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OSAN AIR BASE, South Korea — An Air Force captain who didn’t tell officials two women asked him for classified information was sentenced Monday to 10 months in prison and dismissal from the service.

But under a pre-trial agreement, Capt. James L. Shank will serve just six months in prison. Shank, 43, married and a father, was a mission planner with the 5th Reconnaissance Squadron, which flies classified reconnaissance missions in northeast Asia.

His court-martial began Monday before Air Force Lt. Col. Eric Dillow, judge for the Pacific Circuit, of Yokota Air Base, Japan. Shank opted to be tried by judge, not jury.

Shank pleaded guilty to disobeying an order, making a false official statement, three counts of violating a lawful general regulation and two counts of conduct unbecoming an officer.

Events that brought to an end his more than 18-year Air Force career began in December 2003 when he met Larisa Sergeevna Whittington, a dancer at the off-base Golden Gate club.

Whittington, from the former Soviet Union, was married to an Army soldier who’d been stationed at Camp Humphreys and later at Fort Drum, N.Y. Shank admitted in court he knew the woman was married to an enlisted servicemember.

A relationship developed between Shank and the woman. He allowed her and her mother to live with him in his off-base apartment sometime between Dec. 1, 2003, and June 30, 2004. That led to one of the counts of conduct unbecoming an officer.

In March 2004, Whittington urged Shank to tell her anything that would be classified. He provided her such information — for security reasons prosecutors wouldn’t discuss specifics — and didn’t report his contact with her.

Later, another woman from the former Soviet Union, Natalia Tchijova, claimed to be a former agent of the Soviet intelligence service, the KGB, and asked Shank for classified information. This time, Shank did not provide the information but failed to report his contact with the woman.

Giving the classified information and failing to report the contacts with the women led to the three-count charge of violation of a lawful general regulation.

Sometime in early April 2004, Maj. Brian C. Dickenson, Shank’s superior officer, ordered him to ensure that Whittington and her mother moved out of his apartment within a week.

Shank did not force the women to leave, leading to the charge of disobeying an order. But sometime in April Shank told Dickenson they no longer lived with him, bringing the false official statement charge.

Some time between March 18, 2004 and Aug. 31, 2004, Shank opened an account for Whittington at the Community Bank branch at Osan Air Base and handled some financial transactions for her, prosecutors said. That led to the other count of conduct unbecoming an officer.

Once Whittington had moved to America, she asked Shank to close the account, which led to a dispute over how much money she should have received from it.

She sent e-mails about the dispute to Shank’s squadron, triggering the probe that led to his court-martial, said prosecutor Maj. Jeffrey Ferguson, chief circuit trial counsel with the Pacific Circuit, out of Yokota.

In an unsworn statement before sentencing, Shank apologized and asked for leniency.

Prosecutor Capt. Gabriel Chavez asked Dillow to sentence Shank to one year in prison and dismissal from the Air Force.

Defense lawyer Capt. Elizabeth M.D. Pullin asked for a sentence not in years but “months.”

After his sentencing, Shank was driven to the U.S. Army Confinement Facility at nearby Camp Humphreys.

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