Drill sergeant who posed nude in Playboy removed from duty
A US Air Force drill sergeant who posed nude for Playboy magazine is to been removed from active duty.
Michelle Manhart, who appeared in a six-page spread in Playboy's February issue, said she was told on 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. They went too far with it," said Manhart, who also revealed that she had been reverted to her Air National Guard status.
Manhart said she had submitted a "resignation" to the Guard, which is pending.
Oscar Balladares, a spokesman for Lackland Air Force Base, confirmed Wednesday 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."
Leutenant Colonel 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.
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