, who was expelled in 1944, at the height of the war, and is now a successful interior designer in New York, according to the Navy Times. “That word really stuck in my craw. To me it was a terrible insult. It had to be righted. It’s really worse than ‘dishonorable.’ I think it was the worst word they could have used.”

In what is believed to be the first time the Pentagon has taken such a step on behalf of a World War II veteran since the repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell," Dwork will now be eligible for benefits including medical care and a military burial, according to the Navy Times.

“I think that with the end of ‘don’t ask, don’t tell,’ there is a growing realization within the military that not only gays be allowed to serve openly now but this was probably the wrong policy all along,” said Aaron Belkin, an expert on gays in the U.S. military at the University of California, Los Angeles, as reported by the Navy Times.

The Board for Corrections of Naval Records in Washington made the decision to amend his discharge papers on August 17, the Navy Times reports.

In the proceedings, obtained by The Associated Press, the board noted that the Navy has undergone a “radical departure” from the outright ban on gays that was in place in 1944. The board pointed out Dwork’s “exemplary period of active duty” and said that changing the terms of his discharge was done “in the interest of justice.”

Approximately 100,000 troops were discharged between World War II and 1993 for being gay and lost their benefits as a result, Belkin told the Navy Times. Under the more relaxed “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, which allowed gays to serve as long as they kept their sexual orientation to themselves, about 14,000 troops were forced out, but most were given honorable discharges that allowed them to draw benefits.

The repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell” officially takes effect Tuesday, the Navy Times reports.