I’ll admit I was somewhat privileged, being attached to an Air Force intelligence unit with people who tended to be very highly educated in the humanities. Even the NCOs tended to be have strong formal educations, to include graduate level work. My flight superintendent, an E7 of whom I’ve written before, was working on his Ph.D.

Even in the 80s, it was hard to graduate with a degree in literature and history, and be a knee-jerk homophobe.