Kane County Navy veteran Jason Stucky says his service changed his life

U.S. Navy veteran Jason Stucky always said he would never join the military. But when the Kane County resident looks back at his time in the service, he said he had some of the best times of his life and wouldn’t be where he is today without that experience.

Although Stucky’s experience in the military was not a tale of glory or medals, he said he has a unique appreciation for it, which led him toward a fulfilling career and a loving family.

Stucky owns the Color Me Mine paint and pottery studio in Geneva. He met his husband, Kevin, a U.S. Marine Corps veteran and lawyer, while they were deployed in Hawaii. They were married in 2008 and have two children: Claire, 14, and Casey, 16.

The Stucky family has lived in unincorporated Kane County for 11 years on a small farm where they’ve raised geese, goats, chickens and an emu. They have several pet dogs, parrots and snakes.

Stucky served in the Navy for four years before being discharged because of the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy. He said that although he was hurt at the time, he holds no ill will against the Navy and remains proud of the strides the armed forces have made since then.

Stucky grew up in rural California and made the decision to serve mainly because he couldn’t settle on what he wanted to do. He was attending community college when he decided to enlist – mainly for the G.I. Bill – and chose the Navy because many of his family members were Navy veterans and his brother was serving at the time.

“I said I would never do it, but I didn’t know what I wanted to do,” Stucky said. “I was kind of floundering. I was running out of money. I wasn’t motivated.”

Stucky was called to duty in 1994 and deployed at the China Lake Naval base in Ridgecrest, California, where he served in aircraft maintenance administration. His next orders stationed him on a Kitty Hawk-class aircraft carrier in Japan, which turned out to be the same ship his brother was on. They even were assigned to the same squadron.

While on the aircraft carrier in Japan, he shared an email account with another sailor, who read messages from Stucky’s friends back home and discovered Stucky was gay. The sailor turned the messages in to their commanding officer, resulting in Stucky’s honorable discharge less than two years after he was assigned to the ship.

Stucky said he learned a lot about himself throughout his journey in the military and it made him grow up, in a way.

“A lot of people thought Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell meant you were safe in the military,” Stucky said. “It didn’t. It meant as long as nobody knew about it, you were safe, but if somebody found out about it, you would be discharged.”

Stucky said it was a time of great turmoil in his life and he was really scared at first that he wouldn’t get his G.I. Bill. Before being discharged, his commanding officer gave him the option to deny the claims.

“There are a lot of moments in time where I think you grow up, like when we brought our first baby home,” Stucky said.

When his CO asked if he wanted to deny being gay, Stucky said it “was probably one of the biggest moments in my life where I just grew up. I kind of owned who I am, I guess. I wasn’t ashamed of it anymore.”

Before that, Stucky said it was like he had two versions of himself. There was him and then there was the version of himself that was always putting on a front to make others around him comfortable.

“I think I grew tremendously, especially about being true to myself and who I was,” Stucky said.

Stucky said that although it was never his dream to be in the military, he knew a lot of other sailors who had planned to spend their whole lives in the military and had their dreams torn out from under them because of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.

Stucky met his husband, who was a lieutenant colonel in the Marines at the time, at a bar in Hawaii while his aircraft carrier was being decommissioned, just months before he was discharged. They became pen pals and stayed in touch before they eventually started dating.

Kevin stayed in the military for another eight years and they moved to Virginia together where he was stationed. Stucky said about half of that time was during Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, so they couldn’t attend military functions together or be open about their relationship. They even had a female friend who would attend functions with his husband, pretending to be his girlfriend.

Stucky said because of his experience and the experiences of so many of his fellow service members who received similar treatment, he and his husband were active in donating and lobbying with the Service Members Legal Defense Network to repeal Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.

When the policy was repealed during the Obama administration, Stucky was given the opportunity to correct his discharge so that his DD214 would no longer show he was discharged for “homosexual conduct.” Although his husband thought he should, Stucky said he didn’t feel that rewriting history was the right thing to do.

“I was like, ‘Absolutely not. I’m not going to let the Navy get away with this and have the history of it all be for nothing. This happened. This happened to a lot of people’,’ Stucky said. “A lot of people got kicked out for who they loved.”

Despite his treatment, Stucky said he loved the adventure of it all, seeing new places and the camaraderie he found with his fellow sailors. He said he experienced so many things he would never have done on his own.

“While I was in the military, it was OK. I didn’t hate it, I didn’t love it, it was just kind of middle-of-the-road feelings and I always thought I would be so glad to get out,” Stucky said. “But from where I’m at now, looking back, it was probably some of the best times of my life.”

Stucky said he would tell any young person today thinking about joining the military to go for it. He said the armed forces has made great strides since he served to allow everyone to be open and honest about their identities while still getting all of the things he enjoyed out of it.

“I have no ill will toward the military at all,” Stucky said. “As a matter of fact, we’re trying to get one of our kids to do it.”

Stucky said his time in the military 100% prepared him for his career in a leadership role. He recalled a time when there was a mistake in a logbook by one of the airmen below him that he didn’t catch, and when confronted, he said he didn’t do it.

Stucky said he will never forget when his command senior chief grabbed him by the back of the neck and took him out to the hanger and “unloaded on him” about how, as a senior airman, it was his job to make sure everything was in order and that you never throw someone who works for you under the bus. You take accountability and then address it with your personnel.

Stucky said that lesson of ownership, accountability and leadership has stuck with him his entire life and helped him to be a good boss.

After moving to Kane County, Stucky’s only real work experience was in the Navy and some retail jobs. He took a manager job at Color Me Mine in Geneva and eventually went on to buy the franchise. In 2023, he expanded by buying a second location in Glenview.

Stucky gives back to the community through his business, offering special events for people with disabilities and special needs as well as creating custom pieces for auctions in cooperation with local schools and organizations to raise money for their programming.