"Describes an informal network of gay American GIs and civilians based in Frankfurt, Germany, shortly before the gulf war. In the accommodating embrace of the city’s teeming red-light district, gay and straight GIs pursued separate but equal satisfactions, and crossover experimentation was not unknown. ‘They were young, lonely, and sometimes desperately horny,’ writes Zeeland, a civilian employee of the Army and himself gay. . . . When the Army proffers its invitation to potential recruits to ‘be all you can be,’ it may be taking on more than it bargained for."

"An historical document that is unique among the writings on gays in the military."

"What I find most valuable about 'Barrack Buddies' is the way the interviews, rooted in what appears to be a relatively close-knit sexual network (many of the 16 men knew and had sex with each other), work as a series of narratives about gay sex in the military. . . . The interviews also capture the many ironies of military life. Despite its long-standing ban on gay men, it was the military that first allowed many of these men to discover their erotic preferences."