Alaina Urquhart

Yeah.

Rather than being sent off to some exotic location like he thought he would be, Dennis and his peers spent the next four years stationed in Aldershot, a military town in Hampshire, New England.

Their life was pretty much the same as it had been before he left home with military responsibilities just replacing schoolwork and his fellow soldiers replacing his classmates.

In 1964, he passed his exams and was promoted to the rank of private, which was an important step in what he thought was going to be a lifelong career in the military.

And while this was a momentous occasion for him, his entire experience in the military had been undermined by his growing awareness of his own sexuality and his interest in men.

Sure.

Especially at the time period, this was tough.

He was repressing everything, though, and the repression of those urges was always accompanied by deep guilt and shame.

Yeah.

And he would carry that with him for a long time.

He later said, I was always afraid that I must somehow look different and that my innermost thoughts would be exposed.

Oh, that's sad.

Which is so sad.

It is very sad.

But he's such an asshole.

It's like you hear these things, and again, he's still a kid when this is all happening.

Right, so you feel bad for the kid.

That's sad.

And as is often the case, Dennis was only able to conceal this for so long.

And in his mid-20s, he was engaging in a lot of, like, you know, one-night stands with men.