Army makes staff changes after email about women
Army makes staff changes after email about women
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Pentagon officials said today that an Army colonel who wrote an internal email suggesting photos of attractive women should be avoided in promotional materials has stepped down from her duties involving a gender study.
Army spokesman George Wright said Col. Lynnette Arnhart had agreed to step aside, and Gen. Robert Cone, commander of the Army’s Training and Doctrine Command at Fort Eustis, Va., had accepted the gender integration study’s leadership change “in order to protect the integrity of the ongoing work on gender integration in the Army.”
The content of the email was first reported by Politico this week. In the email, Arnhart stated that “average-looking women” should be used in Army materials used to attract women for combat roles, Politico reported.
In addition, Wright said that Col. Christian Kubik, a public affairs officer also with the Army’s Training and Doctrine Command, was suspended for his involvement in the email pending an investigation.
According to the email chain obtained by Politico, Kubik forwarded Arnhart’s email to other public affairs officers, cautioning the use of photos “that glamourize women” would undermine the Army’s gender integration efforts.
Wright confirmed that the email existed but didn’t provide copies to The Associated Press. Messages seeking comment from Arnhart, who worked at the Training and Doctrine Command’s analysis center at Fort Leavenworth, and Kubik about the staff changes weren’t immediately returned.