Just saw this one.
When I enlisted in 1976, a few years after the draft was discontinued and we transitioned to an all-volunteer force, part of the medical exam included the doctor asking us directly whether we had ever had sex with a man. I would assume that that question wasn't asked during 'Nam because the need for warm bodies was much higher back then.
Although I never encountered any such situations during my service, what I recall is that getting caught in the act or otherwise found-out would result in immediate discharge. When the dropping of DADT was first announced, our Command Master Chief's reaction was "well it's about time!", and he described the atmosphere before DADT as being a series of witch-hunts, wherein if your command in any way suspected that you might be a homosexual, then they could and often would actively and aggressively investigate you. Trivial "evidence" could cause you to be suspected, such as disinterest in sports or appreciation of the fine arts -- one historical account tells of civilian vice police arresting suspected homosexuals because they overheard them discussing the opera.
I find the harsh criticism of DADT irritating, because those critics ignored what it was like before DADT. What DADT did was to eliminate the witch-hunts, the active attempts to ferret out any potential homosexuals. The only real criticism of DADT was that it didn't go far enough. And now that short-coming has also been corrected.
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