Cook, Thomas

Thomas Cook joined the United States Army on April 11, 2001. Cook joined the military to change his life and to better himself. He excelled and was quickly promoted. He attained the rank of Specialist (E-4) with an Intelligence specialty, and eventually earned the Army Achievement Medal.

Cook deployed to Kuwait in support of military operations in the Middle East from April through September of 2002.

In late 2003, Cook's company received orders to deploy to Iraq. Preparing for that deployment, Cook conducted a field training exercise with two other enlisted soldiers in his company. One of them was a sergeant, and Cook's team leader. On one occasion, the three men saw a man whom they knew to be gay walk by. The sergeant said to Cook that "(i)f I ever found out someone in my crew was gay, I would kill him."

The threat worried Cook, because he is gay. Cook knew that he was about to be deployed to Iraq with this sergeant, and was worried about what would happen if the sergeant found out Cook was gay. But Cook did not know of any mechanisms through which he could confidentially and without risk of retaliation report the sergeant's threat.

Cook decided that the best way to protect his own safety was to inform his commander about the sergeant's threat and explain that he was gay. Thus, in December 2003, Cook told his battalion commander he was gay.

Cook's battalion commander thought Cook made that statement solely to avoid deployment to Iraq. He recommended that Cook receive a general discharge rather than an honorable discharge - something that would have hurt Cook's ability to get a job in civilian life. With the help of an attorney, Cook fought the battalion commander's recommendation and the Army issued him an honorable discharge, reflective of his honorable service record.

Cook was discharged from the Army on January 22, 2004. He served for nearly three years.