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Airman scolded on talk show for posing nude

Senior Airman Michelle Manhart, the former Air Force training instructor who gained notoriety for appearing nude in the February issue of Playboy magazine, got another taste of the national spotlight Monday.

Odds are she won’t be asking for seconds.

In a brief appearance on “The Montel Williams Show,” the host — and retired U.S. Navy officer of 22 years — criticized Manhart’s decision to appear in the magazine and said he thinks she deserves to be separated from the service.

“If I go back into my 22-year military [mind-set] as an ... O-4 in the Navy,” Williams said, “had you been employed by me, I would have been one of the people to help process you out of the military. ... As an officer, ... I don’t want you to step in before a formation of 350 young troops that I know just saw you in the PX with your clothes off.”

Manhart, who was demoted from the rank of staff sergeant and tossed from active duty after the pictorial hit newsstands, told Williams that she still believes she did the right thing.

“At no time did I ever feel that anything I did was wrong or would get me in trouble,” she said. “I never thought there was going to be a big issue when the military saw this.”

Williams had a hard time swallowing that line of reasoning, saying this is not the first time a woman has been reprimanded for appearing nude in a magazine. “A precedent has been set for this,” he said. “There have been women before you who have appeared in Playboy, Penthouse, in other branches of the service, all of whom have been removed from active duty.”

Manhart, as in past comments, defended her right to appear in the magazine as a free-speech issue. Service members who fight for their country and the rights it provides others should be allowed to exercise those same rights, she argued.

She also said there is a double standard in the military — and that male troops who have appeared nude in magazines such as Playgirl have not been removed from active duty or kicked out of the service.

“I understand that some people have a problem with it, and I respect that,” she said. “What I think [people] truly need to understand is the differences” for men and women.

Manhart’s commander at Lackland Air Force Base, Texas, informed her Feb. 9 that she was being demoted to senior airman, removed from “extended active duty,” returned to the Iowa Air National Guard and given a letter of reprimand.

She has applied for an honorable discharge from the Guard, she said, and the application is pending.

Manhart told The Associated Press that the military’s action against her hinged on the fact that she was pictured in Playboy wearing her Air Force 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.

Tell us what you think: Is it a big deal?

Past stories:

Airman tossed from active duty

Staff sergeant relieved of duty.