By Scott Hogenson
CNS Executive Editor

The U.S. Navy is faced with a situation some might consider unusual.

The United States Supreme Court last week upheld the Department of Defense position that it could ban the sale of sexually explicit magazines on navel vessels, and in Navy Exchanges and other military stores.

But earlier this spring, the Navy permitted a female aviator to resign her commission and receive an honorable discharge after having posed in Playboy magazine.

Lieutenant Junior Grade Steve Mavica, a spokesman for the Navy public affairs office at the Pentagon who fielded the CNS inquiry about the issue, responded only by saying that the story had "an interesting take."

The Pentagon has yet to return CNS's telephone calls regarding specific questions about the Navy's plans for banning the sale of Playboy, or the case of the pilot who posed for the magazine.

According to the Center for Military Readiness, 28-year old Lieutenant Frederica Spilman posed for the June issue of the men's magazine wearing dog tags and a camouflage negligee. She was later given a non-punitive letter of caution and permitted to resign with an honorable discharge.

The magazine issue in question appeared on newsstands after Spilman had submitted her resignation, according to CMR, which also raised questions about whether the aviator had received any money for her appearance in Playboy.

Military regulations forbid members of the armed services from accepting money for materials submitted for publication in magazines and newspapers.

In a May 18 issue of the Navy Times, Spilman reportedly called posing in Playboy "a lark," but also called her action "a matter principle."

"Most guys think women in the military aren't attractive. I wanted to show my feminine side," Spilman was quoted as saying.

The Spilman case stands in contrast to another incident this spring, in which Navy Lieutenant Patrick Callaghan was disciplined for having "mooned" three fellow officers. According to CMR, the display of Callaghan's buttocks subjected him to an Article 15 "Captain's Mast" disciplinary preceding, two psychiatric evaluations, a negative job evaluation and a refusal to resign his commission with an honorable discharge.

CMR President Elaine Donnelly called the two incidents "the latest example of double standards in disciplinary matters, the most memorable and demoralizing legacy of Navy Secretary John Dalton."

"Something is seriously wrong when a female officer accepts money and poses unclothed in a sexually explicit magazine, disgraces her uniform and status as a naval flight officer, and draws nothing more than a non-punitive letter," Donnelly said. "The offense to (the Navy) is compounded when a male officer is simultaneously hit with the full force of censure and career ruin for horseplay in the presence of a few buddies."

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OBTW...I was onboard USS Enterprise when LT. Spilman was assigned to VC-6 Recon. Squadron two years before this article was written and got a chance to meet her in their squadron ready room just above our shop....and man was she ever ready to get out of the Navy back then! She had a slight speech impediment and was more than stuborn about her willingness to mix her social life with her navy career, well what was left of it!

Steve

"Let's Go Downtown" - Flight of the Intruder
 

http://www.327infantry.org/second/c_co 

Same Mud Same Blood - NBC documentary filmed 1967 RVN, chronicle Frank McGee

1/508th Abn Inf, 82nd Abn Div 81-83

1/4th Inf (Mech), 3rd Inf Div (USAEUR) 83-84

SGT\EIB\Recondo

"Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly and applying the wrong remedies." - Groucho Marx

"The degenerative and loony should never be denigrated but, rather, thanked. In their absence, the rest of you would be obliged to fill congressional seats... positions naturally unsavory to the sane and honorable."

Thorax

June 98 mag if you dare!

"Let's Go Downtown" - Flight of the Intruder
 

http://www.327infantry.org/second/c_co 

Same Mud Same Blood - NBC documentary filmed 1967 RVN, chronicle Frank McGee

Muddy!!!