Utah National Guardsmen Face Sanction Over Bikini Calendar Shoot on National Guard Property

A number of Utah National Guardsmen and State Troopers are in trouble after allowing a racy calendar shoot to take place at one of their facilities with scantily clad British models firing automatic weapons- some of which were the property of the state of Utah.

British bikini models fired guns owned by the state of Utah as an on-duty state police officer stood by, according the early findings of an ongoing investigation.

A second officer from the Utah Department of Public Safety was off-duty, according to a statement the department issued late Thursday.

DPS is investigating the two officers’ roles in the models’ photo and video shoot for the 2015 bikini calendar called "Hot Shots."

Meanwhile, the Utah National Guard also is investigating how the models entered Camp Williams and used resources there, including riding in a tank and other vehicles, as part of the shoot.

Logs from that day show that one of the officers was on duty and another off. Both belong to the department’s SWAT team.

While part of the photo shoot was at the Utah National Guard's Camp Williams, videos and stills of some of the barely dressed models were filmed at the privately operated Big Shots Ranch in Grantsville, UT.

Although policy for the Utah State Police allows for officers to serve as firearms instructors or display weapons in the department's armory to public officials or groups like the Boy Scouts, such events have to be pre-approved by the chain of command. Some of the guns used by the British models include the Heckler & Koch MP5 9mm submachine gun, a select fire 9mm Glock 18 [which means the gun can fire semiauto of full auto- NANESB!] and the M4 Carbine, the current US Army and National Guard issue rifle which is essentially a scaled down M-16 rifle. Although a Utah State Police spokesman said three of the weapons are believed to be agency-issue, the ammunition was reportedly provided by Big Shots range.

The two Utah State Police officers identified in the video were identified as members of the agency's SWAT team and logs indicate that one of them was on-duty at the time. Both of them were reportedly in uniform at the time, as well.

Meanwhile, the Camp Williams segment of the photo shoot may end up costing some National Guardsmen their jobs.

Maj. Gen. Jeff Burton told lawmakers Thursday that the handful of Guard members involved could face fines, demotions or forced retirements when an investigation is complete. Those involved, which include combat veterans and Purple Heart recipients, didn’t follow guidelines for private use of military equipment at Camp Williams, he said.

The Hot Shots calendar is available in early November and a portion of all sales will go to the UK-based Help for Heroes charitable organization.

Benghazi Update- Secretary of State Clinton Accepts Responsibility For Lack of Security; Congressional Panel Interviews Witnesses; FBI Spends Only 12 Hours in Benghazi; British Weapons Unaccounted For

During an official visit to Peru on Monday, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton stated that she accepted responsibility for the security lapses leading up to the deadly terrorist attack on the US Consulate in Benghazi that killed Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans last month.

"I'm responsible for the State Department, for the more than 60,000 people around the world," she said. "The decisions about security are made by security professionals. But we're going to review everything to be sure we're doing what needs to be done in an increasingly risky environment."

She also addressed the question of a June explosion at the consulate in Benghazi that some have argued should have raised a red flag about security.

"I can't speak to who knew what," she said. "We knew there were security breaches and problems throughout Libya. That's something that came about as the aftermath of the revolution to topple Qaddafi, with so many militias formed, so many weapons loose. ... It was taken into account by security professionals as they made their assessments."

Clinton also seemed to dismiss accusations that the State Department and White House intentionally pushed a false narrative about a spontaneously-forming protest over a YouTube video serving as a catalyst for the deadly September 11, 2012 attacks for nearly two weeks- in spite of the fact there were no protests in Benghazi that night and the assailants used heavy weaponry such as mortars and RPGs.

While some have viewed this as President Obama 'throwing Hillary under the bus', Da Tech Guy makes the case that this was a shrewdly calculated move by Secretary of State Clinton that undermines Obama while heading off a number of stories about security breaches leading up to last month's attacks from a normally compliant media that was starting to get curious on the issue. The decision can also be viewed through the prism of a possible 2016 Presidential run by Clinton.

Meanwhile, US security and military officials testified before the House Oversight Committee last week, claiming that requests for additional security in Libya were rebuffed by higher-ups at the State Department. Lt Col Andrew Wood of the Utah National Guard commanded a 16-member Special Forces security detail responsible for protecting American officials in Libya after the collapse of the Ghdaffi regime- the team departed the country about a month before the attacks in Benghazi.

Wood told CBS News that he met daily with Stevens to discuss security.

"He was constantly concerned about the threats to not just himself but the entire staff there," Wood said.

Over the six months leading up to the attack on Stevens, Wood says the security situation in Libya deteriorated.

There were 13 threats or attacks in Tripoli and Benghazi, including two attempted assassinations of the British ambassador to Libya.

Wood said Stevens and his staff made the case for tightened security in emails and diplomatic cables. One by one, they lost three State Department security teams, their only airplane and, eventually, his squad too.

Wood said some of the security teams would have been in Benghazi on Sept. 11 to if they had been allowed to remain in Libya, and the four deaths might have been avoided.

Earlier this month, an FBI forensic team arrived at the site of the attacks in Benghazi- nearly three weeks after the attacks took place- and examined the area for a grand total of 12 hours. The site of the attacks had been left unsecured for nearly three weeks and the trek out to Benghazi was expected to yield little in the way of actionable information.

Britain's Foreign Office also reported that British weapons and vehicles left at the grounds of the US Consulate in Benghazi were unaccounted for after the September 11 attacks. The UK's envoy to Libya, Sir Dominic Dominic Asquith, survived an RPG attack that wounded two of his bodyguards in June and the Foreign Office decided to withdraw all British diplomats from the area shortly thereafter. According to testimony from Lt. Col Wood, the UK Foreign Office made arrangements with the US Consulate in Benghazi for safekeeping of the weapons and vehicles and retrieve them incrementally through multiple low-profile trips back to the area.

UPDATE- 10/15- AP is reporting that the White House is inexplicably announcing preperations to send a strike team into Libya.....yes- basically announcing a 'covert' mission to the public via mass media, apparently.

G.I. Jill- From Combat Medic to Miss Utah

(army.mil)

When I was in the Army, a good rule of thumb regarding some of the female soldiers was 'if she looks good in BDUs, she can look good in anything'. Sounds sexist, but think about it- the uniform wasn't designed to be particularly alluring or flattering to the female form; it was designed to be....well, uniform.

(utvet.com)

My earlier entry about Lance Corporal Katrina Hodge being awarded the Miss England crown got me to wondering whether or not there were any beauty pageant winners in the USA who had served in the Armed Forces. As it turns out, the answer is 'yes' and I don't have to go that far back to find one.

Meet Sgt. Jill Stevens of the Utah National Guard's 1st Battalion, 211th Aviation Regiment. Sgt. Stevens is a decorated veteran of Afghanistan, a combat medic and....oh yes, Miss Utah 2007. Most likely the only Miss Utah able to field-strip an M4 Carbine for the talent competition and do push-ups in an evening gown.

Sgt Stevens graduated Summa Cum Laude from the Southern Utah University's Nursing Program and finished 16th overall in the 2008 Miss America pageant and named the "America's Choice" semi-finalist.

Granted I'm nearly 2 years behind on this, but congrats to Sgt. Stevens-a credit to the Utah National Guard (and the Army in general) as well as being pretty damn easy on the eyes. I'd take one Jill Stevens over a hundred bipolar kleptomaniac pathological liar pageant winners any day.