NPR
by QUIL LAWRENCE
January 06, 2014
The Marines acted on his dying request in just two weeks. Last Friday in Florida, a small group presented Faulkner with his honorable discharge.
Hal Faulkner is 79 years old and he's already lived months longer than his doctors predicted.
"I don't know what to say, it's just incredible that I'm still here," Faulkner says in a halting voice made gruff by age and cancer.
Faulkner joined the Marines in 1953, and served in the Philippines. In 1956, he got kicked out with an "undesirable discharge" for being gay. His military papers said "homosexual" on them, quite an obstacle in the 1950s.
Still, Faulkner moved on, and had a successful career in sales.
A few years ago, when he got diagnosed with terminal cancer, Faulkner contacted his family about a dying wish.
"I always knew he served in the Marines, but no one in the family knew of the [undesirable] discharge," says his niece, Michelle Clark.
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