If you think having women in bikinis and revealing camouflage-inspired outfits flit around shooting M249 SAW machine guns and SCAR-H rifles in Zodiak rubber boats and Humvees for a photographer who’s snapping for your “Hot Shots Calendar” that gives 50% of the profits (not 100%) to wounded veterans paid for by the United States military’s budget (ahem, taxpayers’ money) is a good idea — then you might be a member of Utah’s 19th Special Operations Group.
Because this? This is exactly what they did.
And are feeling the heat for it now, too. According to the Army Times, two senior officers were cleared of allegations of dereliction of duty, but this didn’t keep four lower-ranking soldiers from being singled out for disciplinary action. Beyond the one individual who lost his leadership role and was made to retire early, presumably for giving the approval for the shoot, three other soldiers were given reprimands and one of the soldiers had to repay $200 in fuel costs associated with the controversial shoot.
One soldier — according to an immensely redacted report on the incident — okayed the “misuse of government resources to facilitate the for-profit calendar shoot and video that portrayed the Utah National Guard and the military in a salacious, unprofessional and demeaning manner.”
The report also states, however, that most of the members involved in the shoot thought it had been approved by higher-ups, and no one was found to have acted inappropriately while it was going on.
The calendar was in its fourth year of production and circulation.