Closeted at the time, he said he loved serving but felt “burdened by the secret of being gay.” Credit. Marine Base in Twentynine Palms, Calif., in 1981. All told, “American Veteran” seeks to bridge the gap between the estimated 18 million living Americans - or about 7 percent of the adult population - who have served in the military and those who haven’t. It also includes many who served stateside. conflict going back to World War II and up to the recently concluded Afghanistan War, the longest in U.S. The series features veterans from every major U.S. And I somehow slipped under the radar.”Ĭope White is among the almost 50 military veterans interviewed in “American Veteran,” a four-part documentary series premiering Tuesday on PBS. “And I’m looking at him like, ‘Dude, I’m having homosexual thoughts right now.’ But I locked it up.

“I’m being asked by a stud, a guy with bulging biceps, wearing pants that are practically painted on,” Cope White recalled in a phone interview from his Los Angeles home, laughing.

When he went to enlist with his best friend, he learned he would have to answer a few questions. It was 1979, and Greg Cope White was a scared, skinny kid who thought it might be fun to join the Marines.