"This is a huge win for the military and a huge win for our country," exulted Capt. Joan Darrah, USN (Ret), on Wednesday after attending the "very, very positive" event where President Barack Obama signed the bill repealing "don't ask, don't tell." 

"Everyone was energized.  It was not a pro forma event," she reported.

Darrah, who lives in New Alexandria, was one of 400 invited by the White House.  Northern Virginia Congressman Jim Moran (D-8) "found me," she said, and "took me up to shake the President's hand." 

Said Darrah, "I do not need a Christmas present the rest of my life. This is the best possible gift I could ever have gotten."

"Don't ask, don't tell" is a 1993 policy that restricts the military from revealing the sexual orientation of service members or applicants and prohibits openly gay, lesbian or bisexual people from military service. 

Obama's address, Darrah related, drew a "tremendously loud, standing ovation and many tears," when the President said, "For we are not a nation that says, 'don't ask, don't tell.' We are a nation that says, 'Out of many, we are one. We are a nation that welcomes the service of every patriot.  We are a nation that believes that all men and women are created equal.  Those are the ideals that generations have fought for.  Those are the ideals that we uphold today.' 

Darrah served in the Navy for 30 years as an intelligence officer and retired in 2002.  "For years, I went to work every day, wondering if it would be my last day," she recalled, because of what she calls, "a Catch-22, government-sanctioned discrimination."  DADT sent a "most damaging message to the military and beyond to young people trying to accept themselves," she believes.

After the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks when suicide bombers hijacked passenger airplanes and slammed one into the Pentagon, Darrah ramped up her drive to live a true, open life. 

"I was almost killed," she said. 

Her meeting in the Pentagon that day adjourned at 9:30 a.m.  Seven minutes later the meeting room was obliterated.  "It was a close call," she stressed.

In recent years, she testified before the House Armed Services Committee, lobbied Members of Congress and tried to persuade top military officials to support repeal of DADT.  She has been a leader in the Services Members Legal Defense Network.

"This is the USA!" she exclaimed. "The ultimate thing to do for your country is to serve and until now, my country was saying, 'No thanks.' Finally the military is saying, 'It's ok, we value you,'" said Darrah.      

Darrah celebrated her 60^th birthday, her 20-year relationship with her partner, Lynne Kennedy, and their December 17 marriage with 230 friends on December 18, the day the Senate voted for repeal.  In the middle of the party, NBC News knocked on her front door for an interview.