Military Intelligence?

by Robyn Smith

  

My story begins almost ten years ago, while I was in the US Navy.

I was stationed at a command, at which there was an experimental detachment of female sailors. The purpose of that command was to establish as a project, to gauge how efficiently women can function, in relation to men, in this particular environment. The command consisted of 268 men and, twenty four women.

At the completion of my current enlistment, I only had one more, four year, enlistment to go before I retired. As one of the senior enlisted personnel, I bounced from shop to shop doing follow up checks and analyzing information, rather than being assigned to just one work center. Consequently, it would sometimes be two or three weeks before I needed to return to any particular shop. I also worked out of a one man office with no direct supervisor. It was almost as if I was serving on independent duty.

One spring day, I got called into the C.O.'s office unexpectedly. Upon entering the office I saw the skipper and a Female Officer, a Ltjg, who had been assigned as the senior woman on this project. I enjoyed working at this command. I liked the way this CO operated, he always did his best to keep all of our internal problems from becoming external, and as such also went a bit overboard at timws in a effort to be extremely fair in his dealings with the crew members. His method of command was to attempt everything possible to solve problems at the lowest possible level. That philosophy was about to become a problem within itself.

The CO began by explaining that we, as a command, had a problem. One of the girls in the detachment had gone AWOL and had gotten herself into a situation where she would be absent from the command for a little over a month. She had been picked up by her home town police department, on some sort of warrant, and had to spend a bit of time as a guest of the county penal system. In order to minimize her problems within the military, the skipper had allowed leave papers to be issued for her to cover the jail period. However, now the skipper, and by extension - the command, was in a rather severe bind of it's own.

The skipper had also received a message a couple of days before that, informing him that we were going to be getting an inspection, by the Admiral who had planned and organized this project. That inspection was due to take place in three weeks. That message had been sent by the Admiral's staff and had also included explicit instructions that all hands be present, no leaves or non-routine liberty would be authorized during the inspection. I was advised that the conversation, which was to follow, was to be treated as strictly confidential and not to leave that room. I was further advised that I was forbidden to talk about any of this until well after I had retired, in another five years.

 

The skipper reasoned that, with a 268 to 24 ratio of male to female, it would be fairly easy to cover for a missing male, however a missing female would be almost impossible to get by the inspection party. The skipper and the Lt. had discussed the matter, in depth. Knowing the habits of the Admiral, they had come to the conclusion that, he (the Admiral) would probably take an actual head count of the female personnel while he was on board our command - and we were one short.

Not wanting to further endanger the missing girl's career, they further reasoned that we, meaning the three of us, could avert disaster by simply asking one of our male sailors to crossdress and pass as a female for the inspection. That way the head count would be correct, and the Admiral would be satisfied. We had also been instructed to submit an updated personnel utilization report to the Admiral's staff the next day. Still not realizing what they were leading up to, I guardedly agreed that their plan sounded logical. Once I had agreed to the simple logic of their plan, they continued.

Due to a combination of circumstances, I had been elected to act as that female for the inspection. The two of them had openly toured the command, observing as many people as they could, in their allotted time. Together they had arrived at the joint decision that I appeared to be one of men that exhibited some of the more effeminate mannerisms at the command. I also worked in a private office. With my normal work schedule being what it was, they thought that I would be less likely to be missed, by any of the individual work centers, than someone who worked in the same group of people every day. They were very careful to assure me that this was not to be taken as a reflection on my masculinity, by any stretch of the imagination, it simply meant they felt that I had the best chance of being able to pull it off successfully.

They went on to explain that, following a formal uniform inspection, a working inspection would also be done, this would involve observing the women in their actual working environments. Which meant that I needed to develop even more feminine mannerisms, as well as appearance. I felt I should be able to get through that phase easily, by showing the inspectors the procedures I used to analyze various types of information I had, along with my analysis records, all in the privacy of my own office. I could even have some of the shops phone the updated information I would need, to me at the office, as I did from time to time. All I would have to do was maintain the masquerade for a period of two days to cover the inspection routine, as well as a short period of preparation and final evaluation just prior to the inspection. Remembering my drama club experiences in High School and after listening to their reasoning, I hesitatingly agreed, in order to support both the skipper and the command.

 

As the meeting continued, it was agreed that I would be relieved of all normal military duties for the next two weeks, in order to properly prepare for this little adventure. The Lt. was given the assignment of ensuring I was properly "trained" and outfitted, as deeply into this role of feminine deception as possible. I would need to learn how to walk, how to talk, how to move, literally everything. I would even need to learn the in's and out's of cosmetics. We jokingly agreed that it also wouldn't hurt for me to learn the basics of female flirting.

I had never paid too much attention to the Lt. before, but I was beginning to realize that, for an officer, she was really quite pretty. I also found that she was well educated. She had completed college with a major in Adult Education. She had a hard time finding work in that field that paid a living wage, so she accepted a commission in the Navy. Her background in adult education looked like it would begin paying off for her, in ways she hadn't even come close to expecting. Besides, it sounded like it was going to be a lot of fun, having an opportunity to fool not only the inspection personnel but also every other person on that base.

The three of us began a two hour brainstorming session, starting with the idea of laying out a basic plan of action. I had always enjoyed playing the part of a military strategist and this gave me another opportunity to do just that. The stakes for this opportunity just happened to be three military careers. Once we had completed the basic plan, the Lt. and I would continue, for the most part, to complete the remainder of this assignment, using our own discretion and best judgement, and the command would be picking up the tab.

I suggested that we begin by deciding on just exactly how much, and what type, of a wardrobe I would be needing, as well as where and how I was to make the needed uniform and appearance changes. We had all agreed that my normal duties could be put on hold temporarily.

Since we were in the time of year where either summer or winter uniforms might be called upon for the actual inspection, at the discretion of the inspecting officer, we decided that we would need to pick up both types. We further reasoned that if we waited for the inspection uniform to be announced, we would not have sufficient time to get them properly tailored and ready to go. To further aggravate the situation, we also had to consider the additional option of slacks or skirts. Without knowing which uniforms to plan on, we had to pick up uniforms to cover both of these options too. Then came the work uniforms and foundation garments, as well as a wig, cosmetics, breast enhancers, etc. Unfortunately we probably wouldn't be getting inspection uniform notification until one or two days before I would need them. We also couldn't even begin the fittings until I had made the necessary body contour adjustments and was able to present at least a marginally acceptable feminine presence.

If we tried too hard to put a rush on the tailoring, or if I had problems with my acting, it would raise a lot of questions, and we were trying to keep this thing as low keyed as possible. The fewer people involved, the better our chances of success. If I couldn't make the necessary achievements in time, we would have to scrap the whole plan and just let the missing girl face the consequences.

The bottom line was, to cover just the uniform options, I would need:

Both Summer and Winter dress and undress uniforms, and at least two or three working uniforms, each having both trouser and skirt option ready and available. I would also be needing a lightweight jacket to complete the working uniform, and three different types of shoes. The shoes would need to include, flats, heels and working shoes. The reason for the two sets of working uniforms was that I would need to change that first day, right after the initial uniform inspection, for the remainder of the day. I would also need a clean one for the working inspection on the second day.

Even though a weeks worth of working uniforms would have been a lot more convenient, to cover the prep time too, we could make a couple of runs to the base laundromat if we needed to. What would have been ideal was for us to go ahead and buy a full, standard issue seabag. We had a uniform price list from the Navy Exchange Uniform Shop and upon checking found that, from a monetary viewpoint, it would be more cost effective to just go ahead and pick up a full seabag. After discussing the value of this idea, and thereby insuring I would have all the proper uniforms available, in the quantities I needed, we elected to go that route for safety. This would also simplify our clothing and uniform inventory list.

The Lt. and I would have to decide what I needed to add, in the foundation department, to make my girlish figure more realistic and presentable. The shoes and pantyhose were not a problem because it was pretty well cut and dried in what I needed there.

We further decided that, in order to be most convincing, and minimize the chances of blowing my cover, I should make the transition from living as a male - to that of living, in a full time role, as a woman, in order to become as comfortable in that role as I could. I also needed to go on liberty - out into the civilian community - as a woman, to help with building my confidence. This would also provide the Lt. ample opportunity to make a better judgement as to my ability to successfully pass around other, unsuspecting people. We felt that if I could get used to fooling people in the community, I should have no problem on the base.

 

I don't mind telling you, this thing was beginning to look pretty scary by this time. After putting a lot of thought into it, I decided to stick it out and at least give it an honest effort. As long as we all made an honest 110% effort, if I got caught - I got caught, and we would all end up paying the piper, but none of us could complain too much.

I brought up the fact that I was married and had four children, all teenagers. As such there was no way I could do any of this at home. We decided that, for the first week, I would live with the Lt., in her quarters. This would allow the close personal attention I would be needing initially, as well as providing the security we needed. We would use this opportunity to make the rough transition into a female role then, assuming things were progressing smoothly enough, I would be assigned a room at the women's barracks, along with the rest of the girls at the command. I would pass myself off to them as a new transfer, and I would have the privacy of my own room to handle my transition problems.

The prospects of such a barracks assignment, and off base liberty, naturally mandated that I pick up a few civilian type dresses, skirts and blouses, as well as enough nightwear to pull this off as well. We had made the decision to steer clear of pantsuits and slacks due to their similarity, in feel, to the male clothing I was used to. This should make accidental slip ups in my mannerisms less probable. The bright side was that, since I was doing this for the good of the command, at their request, they would be picking up the entire check. To make a long story short, I ended up getting a full seabag of uniforms, as well as a very nice assortment of civilian clothes.

Once I had the opportunity to speak with the Lt. alone, I shyly suggested that, in order to do this properly, I should also think about going all the way, and switch full time to wearing women's panties as well, besides, the additional cost of the panties was minimal compared to the rest of the stuff. I reasoned that I would need them to help me get by in the barracks, once we had reached that point, and that they would also help to remind me of my assigned role, especially if we were ordered to wear slacks instead of skirts for the inspection.

She didn't even hesitate, she said that she had already planned on a total uniform change, including panties. She said that if I was going to act the role, I should become a woman, completely. We agreed that, if I wasn't willing or able to actually become a woman, I would merely appear as a man acting like a woman.

Now I had another goal, actually learning to think, feel and reason, as the woman I was about to become. I went ahead and picked up some jewelry on my own to help accessorize the clothes, besides if I hadn't, I would have probably been the only "girl" at the inspection that was not wearing post earrings and a watch.

Things progressed rather smoothly, as I began to get into this new role. I found myself not only enjoying what was happening, but I was actually beginning to act more and more feminine each and every day, without even consciously trying. When I tried walking in my new heels, I noticed a slight feminine sway of my hips, especially after the Lt. pointed out to me that I had to learn to walk with my knees and legs together, rather than lumbering along like a man.

I found that my arms were actually beginning to turn outwards slightly, which put my lower arms and hands in a more feminine, palm forward style. When I ran, I found my elbows were being held higher and farther away from my body than normal, just like when I watched the other girls run at the gym. When picking things up off the floor, I found that I was beginning to bend my knees instead of my waist. All of this without conscious effort, it just felt more natural.

As the Lt. and I got into the actual clothing fittings and transition, we found that I was having some minor figure control problems and needed to add to my foundation wardrobe to slightly alter my typical male physique. We had to accent my bust and hips, while controlling my waist a lot better. We added a girdle, a waist cincher and a long line bra to our shopping list.

Our attempts at bust enhancement didn't work out to be very effective at first, we could boost the size, and control the shape, with no problem, however the lack of proper weight and natural bounce made everything we tried look unnatural and obviously fake. Using the Lt's actual body movement as a guide, we took the time to research the problem through a couple of Crossdressing magazines, then tried both birdseed bags and water balloons. The birdseed ended up giving us the weight, but also ended up being too hard to the touch and difficult to adjust to various body moments. Water balloons worked very well, but presented a problem of availability once I had moved to the barracks.

Those first two days found the Lt. running around her apartment, in front of me, in just her bra and panties, then allowing herself to being poked and prodded by both of us in our efforts to duplicate as much of her natural attributes as we could. That's when we decided to go with silicon mastectomy pads. The new pads worked out perfectly. They gave me the weight, shape, feel and movement that we were looking for, plus the added benefit of not leaking or having to be replaced on a regular basis. The best part about them was that they didn't break like a few of the water balloons had. I began feeling like what I thought a woman should feel like. I also spent literally hours each day working on my voice.

 

After solving the breast problem, we moved down to the contour problem between my legs. We felt that we needed to address this area due to the upcoming barracks situations, as well as the possibility of needing to wear somewhat snug, form fitting trousers for the inspection. And snug form fitting trousers would obviously be showing the wrong form, unless we did something to change it.

That problem was overcome with the addition of a girdle and a "Tucking Technique" that we had read about in one of the magazines. We spent literally hours just comparing our two lower bodies, and shifting things around between my legs, while we worked on solving that problem.

As we tackled the lower body problem, it rapidly became apparent that I would need to take on additional shaving responsibilities as well. Never having experienced the ordeal of shaving my legs before, she offered to help teach me the most effective method, one that resulted in the least number of bleeding holes. She had me soak in a warm bath for a few minutes then brought me a woman's safety razor and began showing me how to minimize nicks and cuts.

By this time the two of us had spent so much time together, in various states of dress and undress, that we were beginning to feel a lot more comfortable about seeing each other's naked and semi naked body and having ours seen, tucked, prodded and shaved by the other. Although we were openly dealing with, and physically touching almost every private part of each others anatomy, we were also managing to do so in an almost clinical, non-sexual manner.

She watched and studied me, as I got out of the bathtub, watching my movements, which she would later rate as either feminine or masculine. She was making mental notes about what we needed to work on and what was already, at least borderline, acceptable. Believe me, she found more to work on than she found passable. Almost every movement, and every aspect of my naked body spelled only one thing - MALE.

One morning, as I reached over to open the bathtub drain, she stopped me dead in my tracks. I began laughing at her as I realized that when she stopped me, I was standing in front of her, totally naked, my rear end pointing directly towards her face, and my cheeks spread wide because of my position.

Very calmly, and professionally, she informed me that I had a "Man's Ass". She commented that she had never, in her life, seen another woman with that much hair on her ass and down the back of her legs, as I had. She quickly grabbed my shaving lather and my new female safety razor and completed shaving what needed to be shaved in that area, before allowing me to stand upright again.

 

At that point she had me turn around, still naked, as she checked out my front side. She smiled and said, "We might as well do everything we need to now, and get it over with." She then attacked my chest and underarms with the razor. As she worked, she commented that she would need to do a bit more, then had me lay down across her bed as she began trimming the area around my crotch and upper thighs.

She left the pubic hair, but trimmed it up a little and cleaned the "bikini area" around it. By the time she finished, my pubic area sported a nice "oval" patch of hair that looked very much like that of a true woman, especially once I had everything "tucked" into it's proper place. Now she was satisfied, we were both satisfied.

That first night, following my bath and shaving routine, I had returned home and explained to my wife that we had something special going down at the base and that I would be out of the area for a while. I went on to tell her that I even needed to return to the base that evening. I did that so that I wouldn't have to worry about her finding out about the missing hair. I had also told her I would be out of the area so that she wouldn't try calling me at the base or attempt making the one hour drive, one way, to try and find me.

I eagerly drove back to the Lt's quarters and eventually, we both crawled into our nightgowns and went to our respective beds, mine was on the couch. Following a good night's sleep, she got up and went to work at the base, as I stayed at her place to practice. When she came home, early that afternoon, she said, "Guess what, Linda, I went shopping at lunch, and I picked up something, just for you." With that, she handed me a small package, it contained some skin lotion, a bottle of perfume and a few extra pairs of pantyhose, in assorted shades, as a reward for all my efforts the night before.

I fondly remember the sensual feel of that lotion as I applied it to my newly shaved legs that first time. Then sliding the panties and pantyhose up those same legs began to take on erotic proportions. As I was trying out the things she had bought for me, she explained that she had decided to start calling me "Linda" so that I would begin getting used to being called by a woman's name. She also said that she was beginning to think of me as "Linda". What I didn't tell her was that I felt I was actually beginning to become "Linda", in all respects but one.

The Lt. and I started a heavy clothes buying spree that same day, day two. I had started wearing my nightgown and panties that first evening, once I got back to the Lt's quarters, as I enthusiastically began my new, temporary, full time role. As time progressed, so did we. We got to work on my physical appearance, first solving the body contour problems mentioned earlier, then moving on to my eyebrows and into cosmetics 101.

By the middle of that first week we came to the conclusion that I had progressed faster than we had estimated and that it was time for our first big test, we went out in town for dinner and drinks.

The Lt. and I had both chosen very pretty, but conservative dresses to go with our high heels. The Lt. said that it was now obvious, to her, just how much time and effort I had been putting into all of this, and that it was a shame that we had to go back to our normal routine once it was over. She laughed as she pointed out how obvious it was that I had made this transition, with such ease and eagerness.

She knew that I was not only enjoying it, but also figured out that I was aactually living out one of my fantasies. I shyly acknowledged that observation and asked that she keep that strictly between the two of us. Her smile told me that not only did she agree to my request, but that she was also enjoying this almost as much as I was.

Following a nice sit down dinner at one of the restaurants in a neighboring town, we stopped at one of their local lounges for drinks and a critique session. At the lounge I was hit on by at least four or five guys, including a couple that I had worked with side by side at the base, less than a month earlier. Nobody got even the slightest inkling of who I really was. I was even able to hold regular conversations with them, using my new female voice, and not make them suspicious. It was great, I was going to be able to pull this off after all.

As the Lt. and I sat there talking, I hesitated, then casually asked what she had planned on doing with my new clothes and uniforms once this thing was over. She thought about it for a couple of minutes then said, "They won't even come close to fitting me, and we can't just go out and give them all away without too many questions, can we?" She thought for a minute, then added, " Why don't you just go ahead and keep them for a while "Linda", then if you want, donate them to Navy Relief, one or two items at a time, over the next year or so. The things you don't feel are appropriate to donate can simply be thrown away."

She hesitated for a moment, blushed slightly, then added, " A third option, is for you to keep at least the civilian dresses and things, and continue to become 'Linda' occasionally, I think 'Linda' and I could become very good friends, I Know I would enjoy that very much, and I hope 'she' will feel the same way." She went on to explain that she knew I was married and respected that.

She said that she did not want to develop any type of romantic involvement or anything of that nature, but that she was beginning to think of me as a woman that she would like to become very good friends with, possibly even best friends. But also nothing beyond becoming "girlfriends".

My tailored uniforms finally came back from the uniform shop at the beginning of the second week. Without those uniforms, there was no way I could move to the barracks. I finally made that move at the tail end of that second week.

The time had come for me to move out of the Lt's quarters. I moved into the women's barracks, only to find that, due to an error at the assignment office, I not only had to share a room with another girl, but that the entire female population on my floor had community showers as well. It seems that someone in billeting had made a mistake when they told the Lt. that a single room was available, and none of us had even remotely thought about the shower and restroom arrangements. That brought up more than a few interesting situations, almost all of which were remedied by a small shift in my schedule.

It was now time to move to the next phase of our plan. We went back to the base and I was assigned to the crew, as any new member of the command would be, I was introduced to a temporary work crew, using "Linda" as my name. They were informed that I was being assigned on temporary duty only, and that I would be moving into my regular office in a few days, to help with a paperwork overload.

I was to be literally assigned to work for myself, in my original job, by myself, as someone else. It was becoming confusing to try to figure out. By now I was completely trapped and committed. "Linda" began making the rounds of the various work centers, the same as I had done all along, literally everyone readily accepted "Linda".

Things progressed very well and finally the day of the big inspection arrived. It began with the personnel uniform inspection and, as suspected, the Admiral was observed taking an actual head count of the women. We had worn our winter uniforms, with skirts and heels. We needed a count of twenty four women, we gave him a count of twenty four. The working inspection also proceeded without any difficulty at all.

I had made use of my prep time to ensure that all the signature authorizations had been changed over to "Linda". It was mandatory that these authorizations, signed by the skipper, had to be post dated and in place to make this whole thing work. I also needed to make sure all of the signed forms available in my office, had been signed using my femme name. I spent almost two days, copying things I had already reviewed and resigning them, to get everything in place for the cover up, even to the point of developing a penmanship style that I considered to be more indicative of a woman signing her name, rather than a man signing a woman's name. It also meant that I would have to do the whole thing, in reverse, once this thing was over.

 

Once these two inspections were complete, the Admiral decided to host a luncheon for the entire female detachment. He also authorized a command wide picnic for all of the male members of our command, so that he could express his appreciation to them too. He decided on the picnic route, because a luncheon for 268 additional people would not have been very feasible. Besides, he wanted to speak with the women's detachment directly about the inspection results.

At the luncheon he made an announcement that hit the Skipper, the Lt. and myself right between the eyes. He announced that, since this project appeared to be working so well, he had decided to stay on board for another two weeks, to make a few more detailed observations, and see if he could make or recommend any further improvements. His added stay was to include personal interviews with each of us women. He told us that our individual comments would be a critical part of his evaluation task. My role had just been involuntarily extended.

I made a phone call to my wife and explained that I had a couple of stops to make before I came home, then got back to the job at hand. Out of habit, I almost slipped up and used the new voice I had developed instead of my normal voice. That next two weeks really began to open my eyes to a few things.

I had progressed to the point that, I was beginning to think of myself as one of the women. Even around the barracks, I would often shower when they did, being careful to wear a bathrobe to and from the shower to hide my true identity. Once in the shower, if another woman was present, I would merely keep my back to her and use one of the corner showers. If I was alone, I would still use the corner shower and keep my back to the door.

I quite often ran around the barracks in either a long nightgown or the new baby dolls I had picked up. I quite naturally joined some of the other girls in some of their girl talk sessions and enjoyed playing games with them as we sat around the barracks. I was always very careful to keep my make up on, even in the shower, I would only take it off late at night and wash up in the sink, using a washcloth. The next morning I would get up early, shave, and have everything back in place before the rest of the girls began moving around too much.

As I went on liberty, I often found myself browsing through women's shops and imagined how I would look in some of the different outfits. I had even picked up a few more dresses, on my own. I had pantyhose coming out of my ears and enough panties to choke a horse. I had gotten into this new role a lot deeper than I had even dared to imagine. That's when I began to realize that I was actually beginning to "need" this particular role to continue for a long long time.

 

I was beginning to wonder if my decision to go along with all of this had been such a good idea to begin with, but at the same time, I was very pleased that I had. I had reached the point that I dreaded the mere thought of having to try going back to what I was, before this little deception started. This experience had opened up a whole new world for me.

One fact that continued to surprise me was that, throughout this whole ordeal, I had never once thought of any of the other women in a sexual manner. I'd had many opportunities, but passed on every one of them. I had quite simply become one of them, sharing in their joys as well as their sorrows, I had begun to think of them, not as women, but as sisters. I also offered womanly advice to help them solve their problems.

The skipper, Lt. and I toughed it out for the next two weeks, continuing our little deception. I was sadly beginning to realize that we had it made when, suddenly, I got paged to the CO's office once again. When I got that page, I knew that we had done it, all that was left was to go to the skipper, receive his thanks then, reluctantly, try to return to normal. I nervously slipped into my heels, straightened my skirt, blouse, wig and tits. I made a last second check of my makeup, then walked to the skipper's office, thinking of how I was going to explain any or all of this to my wife and kids. How was my wife going to accept a woman as her husband?

As I walked into the office, I saw the skipper, the Lt. AND the Admiral. The Admiral instructed me to take a seat as he began talking. As he talked, we found that he had figured out the scam, and was about to drop the hammer, right on our heads.

He spelled out what he felt was the most likely scenario, and actually hit almost all of it dead on. He went on to inform the skipper that, as a result of the deception attempt, he (the skipper) would be allowed to remain at the command, but that he would be passed over for advancement on the next cycle. For an Officer, being passed over like that, was extremely detrimental to their career. We would also be getting a new CO and the current CO was to be demoted to Executive Officer.

This shift in our command structure would be done to minimize the risk of what we had done getting too much publicity. The new CO was obviously necessary because of the questionable judgement exercised by the old one. If he had made such a bad decision in this matter, what would he do on something more important? The Admiral could not afford to take the risk.

 

Since the Lt. was also such an integral part of this attempt, the Admiral felt she should receive some sort of punishment as well. He ordered her to split the cost of my transformation with the skipper. That ended up translating to approximately $3,500 - each, to cover the clothes as well as the added cost of food and shelter that had been provided to me in addition to the subsistence allowance I had been receiving all along as part of my normal pay and allowances. She was also ordered to remain at the command, where the Admiral could keep her under his personal military control. She was not passed over for promotion because the Admiral felt that too many passes at one small command would open the doors for a formal investigation and probable court marshall for all of us.

In my case, I found that the Admiral had checked my service record and found that I was up for my final re-enlistment in six months. Since my actions were obviously originated and motivated at the urgings of my superiors, and that I had agreed to all of this in good faith, in order to support my commanding officer, I was given a choice of either remaining at the command, in my proper male role, or transferring on a temporary basis, to the Admirals staff, for the next six months, at which time I would be re-enlisting and getting a normal transfer.

The Admiral reasoned that the circumstances of my entry and involvement in this operation had been the equivalent of being given a direct order. He was not holding it against me that I should have known, through normal reasoning, that such an order was illegal to begin with. He also mentioned that this was about the only way he could even come close to rewarding me for putting forth so much honest effort, and accomplishing such a difficult task as successfully as I had.

In effect, I was being praised for what I had done, even though it was also a result of poor judgement, on my part. I was further advised that, should I elect temporary transfer to the Admiral's staff, I was to remain in my current female gender role, until I had re-enlisted and been given a permanent transfer to my next command. This was to drive home the point of actually thinking before I acted, and embarrassment is an escellent teacher. I was also advised to consider my choices well, and make my decision as wisely as I could.

The decision to give me these two particular options accomplished two specific goals. They were designed to, #1, minimize confusion in the ranks, should I elect to stay and, #2, to teach me a lesson in identifying illegal orders that I should have reported to proper authority, if I opted for the temporary transfer.

 

I chose the transfer. I felt that remaining at my present command would only result in a very high probability of someone else piecing things together and end up with me getting caught by my shipmates. I didn't like thinking about what would happen to me, or my family should that ever happen.

I also didn't think it was the appropriate time to tell everyone that I really, truthfully, wished I could stay in this feminine role forever. I felt that I had proven myself as a woman, and was proud of that accomplishment, but wanted and needed to do even more before reverting to my original gender role.

As the Admiral was concluding his talk, he hit us with a final tid-bit of information. He explained that my appearance and actions had been nearly perfect. To the point that, if he hadn't had a valid reason to suspect something, he would never have noticed and would probably have left as soon as the original inspection was complete.

The final piece of information he needed to put the puzzle together was a conversation he had accidently overheard. He had been in a restroom stall, when he heard one of our Yeomen mumbling, to himself, about changing signature authorizations, and that he wasn't even sure who the new person "Linda" was, or even when the first person, me, had been reassigned, and now he had to change them again.

However, the Admiral did have reason to suspect something was wrong. It was because of this suspicion, he had extended his stay. He had been looking for those answers, and had overheard this comment only two days earlier, well beyond his original time of departure. From that point, it was merely a matter of him taking time to check personnel and command history files. Had he not overheard that mumbling in the restroom, he would have merely extended his stay until he did find what he was looking for.

What had raised these suspicions in the first place was that, the girl that had originally gone AWOL, just happened to be the Admiral's favorite niece. She was not the type to use that relationship to further her career or get special treatment, and had gone to great lengths to keep their relationship a secret. However she had also called him on the telephone, even before this inspection had been announced, simply to ask for his advice on her legal situation. Consequently, when the Admiral arrived for the inspection, he was expecting to find only twenty three women, not twenty four. Her absence had become the root of the skipper's problems afterall.

I spent my next six months working on the Admiral's staff, as his personal secretary. I really enjoyed that assignment, and even travelled with the Admiral to various Inspections and Meetings, always as Linda, per my orders. The job also offered quite a bit of free time whenever we were back at Headquarters. I had to find some type of activity to help fill this time.

A couple of months after my reassignment to this duty, I was able to convince the Admiral that we should open a small office that catered specifically to the other women at the base, both military and civilian, including the wives of the male sailors. I sat it up as a combination service office, were we provided minor counselling on most any topic. There I could continue offering womanly advice as needed.

With a reporting system we developed, my counselling efforts were monitored on a random basis through both our Medical and Religious Departments. This step was taken at my request, helping to ensure that I was continuing to give viable advice that was not in contradiction to what was being offered by either our Psychologists or our Ministers. Our biggest plus was that almost everything we did was on a low key, strictly anonymous basis. I felt that using that approach would be more likely to encourage the women to be more open, than they would be in a more formal setting.

During the first three months, through our Counseling efforts, we had been able to identify numerous areas within this one base that required command intervention. Most of these problems dealt with sexual harassment and even outright sexual abuse and rape. These more serious problems were turned over to our legal and security departments, by way of the Admiral's office, to be handled as swiftly as possible. Most of our other problems were minor in nature, loss of husband or boy friend type of thing. For those problems involving infidelity in a marriage, they were referred to professional counseling. Our biggest job was acting as a referral center. If one of the women had a problem, we would know right where to refer her to get the help she needed.

Early in the operation of the service office, I had gotten a little too eager to help and made a couple of mistakes that, had they not been caught, might have had catastrophic results. After that, I began backing off a little and concentrating on the referral system. Even in that mode, we had managed to evolve into an irreplaceable service. A service center called simply "Linda's Place", had become a complete success, as word of that success worked it's way back up to the Admiral, not through me but rather through the Commanding Officer of the base we were located on. The Admiral began personally monitoring our efforts.

Over that same six month period, I worked on the Admiral, a little at a time. Each day, I would drop one or two comments about how I loved working with these other women. During one of our unofficial conversations about the center, I finally got up the courage to tell the Admiral, right up front, that I felt the only reason I had been so successful, was that I could directly relate to these women, as another woman.

 

Taking a chance, I also advised him that I thought I had been able to relate so well, because I felt I had actually become one of them, and I also had earlier experience as a male and was able to draw on that too. Outside of the Admiral and I, no one on that base ever found out that I was a genetic male.

Over that six months, the Admiral had been able to see how much truth had been in that statement and began finally apologizing about having to transfer me out at re-enlistment, and putting me in a position of being forced into the one genetic role that I was now least comfortable in. But it was already out of his hands because he too was up for transfer. He was to be transferred a month after I was.

I found that, because of his success in this particular project, the Admiral was being transferred to a training command that offered specialized training for women, to give them a fair chance at competing with the men for advancement and duty assignments. His service commendation, that normally accompanies transfers of such senior officers, praised his guidance efforts in supporting women in the military, with such a high degree of professionalism and insight. As his personal secretary, I had the opportunity to read the commendation the very same day my orders arrived.

I sat in my office for almost two hours before reading my orders. I had no idea where I was being sent, only that I wouldn't be here and I wouldn't be Linda anymore, until after retirement. I was so nervous, so saddened, so down in the dumps over this transfer, I was ready to throw up, then sit down and cry.

I finally got up the nerve to face the music and began opening my orders. I figured I might as well get it out of the way. After all, I had only gotten into this role for a very short period of time to begin with, ever since then, I had been trapped into staying, because of circumstances and other people's decisions, not my own.

I slowly pulled the transfer message out of it's envelope and began reading in the middle of the page, that's where the new command information is located. I read that I was being transferred to instructor duty, at the same command the Admiral was going to. I then casually glanced at the top of the page and found that these orders were being issued to someone named "Linda". About that time, I turned towards my open office door to find the Admiral leaning against my doorpost, looking back in at me, as he confidently began smiling and winking his eye.

  

  

  

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