U.S. Army officials are investigating whether women in the Kentucky National Guard posed nude for pictures with M-16s and other military equipment.
Officials with the Louisville Courier-Journal said they received a disc containing 232 nude pictures of women in a National Guard unit, Editor & Publisher magazine reported.
The photographs were not printed.
Lt. Col. Phil Miller of the Kentucky National Guard said news of the photos was reported to the commander of the 410th Quartermaster unit about a week to 10 days before the military unit allegedly involved in the incident shipped out on Aug. 26 from Camp Shelby, Miss. to Iraq.
The newspaper said it received a compact disc containing 232 photographs of about a half-dozen nude and seminude women with military rifles, using American flag decals to cover their breasts. An e-mail identified the women as members of the Kentucky Guard.
Miller said only 11 of the 107 soldiers the unit are women.
It was unclear where the photos were taken, but recent inoculation marks are visible on some of the women pictured, the military said. One woman’s name was partially visible on her uniform.
Lt. Col. Rich Steele, a spokesman for the First Army at Fort Gillem, Ga., said that if the soldiers are found guilty of misconduct, punishment could range from informal reprimands to courts-martial. The investigation is taking place in Iraq.
But Marsha Weinstein, former executive director of the Kentucky Commission on Women, said that the Army would be hypocritical if it punished the women involved when its soldiers have had a history of posting pinups in their lockers.
