Playboy-Posing Sergeant Demoted
Air Force Noncom Who Posed Nude For Magazine Also Removed From Active Duty
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Sgt. Michelle Manhart poses with the February issue of Playboy magazine in San Antonio, Thursday, Jan. 11, 2007. (AP)
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USAF Staff Sgt. Michelle Manhart in San Antonio, Thursday, Jan. 11, 2007. (CBS)
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Timeline Women In Uniform How the role of women in the U.S. military has expanded over time.
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Photo Essay Cover 'Girls' The stars come out to party with Hef, his playmates and the "The Girls Next Door."
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Interactive Military 101 Basic training to learn all about America's fighting force.
Michelle Manhart, who appeared in a six-page spread in Playboy's February issue, said she got word Friday that she was removed from "extended active duty" and was also told that she was demoted from staff sergeant to senior airman.
"I'm disappointed in our system," Manhart told The Associated Press on Wednesday. "They went too far with it."
Manhart said that she was reverted to her Air National Guard status and that she submitted a "resignation" to the Guard, which she said is pending. Manhart was a member of the Iowa Air National Guard before going on extended active duty.
Oscar Balladares, a spokesman for Lackland Air Force Base, confirmed that Manhart was removed from extended active duty Friday but said Lackland did not discharge her.
"She was removed from active duty status, and thus reverted to National Guard status," Balladares said. "It is not up to the Air Force — it is not our jurisdiction to discharge her."
Lt. Col. Greg Hapgood, a spokesman for the Iowa National Guard, said that because the Guard did not have "documentation of her separation" from the Air Force, it did not have her on duty status.
Manhart, a 30-year-old mother of two, said the military's action against her hinged on the fact that she was pictured wearing her uniform.
She was photographed in uniform yelling and holding weapons under the headline "Tough Love." The following pages showed her partially clothed wearing dog tags and fully nude. After the pictorial hit newsstands in January, Manhart was relieved of her duties pending an investigation.
© MMVII The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Best-selling author Mitch Albom on his first nonfiction work since "Tuesdays with Morrie."





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See all 81 CommentsAnd why is it that you feel the need to use the typical threat of "go back to where you came from" when someone says something you don't like or that you don't agree with? Huh? Threatened? Sad, especially because I was born here of irish descent parents- not from ecuador. How come no one threatens the irish with "go back..."? Is it because we're white?
dirtydog55, you should go back to the sad little barn you were raised in & shut the door behind you.
Um, no she doesn't. She gets basic pay, the usual allowances (BAS, per diem, etc) and BAH(Basic Allowance for Housing), at the with dependents rate, but it's the same whether she has one dependent or 15.
Yeah, right! What a simple, narrow, one-track mind you have. I would think that 25 years in the Navy would have given you a broader perspective on life. You only look at the negative.
After 28 years in the Navy, living and working with all the hypocracy, I definitely have a much broader perspective.
Yeah, she made a mistake. So friggin' what? Simple-minded pious folk like you would make her pay the rest of her life for that one mistake.
Go girl! Greater things than serving an ungrateful government are awaiting you. Go get 'em.
...or the luxurious life of a Hollywood star, a la Victoria Principal, an Air Force 'brat' who also posed nude in Playboy. Her pay for nine years on 'Dallas' is several times more than I made in the 28 years I faithfully served my country, only to be stabbed in the back by Reagan.
I hope that all this 'negative' attention will result in a chance for Michelle to have an opportunity for a much better life.
Eat your heart out all you pious hypocrites and name-calling hapless losers.
Not exactly sure what you mean. What does this have to do with her medical records. Whatever...
However, what's more disgraceful than sending the 'uniform' to fight in an illegal war WITHOUT proper protection?? If anyone is a disgrace to the uniform, it's our COMMANDER IN CHIEF!
Michelle, you go, girl!! Anyone who can trade a few 'snapshots' for a couple hundred thousand dollars is a much better business person that loser running our government 'business.'
You've got my vote, Michelle!
and
"...a spokesman for the Iowa National Guard, said that because the Guard did not have "documentation of her separation" from the Air Force, it did not have her on duty status."
A typical military SNAFU!! A situation FUBAR!!
She's not in the Air Force, and she's not in the Guard, and she hasn't been formally discharged. If she simply walks away, she's AWOL.
How much more phuckked up can the military make it? She's in limbo, or may pergatory is a better word.
Posted by ecuadoriana
Maybe you should go back to Equador where you can be the dictator. Besides, it difficult to enforce that rule when most of the officers, junior and senior alike, read Playboy, and even Penthouse, which definitely is porn.
Hoorah for Michelle Manhart. I hope she gets into politics...
It's ok for men to have Playboy posters in their lockers and rooms, but it's not ok for women to pose for them? What a hypocritical joke?
For too many years, members of the U.S. military have been betrayed by the military and especially by the government they so faithfully serve. Reagan and Bush are the biggest betrayers of all.
For all the men on this board who resorted to calling her names: You're just upset that you have never had, and will never have, a woman like her. A mother of two!! You hapless saps should be so lucky if your woman looks half that good after even one kid.
Posted by xenalily at 05:14 PM : Feb 15, 2007
Poor judgment?
Let me see, potentially millions of dollars as a Playboy model, or a life of misery and uselessness as an Air Force NCO.
Which should a person choose?
Hmm....
She is clearly qualified to be commander in chief. She has excellent judgment.
So, it's ok for the wonderful men & women in uniform to, eh hem, read playboy, but it's not ok for a member of the armed forces to pose for an "article" in playboy!?
Smells like a double standard to me. Perhaps nudie magazines & pin-ups, the educational reading staple of the armed forces since photography was invented, should be banned in the service? Anyone caught with a nudie magazine should be court marshalled & publicly humiliated for having dirty & impure thoughts.
Problem solved.
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