A controversial lingerie calendar featuring photographs of a Katterbach Army spouse in a series of revealing, military-themed poses soon will be available in AAFES stores worldwide.
The Army and Air Force Exchange Service’s magazine distributor has ordered 500 "Weapons of Mass Distraction" 2009 calendars to be stocked at 103 exchanges in Europe, the Pacific and contingency locations in places such as Iraq and Afghanistan, AAFES public relations manager Judd Anstey said in an e-mail Tuesday.
The model featured in the calendar, Alessandra Bosco, is married to Sgt. 1st Class Edward McCoy of the Katterbach-based 12th Combat Aviation Brigade in Germany. The 32-year-old Italian has been a bikini model for 10 years and started selling the calendar from her Web site, www.alessandrabosco.com , earlier this year.
Bosco said the calendar is designed to appeal to deployed soldiers. She got the idea for it from soldiers who e-mailed her after checking out her Web site, which features a gallery of sexy photographs.
"I received a lot of messages from military personnel who wanted to see me in their gear. I thought about it and after some time I decided it was a good idea to do a calendar using some items they use in their jobs," she said before embarking on the project.
But while soldiers appear eager to get their hands on the calendar, some of their wives are less enthusiastic.
In June, Bosco complained that she had become the target of gossip, hurtful looks and negative comments from wives waiting at home while their husbands serve with 12th CAB in Iraq.
"As soon as they found out that I liked to take pictures, it was a problem. It’s a lot worse since the calendar," she said at the time.
After a story about the calendar appeared in Stars and Stripes in May, Bosco said she found threats posted on her Web page and that she was awakened in the night by women banging on her front door. Her husband’s car was vandalized several times with side mirrors snapped off, keys dragged across the doors and the windshield smashed, she said.
These reactions are in stark contrast to those of soldiers who have deluged her Web site and other military online forums with supportive messages.
Her calendar has also been the subject of an exchange of letters — pro and con — on Stripes’ Letters to the Editor page.
On Monday, Bosco said that the calendars had been shipped to warehouses and soon would be on sale in Iraq and Afghanistan at $20.
"That is the public who have been buying them the most. If they can walk into a store and find it that is easier for them than going to my Web site and receiving it in the mail," she said.
Bosco said she hopes to donate $1 from every calendar sold to Fisher House, located across from Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany. The Fisher House provides accommodation for families of wounded, ill or injured soldiers.
