Badpuppy Gay Today

Monday, 31 March, 1997

After his live appearance on ABC's "Nightline," Tuesday, March 25, 1997, Clayce C. Rodamer, 1987 West Point graduate, has still got United States Government collection hounds on his heels.

In Tuesday night's airing of the plight of the mistreated soldier, it seems that after graduation from the Military Academy and subsequent assignment to Fort Bliss in El Paso, Texas, Clayce Rodamer was moved--under the Army code of "Duty, Honor, Country" to admit he was gay.

The Army gave Rodamer, now 32, two choices: (1.) facing a court-martial and a possible dishonorable discharge or (2.) resigning. He chose to resign. Two years passed before the federal government then issued a form-letter request that Rodamer begin a "repayment," of $76,000 for the cost of his West Point education, one that had been rendered useless due to the military's own anti-gay policies. The letter demanded the "repayment" because, according to the form-letter, Rodamer had not completed his five-year commitment to military duty. According to Rodamer, the federal demand asked monthly payments exceeding his civilian income.

In last Tuesday's "Nightline" broadcast, unnamed Army officials contacted the program to say they were willing to call off collection hounds and did not intend to proceed with their demands. All seemed well for Rodamer at the close of the show.

GayToday made repeated attempts to contact Clayce Rodamer for an interview on Wednesday. An answering machine recording thanked wellwishers and supporters. Thursday, two days after Rodamer's widely-viewed "Nightline" interview, GayToday received a message from David J. Przeracki, a Dallas attorney representing Rodamer.

The federal government, according to Przeracki, had disclosed, in a return call, that apparently government officials had changed their minds and would still proceed with their attempts to collect for the cost of Rodamer's West Point education. The initial amount demanded, said officials, had since grown, after eight years, from $76,000 to $176,000 because of interest and penalties.

Further, according to Przeracki, it appears that Sara E. Lister, Assistant Secretary of the Army, had allegedly written a letter recommending an end to federal collection efforts. Thus came the collector's call, prior to the showing of "Nightline," in what now appears to have been an attempt to persuade "Nightline" not to air the Rodamer case.

Przeracki, making further inquiries on behalf of his client, telephoned William S. Sheean, Deputy General Counsel, Department of Defense, and William Coleman, General Counsel for the United States Army. He was told, he explained, that the Rodamer-case collection decision was out of their hands and that collection proceedings against Clayce Rodamer would therefore continue.

Finally, said Rodamer's lawyer, he offered to go to Washington, D.C. with his client, in order to resolve the issue. At last report, no decision had been made to actually go to Washington by either Przeracki or Rodamer. Throughout his long ordeal, Clayce Rodamer has maintained that he never broke his contract with the military. "They broke it with me," he says.