New Haven — A 91-year-old Connecticut veteran is suing Secretary of the Air Force Deborah Lee James seeking to upgrade his discharge status from "undesirable" — which he received as a result of being gay — to honorable.

In 1946, a year after World War II ended, H. Edward Spires, who was 20 at the time, enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Force, serving as a chaplain's assistant for two years until his supervisors found out he was gay.

The undesirable discharge means Spires, of Norwalk, who turned 91 last week and is in poor health, is not eligible for veterans' benefits or to be buried with military honors, as he desires.

The Veterans Legal Service Clinic at Yale University filed a federal lawsuit in District Court on Friday on behalf of Spires after attempts to upgrade his discharge were denied.

Spires was still recovering Friday from a three-week hospitalization for pneumonia, so his spouse, David Rosenberg, an Army veteran, spoke on his behalf at a news conference at the university announcing the lawsuit.

"We demand the systems of justice in this country come to our aid, and order the Air Force to recognize the honor of Ed's service," Rosenberg said. "We hope that in doing so, the U.S. military may send a message to other gay veterans that their service was appreciated and recognized with equality under the law."

Brooke Brzozowske, a spokeswoman for the Air Force, said by email that "The U.S. Air Force cannot provide comment on current litigation."

As a chaplain's assistant, Spires typed letters to distressed families, prepared chapels for services, played the organ during Catholic Mass and assisted the chaplain in communicating with other Chaplaincy Corps members.

The lawsuit states that he was promoted from private to sergeant in a year and a half, "which requires four separate promotions," consistently received positive performance reviews and did not have any disciplinary problems.

The Air Force did not become its own military branch until 1947. At that point, Spires became a member of the service and retained his same rank and duties.

After "being cast out" of the Air Force in March 1948, Spires rarely spoke of his military service or his discharge, Rosenberg, his spouse, said, explaining that he was "humiliated by the Air Force's labeling of his service as undesirable."

While in the Army, Rosenberg said he "faced the indignity of being questioned by my command about my sexuality." He denied being gay and was honorably discharged in 1956.

"It is an injustice that the military has treated Ed and me so differently despite our equal honorable service," he said.

Spires and Rosenberg have been together for 58 years. They were wed by a justice of the peace in January 2009, with their two dogs and a passing swan as witnesses, three months after Connecticut legalized same-sex marriage. They moved from New York to Connecticut in the 1970s because Rosenberg was offered a teaching job in Greenwich.

The repeal in 2010 of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" enabled gays, lesbians and bisexuals to serve openly in the military, and a Department of Defense directive made in accordance with the repeal enabled veterans such as Spires to apply to upgrade their discharges.

He first submitted an application to the Air Force Board for Correction of Military Records on Sept. 23, 2014. In a letter dated Oct. 1, the board rejected his application because his service records could not be located due to a 1973 fire at the National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis, Mo.

The Air Force does not deny Spires' service or that he was given an undesirable discharge but, without the records lost in the fire, it can't be sure why he received the undesirable discharge, said Michael J. Wishnie, who oversees the Veterans Legal Service Clinic.

With help from Stonewall Columbus, an LGBTQ community center in Ohio, Spires re-applied.

The board denied his second application in April 2016, but "apparently decided to reconsider the matter sometime thereafter, but has neither made a decision nor indicated when it will do so," according to a news release from the lawyers representing Spires.

Spires is seeking "judicial review of the Air Force's 2014 and 2016 decisions as arbitrary, capricious, unauthorized by law, and unreasonably delayed in violation of the Administrative Procedure Act and of his rights under the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution," the lawsuit says.

There are around 100,000 veterans who received less than honorable discharges due to their sexual orientation, according to U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., who was in attendance Friday. Of those, 500 have applied to upgrade their status, and 80 percent of them have received an upgrade.

"So he is the voice and face of an effort to seek justice for tens of thousands of other veterans similarly situated," said Blumenthal, the ranking member of the Senate Committee on Veterans' Affairs.

j.bergman@theday.com