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["Josef Komenda" <joe AT komejo.com>]

Pardon the odd post - if you don't read Science Fiction, you can
ignore/delete.

So, I was talking science fiction with a friend, and I recalled a good book
I read years ago. However, I've forgotten the title and author. I poked
around Google and Amazon, with no luck. I remember the major plot points,
and some interesting details though - I wonder if anyone on the list has
read it and might have better recall?

Setting: Earth has discovered that aliens exist. Attempts to communicate are
futile, we muster an Army 'just in case'. Our narrator is one of the troops,
everything is told from his perspective. Basic training is co-ed, men and
women 'buddy up' every night. The guys have all been snipped after freezing
some sperm. First encounter goes very badly,

The real story is that the transportation uses near-light speed technology,
so every time this guy and his squad go out to encounter the aliens, several
hundred years pass on Earth. And every time they go out, they go out for
longer periods of time. At one point, when he comes back to Earth, humanity
is so overpopulated that the world governments have promoted homosexuality
as 'normal' to curb overpopulation - putting our protagonist in the odd
situation of being the 'weirdo' who is attracted to the opposite sex.
Another time, everyone looks the same racially - all the varieties of human
appearance have averaged out.

Any tips on this (or even where to look) would greatly ease my troubled
mind.

Thanks,
Joe K