Camouflage Isn't Only for Combat: Gender, Sexuality, and Women in the Military

Acknowledgments

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS One of the few certainties in life is that a project such as this cannot be completed without the assistance of others. Members of the Department of Sociology at the University of Arizona provided me with invaluable support for this project. Each member of my dissertation committee, Paula England, Pat MacCorquodale, Doug McAdam, and Jim Shockey, provided unique contributions to the conduct and completion of this research. I must also thank members of the Department of Sociology at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, where I began my graduate training, especially Peter Rossi, who showed me that survey research was alive and well, and Gene Fisher and Jay Demerath, for telling me to “go for it” when others wished to convince me otherwise. Special thanks go to Ruth A. Wallace of The George Washington University. Without her support and encouragement I would never have rediscovered sociology. I would be remiss were I not to thank my departmental colleagues at Hamline University, Martin Markowitz, Maggie Jensen, and Navid Mohseni, for their continued support and good humor. This research received partial support from a University of Arizona Graduate College Summer Research Support vii grant, as well as a University of Arizona Department of Sociology Dissertation Award. I also wish to acknowledge the support of the Women’s Studies Advisory Council, whose grants enabled me to present my work at various professional meetings. I am also grateful for the Hanna Grant I received from Hamline University, which enabled me to conduct in-depth interviews, and for additional funding for computing resources from the Dean of the College of Liberal Arts. I must thank my family, especially my parents, Ralph and Priscilla Walker, for always believing in me. Many friends and colleagues have freely given their support as well, especially Douglas Adams, Jennifer Eichstedt, and Daniel Jones. Thanks must also go to Katie Krile and Mackenzie Hickman, students at Hamline University who assisted in the preparation of final drafts of the manuscript. I must acknowledge the assistance of the many wonderful people I have “met” on the listserv of The MINERVA Center, especially those who responded to my requests for verification of facts or figures. Special mention goes to Linda Grant DePauw of The George Washington University for establishing and maintaining The MINERVA Center. For those of us interested in women and the military, it is an incredibly valuable resource. Thanks as well to Jennifer Hammer at New York University Press, whose editing was nothing short of miraculous. Never did I expect to actually agree with almost every change an editor might suggest! I am grateful as well to Niko Pfund, who expressed interest in the project long before it even resembled a dissertation. viii ■ ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Needless to say, without the participation of hundreds of women this project would not have been possible, and I thank them as well. I hope that, while some will see themselves in this story more clearly than others, they will each feel that at least a part of their voice is reflected. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ■ ix ...