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Green
The year is 1967 and Tim Halladay has graduated William & Mary, looking forward to studying drama at Yale, when he finds himself drafted into the United States Army. His college education makes him an object of ridicule and suspicion among the other members of C Company—Charlie Company. Of course, he has to hide his homosexuality. Tom Baker’s newest novel is an honest portrayal of a young man fearful of his secret being discovered, at a time when seeking out the comfort of another man’s touch could mean arrest, imprisonment, and a disgraceful court martial.
241 pages, Kindle Edition
First published August 14, 2017
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The year is 1967 and Tim Halladay has graduated William & Mary, looking forward to studying drama at Yale, when he finds himself drafted into the United States Army. His college education makes him an object of ridicule and suspicion among the other members of C Company--Charlie Company. Of course, he has to hide his homosexuality. Tom Baker's newest novel is an honest portrayal of a young man fearful of his secret being discovered, at a time when seeking out the comfort of another man's touch could mean arrest, imprisonment, and a disgraceful court martial.
LGBT historical fiction
The year is 1967 and Tim Halladay has graduated William & Mary, looking forward to studying drama at Yale, when he finds himself drafted into the United States Army. His college education makes him an object of ridicule and suspicion among the other members of C Company--Charlie Company. Of course, he has to hide his homosexuality. Tom Baker's newest novel is an honest portrayal of a young man fearful of his secret being discovered, at a time when seeking out the comfort of another man's touch could mean arrest, imprisonment, and a disgraceful court martial.
LGBT historical fiction
April 14, 2022
“IT AIN’T EASY BEING GREEN”
Tom Baker’s Green is a hard-hitting novel about a young man’s experiences in the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War. Green is unique in Vietnam War fiction. It isn’t a combat story, it takes place stateside, and the main character is gay.
Tim Halladay, the narrator of Green, is a college graduate. He aspires to attend the Yale Drama School, but he loses his deferment. Tim is drafted into the U.S. Army in 1967 and is shipped to Fort Jackson, South Carolina for basic training. He and the other members of Charlie Company are issued official green fatigues. The transition from civilian to military life is relentless. Tim observes, “With shaved heads, we all looked like department store mannequins, impersonal, nameless, and sexless.”
The guys in Charlie Company call Tim “college boy,” as do the officers who want him to sign up for Officer Candidate School. Tim doesn’t want to be an officer because he doesn’t think he could order men to their deaths. After basic training, Tim goes to Fort Eustis, Virginia for troop movement classes. Ironically, he ends up at a desk job typing orders to send soldiers to Vietnam.
Often, while on break, Tim goes to his favorite reading spot under an elm tree by the James River. Once, Tim watches a column of red ants crawl over the toes of his sneaker, “a microscopic army in their world with their own Bravo and Charlie companies.” When I read this, I felt a sense of foreboding for Tim.
Tim does such an outstanding job with troop movement that he is assigned to work directly for a captain. One of his duties is to make sure that the captain’s Camaro is washed every Friday—with no water spots. He takes a lot of ribbing for having this cushy job. When the captain sends Tim on a mysterious assignment to Fort Story, the novel takes a dark, surprising turn. Tim is tasked with tunnel rat screening. He’s told, “[Charlie’s] coming up out of the fucking ground and attacking our men coming out of the jungle floor like ants.” Tim can’t escape those damned ants.
While Tim is at Fort Story, Hurricane Edith hits. For additional reasons, his stay at Fort story is horrifyingly surreal. When he returns to Fort Eustis, he is summoned to the captain’s office, where a hurricane of another kind hits Tim. I won’t give away spoilers, except to say that Tim had made a pledge to himself that he would not fool around with anyone while he was in the military and had held to it. After being in the Army for a little over four months, Tim tells us, “Reveille sounded, blaring across Fort Eustis—the last time I would hear it.” While he watches the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade on TV in a bar, a high school marching band plays “It Ain’t Easy Being Green.”
Tom Baker’s writing in Green is polished and confident and often humorous to break the tension. The period details are meticulous. Baker expertly ratchets up the suspense as the story barrels toward the climax. Green describes a gay man’s experiences in the military during the Vietnam War and for that reason alone warrants attention.
I was mesmerized while reading Green because it brought back memories of my time in the U.S. Navy in the late 1960s. Some of my experiences were uncannily similar to Tim Halladay’s. I’m referring to more everyday experiences, not to hurricanes and tunnel rat screening. For instance, every gay man facing the draft during the period of Green had to decide whether to “check the box.” If you were brave enough, or foolhardy enough, to tell the truth and admit that you had homosexual tendencies, you would “check the box” and hope for a 4-F classification, which declared you unfit for military service. Tim lies. He doesn’t check the box. He rationalizes the lie as an attempt “to prove something . . . that I was just as good as the next guy. . . . I was so fucking confused.” I didn’t check the box, either. I was scared to death, but lying seemed less risky than telling the truth.
During basic training, to avoid what he calls “communal crapping, where there is absolutely no privacy, Tim starts visiting “the open, disgusting, chicken-coop” at three in the morning so he won’t run into anyone. While I was at Great Lakes Naval Training Center for basic training, the toilets were lined up on opposite sides of a room with no dividers between them. Similar to what Tim does, I would get up early enough before reveille to do my business, jump back into my rack, and then get up with everyone when reveille sounded.
Tim frequently mentions reveille, that military wake-up tradition that uses a recording of a blaring bugle. Once, at Great Lakes, immediately after the reveille bugle sounded, a deliberately pleasant and comforting male voice came over the loudspeaker and said, “Good morning, gentlemen! It’s gorgeous out today. The sun is shining, and the temperature is a pleasant 65 degrees.” He paused for a couple of seconds to allow us to wonder why he was being so nice, then, in a deep, hypermasculine voice, shouted, “Get the fuck out of those racks!”
Tim botches grenade throwing. When he throws the dummy grenade, it falls short. The DI yells, “You wanna fuckin’ get us all killed?” When Tim throws the live grenade, it, too, falls short. This time, the lieutenant shouts, “Oh, Christ!” He shoves Tim to the ground and throws himself on top of him. Tim describes “the lieutenant’s belt buckle pressing hard into the top of my butt.” My experience with grenade throwing was exactly like Tim’s, except that I never got to practice with a dummy grenade. I had never seen a grenade until I was handed one. I pulled the pin and held the grenade for a few seconds with my thumb over the hole, not sure what to do next. The instructor yelled, “Throw it!” I tossed it over the embankment. Of course, it fell short. He shouted “You’re gonna kill all of us!” and threw me to the ground and covered me with his body until the debris settled. I’ve always wondered if this unique form of male bonding occurred frequently.
Gay men did their jobs well in the military. We felt that we had to excel in order to deflect any undue attention or speculation. This often backfired because we were taken seriously and were encouraged to become more involved in the military than we wanted to be. Tim describes the colonel, “his steel gray eyes directed at me like lasers,” encouraging him to sign up for Officer Candidate School. He says to Tim, “The Army needs men like you.” The lieutenant commander at my last duty station in the Navy said the same thing to me, just substitute Navy for Army. He was trying to get me to re-up for another term of enlistment. Did Tim’s colonel or my lieutenant commander have any idea that we were fairies?
Tom Baker has written two previous novels and a short story collection about Tim Halladay: The Sound of One Horse Dancing (2011), Full Frontal: To Make a Long Story Short (2012), and Paperwhite Narcissus (2014). These books tell about Tim Halladay’s life before and after his time in the army. Tim Halladay represents the generation of gay men who came of age during the 1960s, when coming out was risky and dangerous. I really identify with Tim because I also came of age in the 1960s, as did, I presume, Tom Baker.
In the epilogue to Full Frontal, Tim Halladay attends a gay pride parade in New York City in 2014, when he is about seventy years old. I hope Tom Baker continues to write about Tim Halladay.
Tom Baker’s Green is a hard-hitting novel about a young man’s experiences in the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War. Green is unique in Vietnam War fiction. It isn’t a combat story, it takes place stateside, and the main character is gay.
Tim Halladay, the narrator of Green, is a college graduate. He aspires to attend the Yale Drama School, but he loses his deferment. Tim is drafted into the U.S. Army in 1967 and is shipped to Fort Jackson, South Carolina for basic training. He and the other members of Charlie Company are issued official green fatigues. The transition from civilian to military life is relentless. Tim observes, “With shaved heads, we all looked like department store mannequins, impersonal, nameless, and sexless.”
The guys in Charlie Company call Tim “college boy,” as do the officers who want him to sign up for Officer Candidate School. Tim doesn’t want to be an officer because he doesn’t think he could order men to their deaths. After basic training, Tim goes to Fort Eustis, Virginia for troop movement classes. Ironically, he ends up at a desk job typing orders to send soldiers to Vietnam.
Often, while on break, Tim goes to his favorite reading spot under an elm tree by the James River. Once, Tim watches a column of red ants crawl over the toes of his sneaker, “a microscopic army in their world with their own Bravo and Charlie companies.” When I read this, I felt a sense of foreboding for Tim.
Tim does such an outstanding job with troop movement that he is assigned to work directly for a captain. One of his duties is to make sure that the captain’s Camaro is washed every Friday—with no water spots. He takes a lot of ribbing for having this cushy job. When the captain sends Tim on a mysterious assignment to Fort Story, the novel takes a dark, surprising turn. Tim is tasked with tunnel rat screening. He’s told, “[Charlie’s] coming up out of the fucking ground and attacking our men coming out of the jungle floor like ants.” Tim can’t escape those damned ants.
While Tim is at Fort Story, Hurricane Edith hits. For additional reasons, his stay at Fort story is horrifyingly surreal. When he returns to Fort Eustis, he is summoned to the captain’s office, where a hurricane of another kind hits Tim. I won’t give away spoilers, except to say that Tim had made a pledge to himself that he would not fool around with anyone while he was in the military and had held to it. After being in the Army for a little over four months, Tim tells us, “Reveille sounded, blaring across Fort Eustis—the last time I would hear it.” While he watches the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade on TV in a bar, a high school marching band plays “It Ain’t Easy Being Green.”
Tom Baker’s writing in Green is polished and confident and often humorous to break the tension. The period details are meticulous. Baker expertly ratchets up the suspense as the story barrels toward the climax. Green describes a gay man’s experiences in the military during the Vietnam War and for that reason alone warrants attention.
I was mesmerized while reading Green because it brought back memories of my time in the U.S. Navy in the late 1960s. Some of my experiences were uncannily similar to Tim Halladay’s. I’m referring to more everyday experiences, not to hurricanes and tunnel rat screening. For instance, every gay man facing the draft during the period of Green had to decide whether to “check the box.” If you were brave enough, or foolhardy enough, to tell the truth and admit that you had homosexual tendencies, you would “check the box” and hope for a 4-F classification, which declared you unfit for military service. Tim lies. He doesn’t check the box. He rationalizes the lie as an attempt “to prove something . . . that I was just as good as the next guy. . . . I was so fucking confused.” I didn’t check the box, either. I was scared to death, but lying seemed less risky than telling the truth.
During basic training, to avoid what he calls “communal crapping, where there is absolutely no privacy, Tim starts visiting “the open, disgusting, chicken-coop” at three in the morning so he won’t run into anyone. While I was at Great Lakes Naval Training Center for basic training, the toilets were lined up on opposite sides of a room with no dividers between them. Similar to what Tim does, I would get up early enough before reveille to do my business, jump back into my rack, and then get up with everyone when reveille sounded.
Tim frequently mentions reveille, that military wake-up tradition that uses a recording of a blaring bugle. Once, at Great Lakes, immediately after the reveille bugle sounded, a deliberately pleasant and comforting male voice came over the loudspeaker and said, “Good morning, gentlemen! It’s gorgeous out today. The sun is shining, and the temperature is a pleasant 65 degrees.” He paused for a couple of seconds to allow us to wonder why he was being so nice, then, in a deep, hypermasculine voice, shouted, “Get the fuck out of those racks!”
Tim botches grenade throwing. When he throws the dummy grenade, it falls short. The DI yells, “You wanna fuckin’ get us all killed?” When Tim throws the live grenade, it, too, falls short. This time, the lieutenant shouts, “Oh, Christ!” He shoves Tim to the ground and throws himself on top of him. Tim describes “the lieutenant’s belt buckle pressing hard into the top of my butt.” My experience with grenade throwing was exactly like Tim’s, except that I never got to practice with a dummy grenade. I had never seen a grenade until I was handed one. I pulled the pin and held the grenade for a few seconds with my thumb over the hole, not sure what to do next. The instructor yelled, “Throw it!” I tossed it over the embankment. Of course, it fell short. He shouted “You’re gonna kill all of us!” and threw me to the ground and covered me with his body until the debris settled. I’ve always wondered if this unique form of male bonding occurred frequently.
Gay men did their jobs well in the military. We felt that we had to excel in order to deflect any undue attention or speculation. This often backfired because we were taken seriously and were encouraged to become more involved in the military than we wanted to be. Tim describes the colonel, “his steel gray eyes directed at me like lasers,” encouraging him to sign up for Officer Candidate School. He says to Tim, “The Army needs men like you.” The lieutenant commander at my last duty station in the Navy said the same thing to me, just substitute Navy for Army. He was trying to get me to re-up for another term of enlistment. Did Tim’s colonel or my lieutenant commander have any idea that we were fairies?
Tom Baker has written two previous novels and a short story collection about Tim Halladay: The Sound of One Horse Dancing (2011), Full Frontal: To Make a Long Story Short (2012), and Paperwhite Narcissus (2014). These books tell about Tim Halladay’s life before and after his time in the army. Tim Halladay represents the generation of gay men who came of age during the 1960s, when coming out was risky and dangerous. I really identify with Tim because I also came of age in the 1960s, as did, I presume, Tom Baker.
In the epilogue to Full Frontal, Tim Halladay attends a gay pride parade in New York City in 2014, when he is about seventy years old. I hope Tom Baker continues to write about Tim Halladay.
November 5, 2024
This description of a young college graduate's experience as a draftee in the US Army during the height of the Vietnam war is gripping in its detail. A gay man who could have "checked the box" and avoided the draft, Halladay endured the indignities of being singled out as the only "college boy" in his unit and endured the endemic homophobia that was accepted by enlisted men and officers alike while dreading the consequences of being sent to fight in the unpopular war just so that he could avoid bringing dishonor to his family and limiting his opportunities as an avowed homosexual. Examples of hypocrisy are found throughout the book.
It was published in 2017. Had it been written far earlier, say in 1972 or even 1982, it may have been shocking and potentially impactful on the fight for gay rights.
It was published in 2017. Had it been written far earlier, say in 1972 or even 1982, it may have been shocking and potentially impactful on the fight for gay rights.
January 2, 2018
Memories and comiserating
I saw this book advertised in The Gay and Lesbian Review, which usually only recommends quality writing, and this was no exception. My own experience as a Vietnam veteran came back to me in living color as I read through the story. Baker's use of flashbacks and the sweet subtleties with which told the story made it haunting and memorable.
I saw this book advertised in The Gay and Lesbian Review, which usually only recommends quality writing, and this was no exception. My own experience as a Vietnam veteran came back to me in living color as I read through the story. Baker's use of flashbacks and the sweet subtleties with which told the story made it haunting and memorable.
September 25, 2018
This novel follows the story of one young man in 1967--from his day of induction into the army through basic training preparing for Vietnam. While the story is seeded with interesting premises, nothing ever takes hold. The author really just gives a cursory day-by-day account of the enlistee's travails, without reaching for any broader meaning or theme. Interesting, but ultimately shallow.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews