Active Duty
ActiveDuty.com is a pornography company based in
North Carolina,
United States, that specializes in the production of
pornographic movies featuring straight
military men, engaging in solo and
gay sex acts.
Dink Flamingo (perhaps a pseudonym) is the
producer and
director of the films.
Each film generally involves one or a group of military men that engage in solo or mutual, masturbation, along with
homosexual oral and
anal sex. During each film there is often a degree of conversation and male bravado from the men, although it is unclear how much of the dialogue is scripted. The dialogue with men engaging in solo masturbation often involves a discussion of their first "experimental" homosexual encounters.
Mr. Flamingo can often be heard speaking to the men, who often seem to think of him as a friend and it is assumed that he is the one operating the camera, although some of the men have been seen operating the camera as well. Mr. Flamingo has not been seen in any of the films, although his hand has been seen once or twice, suggesting that he is a white man,
overweight, from the American South and in his forties or fifties.
Unlike a lot of such amateur sites, the men do not show the usual nervousness, and
gay for pay attitude that the other sites do. The atmosphere is usually playful, and friendly. The men winking at the camera and making jokes.
It appears that the location of the films is in Mr. Flamingo place of residence, although this is never stated in the films. Locations for the films range from a residential bedroom, bathroom, and a living room.
Members can view a range of video clips and pictures of the videos for sale on the website. The video formats are
VHS, and more recently
DVD. Non-members were originally able to access many portions of the website, including overviews of each video with nude and pornographic images.
While none of the men faces are disguised, most of the men deny that they are homosexual or bisexual, thus the and the tone of the films is one
gay for pay.
On
October 2, 2002, a North Carolina man named Rodney Brent Hodge was arrested and charged with extortion, for allegedly blackmailing several men stationed at
MCB Camp Lejeune and
MCAS New River into having sex with him. The complaint alleged that these men had agreed to be videotaped by Mr. Hodge and that he had threatened to show the video tapes to the men's families and commanding officers unless they agreed to have sex with him [
1]. Based on this story, their was some speculation that Mr. Hodge was the person that used the alias of "Dink Flamingo"
Released in April, 2006 Dink Flamingo is Dennis Ashe, a resident of North Carolina (provide citation).
On
January 27, 2006,
Fort Bragg announced that it had become aware that some of the men involved in the website were from the
82nd Airborne Division. While neither Fort Bragg nor any of the news reports mentioned the name of the website, it is clear from the description of the website and the subsequent restriction of access on the Active Duty website, that the investigation is about the involvement of servicemen with Active Duty.
On
February 24, 2006, Fort Bragg issued a press release stating that seven men had been charged with violating the
Uniform Code of Military Justice for the crime of
sodomy and engaging in sexual conduct on a pornographic website.
The men are Spec. Richard T. Ashley; Pfc. Wesley K. Mitten; and Pvt. Kagen B. Mullen. All three were assigned to Company C, 2nd Battalion, 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division. Along with charges of sodomy, and accepting payment to have sex on camera, Mullen was also charged with the crime of
adultery. Aside from loss of pay, extra duty and other restrictions, the men will also likely be separated from the armed forces [
2].
The investigation has been reported on both the local, national and international press, including several gay media outlets. The local
WRAL newstation, has provided extensive coverage of the investigation, as have some of the national gay press media outlets. While Mr. Flamingo has not made any public statements, tax records note that he has a home in the Rayconda neighborhood of Fayetteville [
3].
Steve Ralls, a spokesmen for the
Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, said that the organization has no problem with the Code's ban on pornography, provided that it is applied without discrimination on the basis of
sexual orientation [
4].
As of May, 2006 Pfc. Richard T. Ashley had pleaded guilty to
sodomy, conduct considered detrimental to the Army and the unit, and drug use. He was sentenced to ninety days in prison [
5]. The other accused men, some of which have not had their names released, have either not plead guilty or were given less punishments, although all of the men are likely to be discharged from the Army.
Army. Pfc. Wesley Mitten was sentenced to three months in prison for being involved in the website and for cocaine use [
6].
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ActiveDuty homepage*
WRAL News Report*
Fort Bragg home page
