DUXBURY, Vt. - A serving officer in the U.S. Navy from Tucson and his partner are hoping to become the first same-sex couple to get married after the repeal of the military's don't ask, don't tell policy.
Lt. Gary Ross and his partner of 11 years, Dan Swezy, traveled to Vermont and they plan to get married at the stroke of midnight Tuesday at a bed and breakfast in Duxbury.
Tuesday marks end of the military policy that allowed gays and lesbians to serve in the military only if they kept their sexual orientation secret.
Ross, 33, is a surface warfare officer who graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 2002.
He says he met Swezy in 2000 and they've kept the details of their life together secret.
The military is adequately prepared for the official lifting Tuesday of the legal ban on gays serving openly, the Pentagon says.
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Press secretary George Little said Monday that the ban will end at one minute after midnight. At that time, revised Defense Department regulations will take effect, to reflect the new law that will allow gays to serve openly.
President Barack Obama signed the law last December, and in July he certified that lifting the ban will not diminish the military's ability to fight.
Little said Defense Secretary Leon Panetta would discuss the matter at a Pentagon news conference on Tuesday. The Pentagon otherwise was taking a low-key approach to the historic day. Gay rights groups, however, were preparing a series of celebrations across the nation.
