Darrah joined the Navy in 1972 , unaware that she was a lesbian , and retired in June 2002 as a captain . At one point in her career , she supervised 1500 people at Naval Intelligence Command , including openly gay civilians . Darrah was a Navy officer who narrowly escaped being killed in the September 11 attacks on the Pentagon , which caused her to reevaluate the harm the policy was causing to her life . Due to this , she retired in 2002 after serving for thirty years
September 11 attacks
September 11 attacks
Joan Darrah