Protestant-B. Not.
The story of Mike Neulander

Dog tags. When you get right down to it, the military's dog tag classification forced me to reclaim my Judaism. In the fall of 1990, things were heating up in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. I'd been an army captain and a helicopter maintenance test pilot for a decade and received notice that I'd be transferred to the First Cavalry Division which was on alert for the Gulf War. Consequently, I also caught wind of the Department of Defense "dog tag dilemma" vis a vis Jewish personnel.

Then as now, Jews were forbidden by Saudi law to enter the country. But our Department of Defense flat out told the King of Saudi Arabia, "We have Jews in our military. They've trained with their units and they're going. Blink and look the other way." With Kuwait occupied and the Iraqis at his border, King Faud did the practical thing and blinked. We shipped out, but there was still the issue of the dog tag classification...

Debra Darvick © 2003