I grew up in California with a single mother who was working all kinds of jobs to support us. I didn't know where I was going in life. My father was in the Navy. My step-father was in the Marine Corps. My grandfather was in the Army Air Corps. I come from a long line of military. I thought, 'What the heck.' So, at 17 years old, I left for basic training. I knew this was a good way to grow up, get an education, travel and become an adult. Plus, I got to shoot guns, so that was pretty cool. (laughs)
I decided to use the Air Force to my advantage. I wanted to do everything I could for them, because they were going to do things for me. I'd drop and do 20 because I love my country and I love the Air Force. I never said, "I'm going to piss them off and get out early." But I also told myself that if my dream jumped in front of me, I was not going to let it go. In my few first years with the military, I continued to model. When Playboy [2] came calling, I didn't even hesitate. Nothing made me doubt what I was doing. I truly felt that I had done enough for my country and had such a great career record, that there would be no controversy.
*****
I was demoted from the Air Force on February 9, 2007, but this all started January 9th. I'd done the photo shoot with Playboy last April, almost a year ago. I've been modeling since I was about seven or eight years old. I've been in the military almost 13 years. I have a perfect record, perfect service, I've been overseas; I've done everything you'd want to do in the military. I have nothing bad on my record. I submitted myself to Playboy several times. I've been modeling all through my military service and I've never been told it was a bad thing or been warned that I would have to reject an offer if it came to me.
The Playboy photo shoot was awesome, the people were great and they never made me feel uncomfortable. They let me know what was going on every step of the way. No one was allowed on set that shouldn't have been there and no one was allowed to walk past certain angles that would make me feel uncomfortable. It was just a very good environment and a great experience.
Once I found out for sure that it was going to be published, I told my supervisor that the magazine was coming out, in case anyone from the media approached him asking him if he knew me. He said, "No big deal, what magazine is it?" and so I showed it to him. His first response was sort of "Oh-okay. Well, let's let everyone else know." He wasn't like, "How dare you." There was nothing negative at all.
So, we notified the chain of command, again, just in case there were questions. And their immediate response was, "Thank you for coming to us and not hiding it-let's just handle this the right way." It was very relaxed, even though I was worried and uptight.
The next thing I know, they came out with "Pack your desk; remove your things," and they made me turn in my hat. At that point I asked if I could take my leave while this issue was dealt with, since I had tons of leave saved up, but they refused. When I reported for work the next time, they made me report in with a job I had no affiliation with, in a back office, away from everyone. I had no phone and no communication with other people.
They made me sit at a desk all day. I have a lot of respect for people who sit at a desk all day now-Being an instructor, I was the type of person working 18-hour days, out, moving around, marching, yelling, walking miles a day, running, you name it. I go, go, go. When I'm stuck at a desk, it's like taking an outside cat and forcing it to stay inside. That was really hard on me.
Eventually we started getting answers - Not because they were coming forward with them, but because they were calling me in for various kinds of paperwork. They gave me what's called a Letter of Reprimand. To document habitual problems, the military may use a Letter of Admonishment, a Letter of Counseling or a Letter of Reprimand, in that order. In my case, they just jumped to a Letter of Reprimand. It goes in your record and stays in there for six months to a year.
In the Letter of Reprimand, they documented two articles I allegedly broke. One was Article 92, which is 'Dereliction of Duty' and claims that I didn't do my job. That's obviously bogus. I shot Playboy back in April and continued to do my job, not only to my fullest extent, but so well, in fact, I had been nominated for several awards. I was up for Instructor of the Year. The second thing I was charged with was Article 134. Enlisted people call it a "catch all" article. It basically means if there's not a rule, they're going to make it up. They said I didn't represent the Air Force well.
In the Air Force, when there is any form of documented punishment, you get to file what is called a 'rebuttal.' It's your opportunity to give your side. So, after the Letter of Reprimand, we did a rebuttal. They denied my rebuttal and gave me what is called a UIF, or an Unfavorable Information File, which stays on your file for one year.
Once we'd done our rebuttals, we asked if I could go back to work in my original post and they said no. Instead, they filed a formal letter to have me removed permanently from the job as an instructor. This kind of irritated me. Unfortunately, they didn't just draw the line at that.
After that, they removed my security clearance and did an EPR - an Enlisted Performance Report. This is done once a year and it stays on your record for your entire career. I had just had an EPR done, right before all this took place, and I got what's called a "Firewall Five," which is the most perfect rating you can get. Not only that, but it recommended in my EPR that I be promoted immediately.
Since I had just received an EPR, the commander did what's called a "Command-Directed EPR." This means that a commander can come along at any time and say, "This person screwed up, and we want to get it on record."
So, they're saying that within 63 days, I went from being a perfect troop to an absolutely horrible troop, when in reality I didn't do anything really wrong. Other people get drunk driving charges, they get charged with beating their spouses, they get insubordination charges, and they never get this Command-Directed EPR.
They marked me down in an area related to 'on and off-duty conduct.' My on-duty conduct was perfect. It had been documented that I was one of the top trainers on base. My photograph was on the Air Force homepage for several months. Obviously the Air Force saw me as a poster child, so to speak. And all of the sudden I'm this bad person who committed some horrible infraction. So, we did yet another rebuttal, which we lost.
I kept asking if I could return to work, and they just kept piling on punishments. They filed for what is called an Administrative Demotion, which is something typically used in the Air Force when people continuously fail to meet their weight standards.
Within the Administrative Demotion regulations, it states certain rules that must be met. We also have Air Force Instructions, which are like the rules. It would be comparable to a workforce dress code. There is nothing in the rules that states, YOU MAY NOT POSE IN PLAYBOY. However, there are Air Force Instructions governing demotions, and these state that you must be given a probation period, which I was never given. It says that you must take into consideration the entire career of the Air Force member. They didn't do that either.
The commander looked at a 10-page summary of my career and said to my face, "Michelle, I have looked at your career and you have one of the most stellar careers I have ever seen. However, this one incident outweighs all of that." I asked him to reconsider, based on the Air Force Instructions regarding demotions. He said he understood, but was taking his command authority to demote me nonetheless.
Normally and typically, an individual wanting to fight this would get an Article 15 or Court Martial. I was never given the opportunity. A Court Martial is where we get to be judged by our peers, a judge and jury. If I had been given that option, the polls indicate that the majority of people believe that what I did was not breaking the rules. They violated their own instructions, ripped the red tape and demoted me. Never in Air Force history has a demotion been done for anything of this nature.
In the Air Force, when you're in a supervisor position, you take a lot of courses. In the courses, they tell you, you must put your moral, ethical and religious beliefs aside when supervising an individual. All of my commanders allowed their personal beliefs to get involved. One commander looked at me one day and said, "Michelle, I have prayed long and hard over what you did and how to punish you." When she involved her religion, that was a big no-no.
Whether you agree with what I did or not, you need to place those feelings aside. Legally, someone needs to be punished for what they have done. They have broken rules themselves in order to punish me. I want the American people know that there is nothing protecting us, because the regulations were just thrown out the window.
We appealed immediately with a 2-inch thick package. It would take some significant time to read it. We turned it in at 1400 hours on a Friday afternoon, February 9th, 2007. By 4:20 p.m., the appeal was turned down, I was demoted and told to report to the separations office immediately. We believe there was already a discussion behind closed doors, which determined if I appealed, I would be denied, because there's no way you can read an appeal that fast.
I don't feel I was treated justly, especially since other people were treated differently, under the same circumstances. Several times throughout history, there have been men who posed in uniform for magazines. In 2004, (I can't recall which magazine) there was a huge article done where there were four men in military pants, but no shirts, showing their physiques. Don't get me wrong, it was an awesome photo and they looked beautiful. The whole article was about how good military men look. The fact is though, that they were wearing their uniform with their shirt off, which some people would say was disrespectful, as was said about me. Nothing was said or done in their case.
In the March issue of Playboy, which came out a month after my issue, there was an army man posing surrounded by a group of Playboy bunnies. I haven't heard that anything has happened to him. He's in his uniform, in Playboy, which is apparently what I got in trouble for.
Everyone knows that back in World War II, they painted naked women on fighter planes. In the 1990s, they painted the Playboy bunny ears on the tail of one of our planes. We had Hugh Hefner come out, we had a little ceremony and we revealed it. We sell the magazine, we promote the magazine, we promote Hugh Hefner, but one of their own gets an opportunity to model in the magazine, suddenly she's a disgrace.
I understand people who don't agree with what I did. But I wish I knew why I was punished. I think there are people in high command who are stuck in an old frame of mind in the sense that women are not supposed to be in high positions. If you look at the history of the military, there has never been a woman to hold the highest ranked, Chief of Staff positions. It makes us wonder. Not all women are pushed downward, but we still aren't allowed to excel the way men are.
I used to be one of those women who would tell feminists to shut up. I'd say, "It's people like you that are pushing us down. Men and women are equal; if you didn't complain so much, we would be treated equally." Now, I've finally opened my eyes and I want to say I'm sorry I was ever one of those people who didn't stand up for my own. I am still one of the guys. I'm a tomboy, I go to the gym, I drink beer with guys-I don't normally hang out with girls, I don't go shopping - I'm still true to myself. But now I understand we really are oppressed. I hate to say it, because I denied it for so many years. So many people turn a blind eye because they're afraid to say anything. A really good friend of mine came forward with a sexual harassment suit, and she was terrified. Why? Because once you do it, you're ostracized, and it happened to her. People would scatter when she came around.
Sexual harassment happens daily in the military, and most of us women just laugh it off. There are comments about your boobs about how good you look in your uniform. It's easier to blow it off as a joke. You may appreciate the compliments too, since you dress like a man all the time, and it's nice to know someone appreciates your feminine side, and it's one way to feel accepted by the group. But sometimes, for some women, it's just not okay, and women do not feel safe objecting to it. In the end, my friend's harassers were found guilty, and the only punishment they got was a Letter of Counseling, which is the second-lowest form of punishment someone can get and it comes out of your file in three months.
I have gay friends who are afraid to speak their minds too. Years ago, people couldn't serve if they were black. We know now that that's ridiculous. Years ago, you couldn't serve if you were a woman. When I get shot, I bleed the same color. Now they say if you're gay, you can't fight. Bulloney! Gays in the military fight even harder because their rights are being pushed to the back burner. It blows my mind that we're willing to fight a war in someone else's country, for someone else's democracy, but then we come home and because we wear a uniform, we're held to a higher standard and not allowed to have those same rights.
There's a 'good ol' boys' group in the military. It's a group of guys who always seem to get what they want. People turn a blind eye to any infractions they do, and then at the end of the year, they're the number one, soaring military men of the year. Women don't get recognized, even when their performance outshines the men's. It's another one of those things we're just afraid to say.
My posing nude has nothing to do with my performance. Personally, I think nudity is beautiful. Posing in my uniform was my way of saying to people that even though the military depicts us as this brute, masculine device, I can be a woman and still do my job better than the next. We can go out and fight for our country, be shot at, yell, march, but when you turn the page, we're women and we're beautiful.
*****
Sometimes I've thought if I could go back, I wouldn't have told my superiors. I had a lot of faith in the system, which is why I told them. I feel like they stabbed me in the back. I have no faith in the system anymore. I have a bad taste in my mouth for the chain of command. But I feel if I hadn't told them, it would have been the same recourse. They disrespected me. They didn't acknowledge that I gave them a heads up on this, before it hit the media. At the end of the day, I know I still would have told them because I had so much respect for them at the time.
It's not even getting any better. Their still punishing me, they're still making me wait. I'm not working and they're not letting me work, but they're still making me report in. They're not paying me and they pushed me up to Iowa. I've had to contact my congressman and my senator. I'll take this further if I don't get some answers. Because I'm done with being treated like an outcast. I did a resignation on February 12, and I'm still waiting. They're just dragging a perfectly good name through the dirt.
Despite all the doors that have been closing in my face, just as many have been opening. Today I got off the phone with someone who's sending me a script so I can audition for a lead role in an upcoming movie. I've been approached about being the host for an upcoming reality show in the fall, which will shoot in Vegas. There is discussion about me being in the World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). I do a lot of pro bono stuff right now. I do the appearances for my fans - for the people who really support me and my cause.
One woman pulled me aside and said she thought I was born before my time. That may be, but I think the military is just stuck in the dark ages. They're slow to the draw. They don't represent the American people because the American people are way ahead of the military. Not everyone will agree, but that's what makes the world so perfect. But it's unfortunate when you have 18 year olds dying for freedoms they don't even have themselves.
*****
According to Air Force Chief of Staff:
"This young lady made a decision about her future, and her decision has consequences, and so I wish her the best life. She's now got exactly what she was looking for." - Gen. T. Michael Moseley.
*****
For more information about Michelle Manhart, click here [3].
Visit Michelle Manhart's MySpace [4].
Visit Michelle Manhart's blog [5].
Read one of Michelle Manhart's favorite articles [6].
To view 1940s Nose Art Collection [7].
Gen. T. Michael Moseley quote source: MySA.com [8]
*****
Check out all the Orato.com special series:
Hell’s Kitchen Chopping Block [9]
Song Over For American Idols [10]
People In Peril [12]
The Naked Reporter [13]
