Rob Schwitz was valedictorian of his high school and received a prestigious, full-ride, ROTC scholarship to Washington University. He continued to make straight-A's in his military science classes and was on track to be commissioned as a 2nd lieutenant in the Air Force when he graduated. He was scheduled to be a missile launch officer, which required above a top secret clearance. Since he believed his orientation would likely be revealed during the thorough review process for his security clearance, he decided to inform his commanding officer before that process began.

The year was 1991, before Bill Clinton became president and a policy was put in place that allowed gay men and lesbians to serve, but only if they kept their orientation secret. Previously gays were barred from serving in the military. So, the Air Force quickly took steps to remove Schwitz from the military and initially demanded he return the portion of his scholarship that had already been applied to his college expenses at Wash-U. Later the military dropped its demand for him to return scholarship money, and because of the extensive local news coverage, gave him an honorable discharge.

The military says if gays served openly it "would create an unacceptable risk to the high standards of morale, good order and discipline, and unit cohesion that are the essence of military capability." Rob Schwitz says he was robbed of the chance to serve his country in the Air Force. At 37 years old, he doesn't have any dreams of a career in the military anymore, but he is watching the latest effort to repeal the don't ask don't tell law, very closely.