In the wake of the Fort Bragg Scandal centering on Dink Flamingo’s sex videos of military men, NIGHTCHARM reprints our exclusive interview with the videographer from a few years back. (Flamingo is currently refusing all new interviews.)

It’s 10 p.m., do you know where your GIs are?

Dink does. They’re at his house.

For nearly a decade, Dink Flamingo has made a career out of filming America’s finest army men in, and out of, their uniforms.

Innocently enough, after the 28 year-old college graduate settled down and started working, he began seeing a number of GI’s. When we say “seeing,” we mean that Flamingo spent a lot of extra-curricular time having sex with a bevy of army men.

An army man, in some ways, is the apex of traditional masculinity in American culture. A GI is thought to be brawny, fearless, aggressive, and most of all, heterosexual.

Flamingo recognizes the true appeal of these army men: because of our preconceived notions of masculinity, it’s alluring to see them in a “bedroom” setting. A milieu that encourages them to let their guard down. A setting that fosters sexuality, and most of all, homoeroticism. That dichotomy of the straight army man and gay sex is what Flamingo and his audience are drawn to.

The irresistibly charming Flamingo decided to start shooting some of the men that he was seeing, just for posterity. He bought a videocamera and said to himself, “You know, I think I wanna see if I can get some of these guys to do a film for me, so I can keep it and remember ‘em by.”

Shortly after Flamingo began compiling his collection, a friend introduced him to the videos of Dirk Yates. Yates is best known as the director of literally hundreds of amateur Marine films for the San Diego based All Worlds Video. Upon watching a few of Yates’s videos, Flamingo thought to himself, “I’ve been doing just as good or better than this, let me contact this guy.”

After the two established a relationship, Dirk wanted to see what Dink had to offer. But Flamingo, ironically enough, is a somewhat conservative person himself, and was a bit leery of handing over his films to a major adult film producer. “That was a world I knew nothing about,” Flamingo said, “and I was somewhat intimidated by it, and therefore it took me a long time before I would ever commit to going forth.”

Yates was impressed with what Flamingo had to offer, and the rest is history. A number of Dink’s volumes are available through All Worlds, but Flamingo has since returned to independently producing and distributing his videos and running his own website, Activeduty.com. That doesn’t mean that his relationship with Yates had ended altogether, though. Some men that Flamingo has filmed have gone on to appear in productions for All Worlds (including Haus Weston, who appears in the classic release Tales From The Foxhole).

But why would someone want to do this? Why would anyone want to get frisky in front of a camera? Flamingo says that “A lot of these guys really want to do this because they are really exhibitionists at heart. They want to show off.” At the same time though, he understands that there is a lot more to it than that. “The number one reason that most men do this is, A) they’re lonely, B) they want someone to like them, and they want to be admired.”

In addition, the money is a perk. Flamingo won’t pin down a specific figure that his models receive, but he assures us that they’re not underpaid. A number of his men may earn upwards of 50% of the net sales of their volumes. Flamingo says, “It gives them a chance to, A) make a little cash, in some cases some good cash, (and) B) it lets them express things about themselves that they’ve always wanted to and never had a chance to.”

What are they afforded the oportunity to express? For many, it’s the chance to bond with other men in a neutral, non-threatening environment. For others, it’s the chance to explore their feelings about other men, sexually speaking and otherwise. “I provide a safe place where they can come and do things they’ve never done, but always thought about,” Flamingo says.

Dink continues: “A lot of these guys use (money) as a justification. And I think that a lot of them fantasize (about being with men). They spend all this time with men, they live with a bunch of men, they shower with a bunch of men, they work with men all the time. They build friendships with these men. They go out on field operations and stay in the field for two weeks. I’ve heard some wonderful stories. And I think that it is an outlet for a lot of them to express themselves … This is the place they can do it. On top of that, they can make some money, therefore, they have a justification for doing it.”

The money isn’t really the prime motivator, Flamingo says, but the justifier. He says that he thinks that if the men could do it without the money involved, they would. But considering that it’s a lot easier to say “Oh, I only did it for the money,” as opposed to “I did it because I enjoyed it and have always wanted to do it,” most men probably use the cash aspect as a way of justifying their actions.

From all accounts, the men that Flamingo films are completely at ease and comfortable with what they are doing. They fully understand what the videos will be used for, namely: the home viewing pleasure of gay men. As Flamingo puts it, you don’t get an hour of some guy whacking off, blathering about “pussy this, and pussy that.” You get GI’s who put on a show intended for a gay man – and a damn fine show at that, might we add. Probably the number one question that Flamingo gets is ‘Are the men straight?’ “The majority of them are (straight). 95% of the guys that I deal with are straight,” Flamingo says.

He adds jokingly “I’m not saying they’re straight when they leave me…”

Flamingo’s approach to filming is radically different than most amateur productions. While Flamingo’s men (whose average age hovers around 23 years-old) are incredibly relaxed, playful, and often quite goofy, the vast majority of other amateur productions often give you the distinct feeling that the “stars” are terribly nervous or apprehensive — or for that matter, don’t have a clue as to what’s going on. And this brings up another point: what about the safety of these men?

They feel they’re safe here, and they are safe here,” Flamingo says. “Their safety is my main concern. I’m not out here exploiting people for the money. If that had been the case I would have quit a long time ago. I have met some of the most wonderful guys in the world and made some of the most wonderful friends doing this. I have no regrets. Money was never the real issue for me. There’s a lot more that goes into my work than that. I’m genuinely interested in each guy.

“The first thing that I always do with a guy is I take a genuine interest in him as a person, not as a naked person, but as a person,” Flamingo says. “I want to know things about him. I want to know him and get a feel for him. Like, ‘How many kids were in the family?’ ‘Tell me a little about your growing-up?’ Things like that. Because I like to get into people’s heads, and then later in their pants.”

Additionally, many of the men that Flamingo has filmed over the years continue to keep in contact with him. In fact, each year, Flamingo hosts a Thanksgiving dinner and a Christmas gathering for the local GI’s who can’t make it home for the holidays. Several years ago, he had 42 men over for a huge turkey dinner. In a way, Flamingo has become a parental, or brotherly, figure for a lot of these guys. In addition, Dink and the men form a familial bond. “They look to you for guidance,” Flamingo says. “If they have a problem that they can’t talk to anyone else about, they call me.”

Exactly how many men has Flamingo captured on tape? By his estimation, over 400 GI’s have stripped before his camera [editors note: this interview first appeared in 1999]. How many men have turned him down? A mere handful. He’s never had a negative reaction from anyone, and no one’s ever cussed him out or beat him up. Flamingo says that about 98% of the men that he approaches end up saying yes to him. Granted, after chatting with Flamingo, who would want to turn him down? He has charm to burn, and could warm even the coldest of souls.

Where does he find these guys? “In the early days, honey I would pick them up at the grocery store, on the side road at a payphone, anywhere and everywhere,” Flamingo says. “My usual line was, ‘Have you ever thought about doing any modeling? You have a great face…’ I never tell them what (they would be doing) face-to-face. I give them my phone number, and tell them if they’re interested, to call me later and I’ll tell them all about it. That way, you avoid a confrontation with some loony gay basher who thinks you just want to see them naked.”

Since then, Flamingo’s men have all been word-of-mouth referrals. His days of trolling for GI’s in bars are, for the most part, over with.

Is it necessary to sell the videos though? If Flamingo is having such a great time filming his men, why sell the tapes? Couldn’t he just keep them for himself? As he puts it, “Everyone’s got to have a job.” At the same time, he says that he does harbor some guilt, and has in the past. “I don’t go back and watch a lot of my work. It sometimes saddens me,” he says. “But, when it comes right down to it, everybody’s gotta have a job, and everybody’s gotta eat. And if this is what I’m good at, why not make my living at it? The guys are always compensated very well. Like I said, in the past, I’ve gone in the hole, overcompensating. Honestly, I don’t think you can overcompensate them. I really don’t. When a young man gives of himself that way, there’s not enough money in the world to compensate him for sharing that with you.”

“I couldn’t be any happier in my life with what I do. What queen would be unhappy?” Flamingo says. “Some of America’s finest men strip down and show you all they got on a regular basis. Honestly, there was a point in my life where I could never have imagined myself doing this, and at this point in my life, I could never imagine myself doing anything else.”