By Stewart Tongue

YNOT – The U.S. Air Force soon will run a lean, clean fighting machine, if recent inspections at installations worldwide are any indication.

According to reports in the independent military newspaper Stars and Stripes, since USAF Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Welsh III in late November ordered wing commanders to crack down on smut, about 100 inspections have netted more than 32,000 items in three newly banned categories: pornography, unprofessional material and inappropriate or offensive material.

The move, undertaken in barracks and offices, apparently was provoked by recent media reports of sexual harassment and may also represent a precursor to the DoD’s plan to intermingle genders in combat positions over the coming months.

“We want folks to come in to work every day and feel like they’re in a professional environment and feel like they’re respected,” Gen. Larry Spencer, the Air Force vice chief, told reporters.

Most of the items confiscated so far comprised magazines or videos, all of which reportedly were destroyed. In addition, 11 pornographic images were “preserved for evidence” according to a database provided to Stars and Stripes by the Air Force.

The database indicates investigators may have gone above and beyond the call of duty by confiscating Sports Illustrated’s swimsuit editions, Maxim magazines and Playboy, all of which, ironically, are “readily available for purchase at AAFES [on-base stores].”

Among the more interesting items listed in the database was a pubic hair someone at Air Force Global Strike Command had pressed inside a log book.

Gen. Welsh’s mandate also threatens the traditions of aircraft nose art and pin-up girls. Welsh’s order resulted in the removal from public areas of reams of sexually suggestive posters, pornographic cartoons and more than 200 images of iconic aircraft decorations, some dating to World War II.

“We don’t want to paint over the Memphis Belle,” said Air Force spokesman Maj. Joel Harper.

He added that “commanders have broad discretion to decide what crosses the line.”