Officer in strife over nude rewards scheme

A US Air Force officer who served on the vice-president’s security detail faces a possible courtmartial for encouraging service personnel to send him photos of their genitals from locations around the world, and rewarding them with commemorative T-shirts, patches and coins.

Second Lieutenant Travis Burch was charged earlier this month at Goodfellow Air Force Base in San Angelo, Texas with conduct unbecoming an officer and gentleman.

The photos involved 84 people, including 58 active military personnel and 10 former members among the civilian victims, according to an investigation file. Most were in the air force.

The group, which was started in 2012, ‘‘was comprised of members who, when going someplace deemed ‘cool’ or coming up with a ‘funny’ idea, would take a picture of their penis with something related to the location or object in the picture’’, a summary of the investigation said.

Defence lawyer Jeremiah J Sullivan III said no crime was committed, and the case was built around what was done privately in a ‘‘jovial, joking spirit’’ among consenting adults.

The partly censored investigation document said Burch told someone, who was not identified, that he took his final suggestive selfie at the US vice-president’s residence while assigned to his security detail.

Sullivan confirmed that Burch was part of the presidential security detail while stationed at Andrews Air Force Base from 2014 to 2016, but said no such photo was taken at the house then occupied by Vice-President Joe Biden.

In Burch’s quarters, investigators found coins and other prizes that were awarded for completing a series of different poses and other acts.