Cases like Cammermeyer’s aren’t supposed to happen anymore. She was asked about her sexual orientation during a routine security check in 1989. Under the Pentagon’s new ““Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, Don’t Pursue’’ policy, gays are now sup-posed to be left alone, as long as they remain discreet about their conduct.

At least that’s the idea. The practice on many U.S. military bases around the world is dif-ferent. Consider the case of Ma-rine Sgt. Robert S. Nadel, who learned last week that he was being court-martialed for alleged homosexual acts. For Nadel, and for many marines and soldiers like him, the real policy is more like ““Pursue, Ask and Force to Tell.''

Nadel was interrogated twice at his base, Camp Hansen in Okinawa. The first time he was asked if he had committed anal intercourse with a male friend. He denied it. Three days later he was accused of lying and was told he’d better talk. He was informed that he had been accused of touching the crotch of another marine without his consent. Nadel, who says he was ““very scared,’’ admitted touching the marine. But he told Newsweek that the other marine had come on to him, and that he believes investigators compelled the man to make the charge against him. Nadel’s room was searched, and his friends were grilled. Col. John Hertel, the top Marine lawyer at Camp Hansen, denies that Nadel was the subject of a ““witch hunt’’ and says that his case fell well within the Marine Corps’s rules on investigating homosexuality.

According to the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, a gay-rights group, Nadel’s case is typical of a campaign by the Marine Corps to ferret out gays among the 20,000 marines stationed on Okinawa. Investigators routinely ask soldiers to name other marines rumored to be gay and threaten them if they don’t confess to homosexual acts. The Marines have been known to use base psychiatrists to turn in homosexuals – remarkably, the military concedes, the new rules permit this invasion of the doctor-patient relationship.

That is precisely what happened to Kevin Blaesing, a Marine corporal who went to see a psychologist at the naval hospital in Charleston, S.C. Blaesing wanted confidential counseling on questions he had about his sexual orientation. The psychologist found him ““fit for full duty’’ – but Blaesing’s command concluded from her report that the young corporal was a homosexual, according to his lawyer, Peter Tepley.

At first, Blaesing took the psychologist’s advice to seek a discharge. But when he changed his mind and tried to remain, the Marines moved to have him discharged two weeks ago ““by reason of homosexual admission.''

The ““Don’t Ask, Don’t Pursue’’ rules give base commanders considerable leeway to do both. When Blaesing’s case first arose, his commander was Lt. Col. Ronald Rueger. Rueger was not interested in pursuing Blaesing. ““I felt the young fella gave us really good service,’’ said Rueger. Blaesing’s tour was up in a year, and he ““deserved to go all the way through.’’ Blaesing had given ““no inkling of homosexual conduct.''

But then Rueger retired, and Blaesing came under the command of Lt. Col. M. J. Martinson. The new commander pressured Blaesing to quit, telling him that he brought shame to the corps. According to notes Blaesing made at the time, he was told by Martinson that the colonel had lived in Key West, Fla., and found homosexuals to be ““disgusting.’’ (Said Martinson: ““I never made that statement, or anything like it.’’) Blaesing also says that Martinson warned him that he might be harmed in the barracks. Said Martinson: ““I told him if I brought him back to the barracks, I don’t know what would happen. There are people who are strongly anti-homosexual. If someone did something to him, I said, I’d prosecute them under the code of military justice.''

Blaesing is appealing, and it’s possible that he will not be discharged. The military’s policy on gays is under heavy legal attack. The judge who ordered Cammermeyer reinstated last week was ruling on the old policy, but as the Marine cases show, the new rules are not much different from the old ones. There are now several cases working their way to the Supreme Court. Many legal experts predict that the high court will force the Pentagon to rewrite the rules to make them less discriminatory. That would be fine with Ronald Rueger, the now retired marine who would have left Corporal Blaesing alone. The military is ““five to 10 years behind’’ the rest of society, he said. ““We need to catch up.’’ Changing attitudes in the barracks might take longer. Blaesing’s lawyer says his client has gotten anonymous phone calls warning him to ““get out or get hurt.''