David recalls an episode of an Army encounter that ended in disaster. But after the purgatory which followed, he is today, 'a happy homo'.

In this extract, David, by then a senior NCO, recalls making an awkward situation worse while he was training young Army recruits.

Despite imposing a strict rule on himself, not to 'step-over-the-line' and have intimate relations with young soldiers, he found himself, on a trip to an Army Tennis Tournament, with a squad of recruits and having to 'bunk down' with them rather than sleeping in his own accommodation, to which he was entitled, since none was available.

A good-looking recruit called Alex, standing in David's alcove, which contained two beds, was ordered out, as a junior NCO had priority. Despite this, and David's own rule, he later 'betrayed his trust' and had a fantastic sexual relationship with Alex, who, to David's surprise, was much more experienced than himself, even though Alex was ten years younger.

Their relationship continued for a while and David now believes that Alex was the catalyst for him realising that his closeted life could not continue as it had for the 12 lonely years he'd already spent in the Army.

However, when David later chatted up another recruit, his approach was reported. Arrested by the Military Police, David was sent to see an Army psychiatrist, a full Colonel, who insisted that David, who knew otherwise, wasn't actually gay and recommended him for a discharge.

Never a happy homosexual for the entire 12 years of his life in the Army, things turned out for the better when David met his partner, Martin. Within a week of meeting in 1976, they set up home together and David today feels that without Martin in his life, he would have died long ago. It might have taken a while, but after thirty years David can say that he's now a 'happy homosexual'.

David was born in Birmingham in 1948. His father worked in the aircraft industry and his mum was a housewife. David grew up with two sisters and a brother and they enjoyed a happy childhood.

On holiday in Yorkshire, when David was seven, he was sexually assaulted by a Station Master, but was too scared to tell his family about it. At the same time, he began to realise that he was attracted to other boys and had numerous sexual contacts with other boys at school.

Leaving school without any academic qualifications, David joined the Army at 16, becoming a bandsman playing the clarinet as well as serving in Germany and Northern Ireland. He had a number of covert sexual encounters during his army career, but it was when, as he admits, that he failed to follow his own rules of propriety and 'betrayed his trust', that David, who by then was a senior NCO, was reported, court-martialled and discharged from the army in 1973.

On leaving the Army, David was now free to pursue an openly gay life and met his life partner, Martin, in 1976. They have been together for over 30 years, and they now live in Luxembourg.