Manning’s journey from low-level Army intelligence analyst to notoriety for disclosing national security secrets to high-profile crusader for transgender rights paralleled the growing social acceptance of the small population of Americans who don’t identify with their gender at birth. Previously known as Bradley, Manning, 29, has more than 100,000 followers on her Twitter account.

Manning, who divulged massive amounts of information to WikiLeaks, had her sentence commuted Tuesday by President Obama. She has been serving a 35-year sentence at the Army’s prison at Fort Leavenworth in Kansas and had been eligible for parole in about six years.

It was nearly two years ago that the Army, in a memo obtained by USA TODAY, agreed to provide Manning with hormone treatment to allow her to transition to a woman. The commandant of the Fort Leavenworth Disciplinary Barracks concluded that providing the hormones was necessary for Manning’s health. Allowing her to grow her hair out was not.

Only by virtue of being an Army prisoner was Manning, still a soldier while incarcerated, able to acknowledge publicly her transition to a woman and to receive treatment. Any other member of the military would have been discharged from service. In another disconnect, the Veterans Affairs Department had been approving treatment for transgender veterans for years.

The Pentagon changed that inconsistency in its policy last summer when Defense Secretary Ash Carter announced repeal of the ban, and plans to allow troops to receive treatment, including reassignment surgery.

By the end of 2016, more than 100 troops had informed their superiors that they wanted to transition to the opposite sex, be recognized in their new gender or were seeking counseling or treatment. A RAND Corp. study estimated that there may be about 6,600 transgender troops among the active-duty force of 1.3 million members. Treating transgender troops could cost as much as $8 million per year, and up to $50,000 per case.

Manning, by September, had received assurances that she was a candidate for reassignment surgery, according to her lawyers at the American Civil Liberties Union. She had been on a hunger strike, protesting the Army’s delay in providing the treatment, which had been prescribed by her doctors. Manning had also attempted to commit suicide twice last year.

President-elect Donald Trump has not made known whether he agrees with the Pentagon’s new policy on transgender troops. It can be reversed.

The two sailors, whose names have not been made public, have been awarded the Navy Cross, the second-highest medal. In February, the Pentagon announced plans to review more than 1,000 of the top military’s top commendations issued since 9/11. Defense Secretary Ash Carter ordered the review amid concerns that criteria had changed during the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and had left some troops deserving greater recognition.

“I put in two upgrade requests to the Medal of Honor,” Mabus said in an interview. “Both cases I think are richly deserved.”

Mabus declined to offer any further details. There have been 18 Medals of Honor awarded since 9/11, 14 for bravery in Afghanistan and four for Iraq.

The Navy and Marine Corps have awarded 47 Navy Crosses to sailors and Marines in public ceremonies since 9/11. In addition, two Navy Crosses were awarded in secret, records obtained by USA TODAY show. A Marine was awarded the Navy Cross for evacuating Americans after the attack in Benghazi in September 2012 that killed four, including Ambassador Christopher Stevens. The other was awarded to a Navy SEAL who, while being shot at, tossed burning explosives from a compound, and prevented an explosion that saved the lives of U.S. troops and Afghan civilians.

The records also showed more than 112 Silver Star citations issued for secret missions by Navy SEALs since 9/11. The Army also issued about 100 Silver Stars and one Distinguished Service crosses for covert operations.

Mabus also said he plans to upgrade a small, unspecified number of Silver Stars to the Navy Cross, a move he can make unilaterally. Medal of Honor recommendations must be approved by the Defense secretary and the White House.

The review was prompted by concerns raised in 2014 by then-Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel that criteria for the awards had evolved during wartime. Lack of combat experience, particularly early in the wars, “may have led to an initial reluctance to recommend members” for the Medal of Honor, according to documents obtained by USA TODAY. From 2001 to 2010, each Medal of Honor award was made posthumously. The last one was awarded to Special Warfare Chief Edward Byers for the dramatic rescue of an American hostage held by the Taliban in 2012. President Obama presented Byers with the medal in February.

Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus addresses sailors, Marines and civilians on Nov. 28, 2016, at Naval Air Station Sigonella, Sicily.

Photo Credit: PO2 Tyler R. Fraser/Navy

Mabus acknowledged that heroism, and how it was understood by battlefield commanders, has changed since the wars began in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“I think the process is pretty stringent,” Mabus said. “I think it may have been a little too stringent early in Iraq and Afghanistan.”

Brad Carson, who helped oversee the review as the top Pentagon personnel official, said the upgraded medals likely will be awarded to Navy SEALs who have been at the forefront of dangerous missions in the post-9/11 world.

“It is extraordinarily important to properly recognize the valor of our service members,” Carson said. “Sometimes, in the heat of battle, we don’t always get it quite right. I’m proud that the review I directed has led to these changes, and I can’t speak highly enough of Secretary Mabus for making these changes that will mark forever the heroism of these sailors.”

Carter is almost certain to accept Mabus’ recommendation, Carson said.

The Air Force review of its top medals is not yet complete, said Ann Stefanek, an Air Force spokeswoman. The Army was still reviewing its commendations for possible upgrades, said Lt. Col. Randy Taylor, an Army spokesman.

“As old barriers for military service are being removed, the administration supports — as a logical next step — women registering for the Selective Service,” said Ned Price, a spokesman for Obama’s National Security Council.

The White House had previously expressed neutrality on the controversy, but took a position in a statement to USA TODAY on Thursday.

But the timing of Obama’s support makes it mostly symbolic, coming in the final weeks of his presidency and the day before the House will vote on a defense policy bill that strips a Senate-passed provision to add women to Selective Service.

Instead, the compromise version now calls only for a commission to study two related issues: Whether women should be included in Selective Service, and whether the Selective Service system itself should be abolished.

The White House made clear that Obama supports an all-volunteer force, and there are no plans to re-institute the draft. But Obama believes adding women to the draft would serve two purposes: showing a commitment to gender equality throughout the armed services, and fostering a sense of public service that comes from requiring draft registration as a ritual of adulthood.

The Pentagon also expressed its support for a universal draft Thursday. “It makes sense for women to register for Selective Service just as men must,” said spokesman Peter Cook.

Defense Secretary Ash Carter opened all combat roles to women earlier this year, which “only strengthens our all-volunteer force by giving us access to 100% of America’s population so we can recruit and retain the most qualified individuals,” Cook said.

Removing the ban on women in all combat roles opened more than 200,000 jobs to women, most of them in Army and Marine infantry units. As a practical matter, women troops have been exposed to combat conditions for a long time. More than 280,000 women have served in Iraq and Afghanistan out of nearly 2.5 million troops. In those wars, 152 women have died in battle or from non-combat causes and more than 950 have been wounded in action.

Sen. John McCain, the Arizona Republican who chairs the Armed Services Committee, had no comment on the White House announcement, said Dustin Walker, a spokesman.

New U.S. soldiers take the oath of enlistment during the opening ceremonies at the U.S. Army All American Bowl in the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas, Jan. 7, 2012.

Photo Credit: Sgt. 1st Class Scott Turner/Army

Kate Germano, chief operating officer of the Service Women’s Action Network and a retired Marine officer, said her advocacy group views the White House announcement as a significant step toward improving national security. The draft would only be revived in time of a national emergency, and excluding women would mean lesser qualified men would be selected over women for the fight, she said.

“That doesn’t make sense,” Germano said. “We support this wholeheartedly.”

Michael O’Hanlon, a defense analyst at the Brookings Institution, said the White House stand has value even it doesn’t become policy.

“It’s symbolic,” O’Hanlon said. “But it’s a good statement.”

No one has been drafted into the military since 1973 — and indeed the last enlisted man drafted into the military retired years ago.

​But Selective Service can still have far-reaching consequences for young men and — under the policy change now supported by Obama — young women. Those who fail to register for the draft can be denied federal student aid and loans, security clearances, government employment and job training programs. For immigrants, failing to register can be a roadblock to citizenship. Three-quarters of states make Selective Service a requirement for driver’s licenses and other government benefits.

For Obama, adding women to the draft would also eliminate an inconsistency in the administration’s policy on transgender status. The Education Department, for example, is pressuring schools to recognize a student’s self-identified gender. But current Selective Service say the sex at birth determines whether someone is subject to the registration requirement.

Subjecting women to Selective Service has long made for intriguing politics, often fraught with ulterior motives.

Rep. Charlie Rangel, D-N.Y., has introduced bills for years that would add women to the draft — but then also require a draft any time Congress declares war or authorizes military force for conflicts like Iraq and Afghanistan. His calculation: Requiring a draft would make Congress less likely to go to war in the first place. Senior military officials, over the years, say they prefer the volunteer force for its professionalism.

On the other side of the spectrum is Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., a hawkish conservative and member of the Armed Services Committee who proposed adding women to the draft earlier this year. But his proposal was essentially offered as a dare, attempting to force an election-year vote on a policy he opposes.

Hunter blasted the White House announcement on Thursday as “purely politics, one last jab,” given the action taken by Congress.

Hunter noted that the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Marine Gen. Joe Dunford, had opposed opening Marine infantry units to women in his previous post as commandant.

“The military doesn’t support this,” Hunter said.

The incoming Trump administration is likely to review and potentially repeal allowing women to serve in ground combat units, Hunter said.

The Senate version of the defense policy bill, which includes a provision requiring women to register for the draft, passed in June, 83-15. In July, the House voted 217-203 to remove the provision from its version of the bill. A conference committee hashed out a compromise bill this week.

It was President Franklin Roosevelt who first proposed drafting women in order to address a shortage of military nurses in World War II.

“Since volunteering has not produced the number of nurses required, I urge that the Selective Service Act be amended to provide for the induction of nurses into the armed forces,” he said in his 1945 State of the Union Address. “The need is too pressing to await the outcome of further efforts at recruiting.”

Two months later, the House passed a bill to draft nurses, 347 to 42, but the bill died in the Senate, and the war soon ended.

In 1981, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Rostker v. Goldberg that an all-male draft was constitutional, with Justice William Rehnquist writing in a 6-3 decision that because Congress had excluded women from some combat roles, it was reasonable for Congress not require that they be subject to the draft.

WASHINGTON — Retired Army Gen. David Petraeus, who stepped down as CIA chief amid the scandal of an extramarital affair and pleaded guilty to divulging classified information, has emerged as a top contender as secretary of State in the incoming Trump administration.

Petraeus’ fall from grace was swift but not complete. He resigned immediately from the CIA in November 2012 after the affair with his biographer Paula Broadwell became known. The most famous military leader of his generation, Petraeus remained in limbo, under FBI investigation and generally avoiding public life, until March 2015 when he accepted a plea agreement in which he admitted to spilling a massive amount of sensitive information to Broadwell and lying to FBI agents about it.

Since then, Petraeus has gradually crept back into view, authoring a number of op-ed pieces for major newspapers, including USA TODAY, and working for a venture capital firm. Last week, he told the BBC that he would serve in Donald Trump’s administration if asked.

On Monday, he was scheduled to meet with President-elect Trump to discuss the top post in Trump’s Cabinet. He would bring a lifetime of military and diplomatic experience at the highest levels, having commanded U.S.-led forces in both Iraq and Afghanistan. He is credited with tamping violence in Iraq for a time by instituting a counterinsurgency strategy and a “surge” of U.S. forces there.

Retired Gen. David H. Petraeus addresses the annual Colorado Remembers 9/11 ceremony on Sept. 11, 2014, in Denver.

Photo Credit: Capt. Darin Overstreet/Air National Guard

All of his success, however, comes with the major caveat of the plea agreement he struck with the Justice Department. It contains echoes of the controversy that surrounded the failed presidential bid of Hillary Clinton, who maintained a private email server when she served as secretary of State. However, in Clinton’s case, FBI Director James Comey found no cause to prosecute her for careless handling of classified information.

Petraeus wasn’t sloppy with classified information. He purposely gave it away to his lover and biographer and sought to cover that up by lying to federal investigators, according to the plea deal. The FBI investigation gained steam in the spring of 2013. USA TODAY was first to report that FBI agents interviewed Petraeus at his Arlington, Virginia, home.

Former CIA director, retired Gen. David Petraeus arrives at Trump Tower for a meeting with President-elect Donald Trump, Monday, Nov. 28, 2016, in New York.

Photo Credit: Evan Vucci/AP

Here’s are key details of the case and plea deal Petraeus reached with the government:

• In late August 2011, Petraeus delivered to Broadwell eight black books containing classified and unclassified notes he took during meetings, conferences and briefings he took as a military commander. Broadwell, author of All In: The Education of David Petraeus, reviewed the material at a private home in Washington. That was a double no-no: Petraeus should not have released the information, and the home was not approved for storing such sensitive data.

• The notebooks he forwarded contained a trove of the nation’s most guarded secrets, including secret code words, the names of covert operatives, war strategy, intelligence capabilities and mechanisms, and discussions at the highest levels of the national security establishment, including the president.

• Petraeus knew the risk of divulging the information and fretted about it in a taped interview with Broadwell, saying, “”Um, well, they’re really — I mean they are highly classified, some of them.”

• Petraeus “unlawfully and knowingly” removed classified materials and kept them in unauthorized locations from August 2011 to April 2013. He agreed to plead guilty to one criminal count of mishandling classified information.

• Petraeus’ lies. He told FBI agents during an interview at his CIA office in October 2012 that he “had never provided any classified information to his biographer. “Defendant David Howell Petraeus then and there knew that he previously shared the black books with his biographer.” He also signed a form after resigning from the FBI assuring authorities that he possessed no classified information; at the time, the black books were still at his home.

• The penalty: The federal court levied a fine of $100,000 against him, $60,000 more than prosecutors had sought, and placed him on probation in the plea deal.

Gen. David H. Petraeus, commander of NATO and International Security Assistance Force troops in Afghanistan, speaks with soldiers at Forward Operation Base Joyce on April 11, 2011.

Photo Credit: Chief Petty Officer Joshua Treadwell/Resolute Support Media

White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest acknowledged Monday that senior Obama administration officials have continued to consult with Petraeus, “based on his years of service to this country and his areas of expertise.” He said he did not know how recently those consultations have continued.

“Obviously, maintaining any sort of informal advisory role is a lot different from being nominated secretary of State for the United States,” he said.

“I’m certainly not going to speculate on who’s going to serve in the Trump administration,” Earnest said. “I think every president is going to have to decide for themselves what kind of person can best serve them and the country.”

Petraeus has also remained a favorite of Senate heavyweights such as Sen. John McCain, the Arizona Republican and chairman of the Armed Services Committee, and the leading Democrat on the panel, Jack Reed of Rhode Island.

They praised him in January after Pentagon officials concluded that Petraeus be allowed to retain his four stars in retirement, a decision that allowed him to maintain a pension of around $220,000 per year. The senators wrote that Petraeus had a “long career of exceptionally distinguished, honorable and dedicated service to our nations and to the soldiers he so brilliantly led in combat.”

Contributing: Gregory Korte

Sailors were informed Monday about the transgender sailors and urged to abide by the new policy, according to an email from the Navy’s chief of personnel.

“Today, we know of approximately 55 sailors who have waited for this policy to be finalized, and desire a gender transition,” Vice Adm. Robert Burke wrote in an email to commanders obtained by USA TODAY. “With few exceptions, these sailors have had faith that the Navy would come through, and they observed all regulations and standards applicable to their birth gender.”

The exceptions he referred to are sailors who sought treatment before the policy was finalized, said a Navy official who spoke on condition of anonymity because officials were not authorized to speak publicly about details of those seeking treatment. Burke’s message accompanied the Navy’s new policy for transgender sailors.

“We would ask that your leaders assist our sailors in conforming to Navy regulations and uphold Navy standards of conduct as we navigate this change,” Burke wrote.

The Pentagon’s repeal of the ban on transgender troops was announced June 30 after months of internal debate. Some members of the military brass objected, fearing the change was happening too quickly. Marine Gen.

, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, did not appear with Defense Secretary

when the repeal was announced.

Transgender troops are estimated to make up a small fraction of the active-duty force of 1.3 million. A R

study found there are as many as 6,630 transgender troops of whom dozens or a few hundred would seek hormone treatment or surgery. The cost of treating them was estimated at as much as $8.4 million per year. Individual treatment could cost as much as $50,000.

Transgender sailors must first prove to medical personnel that transition is medically necessary before treatment begins, according to guidance issued to commanders.

The Navy defined treatment that includes “real-life experience,” which could include wearing clothing of the opposite gender or hairstyle during off-duty hours, according to guidance issued to commanders.

Ultimately, treatment could also consist of hormone treatment and reassignment surgery.

“To remain the finest seagoing fighting force the world has ever known, the Navy needs people who are the right fit for the right job regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation, creed, or gender identity,” Christensen said. “Our goal is to ensure that the mission is carried out by the best-qualified and the most capable service members. If an individual can meet the Navy’s standards, they should be afforded the opportunity to serve.”

Ferreira sent Bobeck the email thread from his business account to Bobeck’s personal email address, calling Bobeck’s attention to the emails from Sikorsky executives.

The exchange of information “highlights how easily a long-term friendship can cross the line and present a possible ethics violation,” said Scott Amey, general counsel for the

, a non-partisan watchdog group. “It’s one thing to be friends, but it’s another situation to be friends and trade information for special access or privileges.”

The inspector general may need to review the case again, Amey said.

“Mixing friendship and (Pentagon) business could move the needle from the safe zone to the ethical gray area zone, and that deserves a look,” Amey said.

The Army has had a string of troubling issues with its general officers. Last week, the Army confirmed that Maj. Gen. John Rossi committed suicide in July; in September, the Army yanked the security clearance of Maj. Gen. David Haight after USA TODAY reported that he had carried on an affair for more than a decade and had led a “swinging” lifestyle; also last month, the Army fired one of its division commanders, Maj. Gen. Wayne Grigsby, without giving a reason.

Before being promoted to the Joint Staff, Bobeck held posts with the National Guard Bureau that gave him responsibility for its aviation units across the country and its overseas territories. The bureau oversees its 453,000 soldiers and airmen. Peduzzi, staffed with several former Guardsmen, lobbies for Sikorsky, whose Black Hawk gained fame from conflicts from

, where it was featured in the book and movie, “Black Hawk Down,” to Iraq and Afghanistan. A modified, special operations Black Hawk crashed during the raid that killed

.

The inspector general found no issue with Bobeck’s private relationship with Ferreira and Peduzzi’s business with the National Guard Bureau, because Bobeck “was not involved in this contract action.” Nor was there a conflict with Bobeck’s work on the Joint Staff, where his portfolio included weapons of mass destruction, and his friendship with Ferriera, the inspector general found. Peduzzi wasn’t doing business with them, according to the letter to McCaskill, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee.

The Army quietly removed Bobeck from his post on Labor Day.

Last month, Ferreira told USA TODAY that housing Bobeck was simply an act of friendship. He did not respond to a request for comment on this story. Bobeck has denied any wrongdoing and asked for privacy.

Even the perception of a conflict of interest has been enough to end promising military careers. Last year, the Army ended the career of Pittard, who had been commanding American advisory forces in Iraq. He was issued a letter of reprimand “for improperly creating the perception of preferential treatment.”

The punishment stemmed from a contract awarded to Pittard’s former West Point classmates. Pittard was not accused of profiting, but for sharing an information paper with them before the contract was awarded. A letter of reprimand effectively forces an officer to retire.

A board will determine the last rank at which Bobeck served satisfactorily. A demotion could cost him thousands of dollars annually in pension. The higher the rank, the higher the payout for military retirees.

Earlier this week, the Pentagon announced that it had confirmed killing Abu Muhammad Al-

, the chief spokesman for the Islamic State and its coordinator of mass-casualty attacks, including those in Paris and

. Wa’il was a close associate Adnani’s.

Since the U.S.-led air war against ISIL began in 2014, more than 45,000 fighters have been killed by bombing missions and American allies on the ground. The U.S. strategy, announced late last year, has focused on raids to kill or capture key ISIL leaders and to ultimately retake Raqqa.

If an adversary such as Russia had learned of Haight’s affair and sexual adventures, he would have been a prime target to blackmail, said four senior government officials who were not authorized to speak publicly about the matter. Russia, one of the officials said, aggressively intercepts telephone calls. An investigative report showed that from June to November 2015 Haight used his government cellphone to make 84 private calls for more than 1,400 minutes of conversation. Further, testimony showed that Haight frequently left his office in Stuttgart, Germany, because it was in a building designed for secure communication, a Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility, or SCIF.

At European Command, he was in charge of the military’s plans and operations to confront Russia’s increasing aggression in Eastern Europe.

“When MG Haight disappeared and someone need to get a hold of him, (name redacted) knew to check the hallway, outside of the SCIF, where he was usually on his cellphone,” the report notes.

Haight, in his job overseeing operations at European Command and previously as a top aide to Adm. Mike Mullen, the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, would have had access to the most sensitive national security information. Indeed, Haight was a key adviser to Mullen at the time of the 2011 raid that killed Osama bin Ladenand during the peak of the U.S. involvement in Afghanistan.

Haight’s case also underscores the military’s continuing problem with misconduct among its most senior officers. In November, Defense Secretary Ash Carter abruptly fired his senior military adviser, Army Lt. Gen. Ron Lewis for personal misconduct; the Pentagon inspector general continues to investigate Lewis. In March, the Air Force fired one of its top officers, Lt. Gen. John Hesterman, after investigators determined that he had sent sexually suggestive emails to a married female officer. And the Navy continues to investigate a slew of commanders ensnared in the “Fat Leonard” bribery scandal in which they traded secret information about ship movements for prostitutes and other blandishments to enrich Glenn Defense Marine Asia and its flamboyant owner “Fat Leonard” Glenn Francis.

A senior Army official indicated that incidents of misconduct are rare among its 1,000 senior leaders. Less than 6% of allegations made against senior leaders were substantiated in fiscal year 2015, said the official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because officials were not authorized to comment publicly. Haight was removed promptly, reprimanded and effectively forced to retire after the allegations against him were substantiated, the official said.

David Haight and Jennifer Armstrong

Photo Credit: Jennifer Armstrong

How it began

The inspector general’s report dates the affair to Feb. 12, 2005, when Armstrong was working as a contractor in Iraq handling the remains of combat fatalities. Smitten after seeing Haight at a base, she emailed every David Haight in the Army directory, saying that he had a “terrific smile.” Eventually, she found the right Haight — Lt. Col. David B. Haight, commander of the 2nd Ranger Battalion, elite troops who accompanied commandos on sensitive, dangerous raids. Haight is also a distant relation of an apostle of the Church of Latter Day Saints.

Haight eventually responded to Armstrong’s email, and they hit it off.

Haight’s honesty and sociability were attractive, she said. But he had a “hard part,” a mark left by the war. They quickly became romantic, and he promised her they would spend their lives together after he left the military, she said.

Armstrong’s account of their affair is backed up by emails she said the two shared, indicating trysts involving other women, other couples and encounters with strangers at swingers’ clubs. However, Armstrong also misrepresented her educational background in the interview. She claimed to have a nursing degree from the University of California at San Diego. A check there revealed she did not, prompting Armstrong to claim a degree from California State University San Marcos. She does not. Records also show that she has twice declared bankruptcy, including last year in Virginia.

Armstrong’s name is redacted in the Army inspector general’s report about Haight. But she identified herself to USA Today as his longtime girlfriend and swinging companion.

Armstrong provided copies of emails from Haight’s official military account that show their relationship continued into 2015. One of the emails in December 2010 has explicit sexual chatter, and shows him asking about the availability of another woman for a tryst. The report also shows that Haight and Armstrong exchanged other emails with references to types of sexual activity. “I love hearing about women who like and giggle about (oral sex),” he wrote in a September 2012 email cited by the inspector general.

Their relationship, however, wasn’t all about sex. Armstrong furnished a copy of a handwritten letter from Haight who encouraged her while she fought breast cancer. She also bears a tattoo with his name on it.

Their affair continued through his postings, including at the Pentagon. The two lived not far from each other in northern Virginia, and Haight stopped at her house most nights after work before going to his own home, she said.

Armstrong found partners for the couple, and email on his military account shows that he asked after them and their availability. These encounters took place for about a year when Haight asked Armstrong whether she wanted to involve men. “Do you want another guy?” She declined.

Soon, a friend suggested that they should go to a club where members engage in sex with strangers. They went to clubs in Baltimore and near the Army War College in Carlisle Barracks, Pa., Armstrong said. They visited others when he traveled, including Tampa and Atlanta where they were almost recognized by another soldier when Haight was the Army’s chief of infantry, she said. Armstrong has also recognized other swingers at the Pentagon when her job took her there.

The inspector general’s report refers to testimony that indicates Armstrong and Haight “visited swingers’ clubs while he was stationed at Fort Benning, Georgia.” Haight was assigned to Benning from July 2012 to October 2013.

They also had “parties” at Armstrong’s house. Some of the sex parties were arranged with partners through emails pinged back and forth to find convenient times. She described the sex as “non-emotional intimacy.” There were no drugs or alcohol involved, she said.

She and Haight knew their relationship and “alternative lifestyle” put him at risk of being blackmailed. But they felt they were discreet enough — his face did not appear on their online profile for Swing Life Style’s website — that he would not be recognized.

In one December 2011 email attributed to Haight, he asked Armstrong whether Tabu Social Club in Maryland was open the night of “22/23 Dec?” Tabu is a members-only club in Maryland whose website touts it as “Where Sexy Adults Come and Play.” Haight at the time was deputy director of the Joint Staff’s efforts in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Erotic photos were shared among those in the swinging community. They didn’t stay there, however. Some of the photos were emailed to USA Today.

How it ended

Haight’s trajectory in the Army had been ever upward after graduating from the Army ROTC program at Brigham Young University and commissioning as a second lieutenant in 1986, according to his EUCOM biography. He graduated from the Army’s Ranger school and would go on to command its elite platoons and battalions in combat in Panama, Iraq and Afghanistan.

In January 2009, he commanded the 3rd Brigade Combat Team of the 10th Mountain Division in a restive part of eastern Afghanistan. Successful command of a brigade is a key steppingstone to the highest reaches of the Army’s ranks.

It also earned him a coveted spot in June 2010 as a top aide to Mullen, then the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The post gave Haight an insider’s view and knowledge of the most sensitive of all missions in 2011: the raid that killed Osama bin Laden inside Pakistan.

Haight parlayed that position — all the while conducting his extramarital affair and swinging — to become commandant of the Army’s School of Infantry at Fort Benning and promotion to brigadier general in 2013. News clips from the time show him crediting his wife and family for supporting him. His wife, Bonnie, told the Ledger Enquirer of Columbus, Georgia, that his career had led them to move 15 times, uprooting their four children from their friends.

The story added that outside the Army, Haight was most proud of his family. We “provided well and raised our four fabulous children that have all been successful contributors to society,” Haight said. “They turned out to be much better children than I was a father.”

With one star, he became deputy commander of U.S. and NATO forces in eastern Afghanistan. In Pentagon parlance, Haight had checked all the boxes for professional and personal accomplishment.

His last post, as a two-star officer, saw him heading plans and operations for U.S. European Command. EUCOM has responsibility for key Middle East allies Israel and Turkey.

In 2015, anonymous tips about Haight’s extramarital affairs were brought to the Pentagon’s inspector general. Ultimately, the Army’s inspector general took the case. The Army ordered Haight to sever contact with Armstrong. Investigators interviewed her and others and substantiated allegations that he had “had an affair and lived a ‘swinger lifestyle.’ ” Investigators also determined that he had spent nearly 24 hours on his government cellphone and sent more than 800 emails on his military computer to Armstrong.

Haight, the report noted, declined to testify or answer questions provided through his attorney.

The letter of reprimand effectively ended his 30-year career. A board will determine his retirement rank. A clean record could have earned Haight as much nearly $123,000 in his first year of retirement. If he’s busted back to colonel, his pay could drop to about $98,000.