How the Military’s Own YouTube Videos Are Revealing a New Breed of Soldier

via nymag.com

Inside an armored truck are two soldiers. Soldier One is reading a missive against the steering wheel and yells, “What?!”

“What’s wrong?” asks Soldier Two, smiling because he can’t help it.

“Gays, man! Gays in the military. It’s all right to be gay in the military?”

And then a club song kicks in. A soldier unzips his uniform. A shirtless boy dances in the distance atop a military vehicle. The music-video subtitle: “If the Army Goes Gay.” A Codey Wilson Production.

A few months ago, when the U.S. military was in the midst of discussions about repealing its “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, 22-year-old specialist Wilson took his JVC camera and filmed some of the guys in his company—a troop of National Guardsmen from Virginia on a city-size base in Iraq—dancing to Ke$ha’s “Blah Blah Blah” in modified uniform. The director himself appears in his full Army vest, a camouflage loincloth hanging between his naked thighs.