‘I was a Wartime Transvestite for Uncle Sam!
TJ Ryder
Chapter 1
Reform School Romance!
I couldn’t believe that all I got from my uncle
Bill when he died after all he said to me about my being his
favorite grand nephew was an old diary from World War II.
I mean I thought we got along pretty darn good, and its
not like he had any money or anything, just another old
geezer in an assisted care center who if he ever had anything
had to get rid of it all for the state to provide nursing
home care.
But then when I read the note in the car, “Dear Tim,
this is especially for you! I hope you, unlike me, find your
real path in this world, because you only go through once,
or at least I’m about to find out!”
Bill always had a good sense of humour, and for some
reason of all the great nephews and nieces and extended cousins
we hit it off somehow. But you know you could always tell he
wanted to tell me something, and I guess this was it, an
old leather bound diary.
That’s when I lost two days of my life, because
when I got back to the sophomore dorm in college,
I didn’t put it down till I finished it, and then my life
changed a lot, but that’s another story.
**********************************************************
Diary of William Terence Phillips!
“April 3rd, 1944, Akron Ohio! Ohio State Reformatory
for Boys!”
Yup, still here, and I was hoping now that I turned
18 they’d give me early parole, or at least let me join
the army, but no such luck. Looks like I’m serving the
full 3 years for car theft.
Funny thing though, this place isn’t all that bad, I
made some new friends, and since my family has practically
disowned me I need em! Finished my GED testing, did
pretty good. While I liked being an older boy here,
I’m sort of still in the middle. I stopped growing
at 5’6″ and remained small boned and beardless like
dad I guess, which has like, good and bad points, like
everything in here. It’s not like hard time, in fact
its pretty safe. But after lights out, well, a boy like me
has to adapt to reality.
I was learning a trade even, electrician, and I seem
to develop an aptitude for it. And then, the military
recruiters came by, well, they were actually officers of
this new group from the USO and the Veterans Affairs something
although I didn’t know that then.
I was playing baseball during our free period at
the reform school when someone in a suit came out and
read my name, and I was already wondering what it was about
and if it was worth going over the wall for when they
had three other names before mine.
Taylor, Present!
Coleridge, Here!
Jackson, Yassuh!
Leroy Jackson was the one name that convinced me to
answer here, because he was 1: black 2: a sissybottom and
most important, 3: he never did nothing wrong!
Well, before lights out that is.
I mean I had a Plan B! I had long figured out the weak spot!
My route planned to the laundry truck; a reform school isn’t
like stir, it isn’t all that hard to get out of, the problem was
what to do in the world with a felony record if you exit.
I’d just get picked up right away again and I was due
for parole in less than a year!
It has to be worth it, and for the first time in a year I
really hadn’t done anything that bad.
“Phillips!”
“Here!” I said.
Later, standing in a hallway inside, still wearing baseball
uniforms, I wondered how they would continue the game without
us, as I was looking at the other guys. Kind of like me,
I thought! Two white boys totally clueless and being constantly
victimized and Leroy, who knew the score even before I did!
Leroy was the only one to ask, and he just shook his head.
“Ah don know nuffin bout nuffin! Fo real!”
The last sentence was looking me right in the eye and I
nodded.
Okay, I says to myself, sitting on the wooden bench like I
had been a dozen times, not recently though, getting ready
for parole, I just leaned back and instantly dozed off. Nothing
like being just outside the Reform School Warden’s office for
security and an excellent spot to take a snooze! You got to
take advantage of whatever you get there.
I must have been gone off for thirty minutes or more
cuz the bench was empty when I heard my name.
“Phillips!”
“Um, y-yes, Here!”
“In the office, Phillips!” the guard said tiredly.
“Yes Sir!”
Inside I was facing two men in army dress uniforms and
the assistant warden. Apparently what was going on wasn’t
important enough for the warden so I just adopted my usual
shell-like stance, neutral totally.
The middle aged Major with the doctor’s insignia
smiled at me, surprising in itself.
‘So, Terry Phillips, just turned 18, kind of hoping
for early parole I guess, huh?”
You get used to being talked about in the third person
while still in the room. I just nodded, my face blank.
“Iv’e been looking at your record here, Phillips, may
I call you Terry?” I said nothing, they would talk to me
anyway they wanted anyway.
“Two counts of car theft, not a lot for a maximum
sentence, did you ever think of that?”
I shrugged! Never give em anything!
“Course your family not showing up at court probably
didn’t help much!”
That one stung a little but I just stood there like
a wooden indian! Tears dried up at least two years ago.
“He’s tough, hard!” the other one said about me, a
lieutenant I think although at the time I didn’t know ranks
so well.
“That might be an advantage here!” the major said
without breaking eye contact. “Listen Terry, we can offer
you an out and also do your country a service. We noticed
your interest in the file of joining the armed forces if
you made that last parole!” I might have flinched but still
managed a slight shrug. Never give em anything!
“We have a slight problem with our veterans groups.
So many young men, traumatized, shell shock, even disabled,
concentrated in single spots, with no women. Some ready
to rejoin the active service, but they need,” he paused,
‘socialization!” He caught my eyebrow and smiled.
“It means, they haven’t quite returned to normal yet,
not enough for the war, if that is normal! They need
some socialization experience. Some who cares for them
as a person instead of a nurse or doctor or company
commander!”
At this point I was totally lost and it must have
showed in my face. I was prepared to deny a lot of stuff
that I did and didn’t do but this was completely strange
territory.
“We need more girls!” The lieutenant said bluntly!
My mouth definitely dropped open!
The major smiled, “frankly put, but true. Do you
have any idea what its like to be without a woman in months,
years even for many of these young men? And facing many
traumatic experiences and now we need them to face them
again. We have no resources in our budget for this, recruiting
women for our social venues, dances and such.
But, this
reform school was mentioned, and the basic dynamics are in
place for a, how shall I characterize it, a deal!”
He paused, and uncrossed his legs, a sign it was getting
to the nitty gritty. “We can offer our support for a parole
and an erasement of your record in return for certain services!”
Now this I had heard of. Lots of boys were given the choice
between prison and the military.
“But this time,” he continued, “we don’t need more soldiers,
we need more soldiers’ girls! Particularly for the negroe
servicemen.”
I gasped a little and he smiled and held up his palm.
“Just socially of course,” and I caught the look from the
lieutenant right away of his doubt on that one but I didn’t care.
“You want me to be a girl, let’s get this straight!”
“Your’e excellent material,” the lieutenant smiled,
“slim, smallish, small boned, no protuberant adams apple, no
beardline at all!” Now that struck a chord because that was what the
other three guys were!
“And other favorable characteristics!” The major smiled.
“Your’e saying I’m some kind of faggot?”
“No, no, not at all my boy!” he made a conciliatory gesture
with his hand, “we can certainly understand the, pressures, a
young white boy would face in an institution like,” he looked
around, “this one, and we certainly don’t hold it against you!
In fact why don’t you look at it like making lemonade out of
lemons. What you had to do to survive in here, well, will
help you to get out of here instead of holding you back!”
Well, now that did make kind of a crazy sense, so I pulled
my anger back in for a moment!
“So, what do you offer?”
“So much! So very much my boy! Early release, a clean
record, perhaps civil service employment even. A new start! And,”
he said, looking seriously at me for the first time,
“A real chance not only to serve your country in time of
war, but in a personal sense, to do real good!” There
was something about his voice that touched me at that
moment, cuz I know otherwise I was getting ready to
go back in my shell. I really wanted a new start and the idea
of spending a year at Akron Reform, and then he sealed it.
“All the boys chosen and who pass the selection and
training process are going to live in leased apartments,
individually, downtown. You’ll be on your own! We don’t
think anyone will go awol on us!” That really hit home.
The meeting ended; well actually I was dismissed to think of it.
I had 24 hours they said.
Well, that was a lot to think of tonight and its not like
I didn’t have baggage that had to be dealt with either. I had
the feeling that every kid that went to that interview would
sign up, but it wasn’t just myself I was thinking of at the
moment.
That night as usual at 10 pm I was in my cell, actually
a tiny little room, but you could see bars out on the
hallway standing by my cot along with every boy in the building;
they call these buildings houses instead of cell blocks like
they do in prisons.
Every night’s the same thing, just like every morning. We
were waiting for inspection by Trusty Jones, our house monitor.
We all pretty much looked up to Trusty, physically especially
because he the biggest and strongest man we’d ever seen.
Trusty was the main guy for our building and was
pretty darn strict about things. He came in, didn’t even smile
at me because there was another guard with him, and went over
to my bunk, snapped his huge black fingers at the taut blanket
and when the guard walked back outside stood so close to me
his bulging muscled-up chest was practically in my face.
“I hear you had a meeting today with the Army!”
“Yes, can we talk, later?”
He smiled, that wide grin, towering over me but I didn’t
move back, and I think that’s why he liked me, I stood up to him!
“I’ll see you later!” He said, and stepped back out of
the room, and the door locked shut. Trusty was an inmate
here once and then took a job like a lot of the monitors did.
He was a lot older than the boys, maybe 30, which of course
was really old to me then. He had a shaved head, 6’5″ of
solid black muscle and long sloping arms. He was not someone
to talk back to but he was pretty fair, not a bully like
some of the boys were, and didn’t allow gangs to get started
in his ‘house’!
One thing though, he did like things just so cuz he might
not have much time so he always liked to take care of business
right away. I took the carefully made up bed, yanked off the
covers and dragged the mattress to the floor.
After lights out, and it was never really dark there,
you could always see lights on the hallway, it wasn’t long
I heard soft footsteps and the lock clicked on my door.
Trusty came in with a grin! “I ain’t got much time,
boy!”
“I know,” I was already naked, and gasped as he yanked
his clothes off, the sight of that huge black boner made me
catch my breath, feeling his huge hand guiding me down to
the mattress, he was too big to share my bunk, so we always
had to move the mattress to the floor.
I was trying to talk to him and he was just anxious to
get down to business.
“Trusty,” I said, holding his hand as he was leaning over
me, spreading my butt cheeks out as he grinned down at me,
licking his big lips that I had kissed so many times, “we
do need to talk! I have to make a big decision by tomorrow,
for both of us!”
“Haw, yeah, dat’s raht, hold dat!”
“Really, can you spend the night?”
“Naw, lots of strange stuff goin on here. Lotsa boys
movin out an movin in!”
‘I know, and I, well, wanted to talk about our, well,
relationship!” We’d been sort of together for almost 7 months
now, a record for Akron I think. For the last couple months
I was thinking I was in love but I also knew I wasn’t his
only boy.
“I can’t talk now, mebbe later!”
Well, later, laying on the mattress, tired and
worn out, his taste in my mouth and running out of my body,
my own semen splattered over the mattress, I looked
up at Trusty hastily pulling up his pants in the
shadowed room. I wanted to say something and then
he looked down at me.
“Lots of suits walking around this week. Best keep
this room straight, boy!”
“Trusty!”
“What?”
“Um, good night!”
‘Haw, good night boy!”
After he locked the door that was the first time in
a year I cried but I also made a decision!
So much for Reform School Romance!
**************
Continued! in full length illustrated story
Published
