Air Force Drill Sergeant Michelle Manhart made big headlines a little while back when the Air Force got all in a tizzy after finding out she had posed for a spread in Playboy magazine. As you're probably aware, PETA doesn't have quite the same take on public nudity as the Air Force does, especially when it's being used to get people to pay attention to an important issue. Which is why we were thrilled when Michelle agreed to become the latest star of our "I'd Rather Go Naked Than Wear Fur" series. Check out her great interview and the beautiful ad below—it'll make you proud to be an American (unless, like me, you're not an American, in which case you can just focus on the pretty lady in the picture).

OK, so here's Michelle Manhart's story in case you guys haven't heard it: This January, Michelle was suspended and then demoted by the air force when it came out that she had posed for a Playboy shoot. After the scandal broke, and the air force made a bunch of prudish comments, Michelle decided that if she wanted to damn well express herself, she was going to go right ahead and do it. The air force was summarily informed that they could go stuff themselves.

Sounds kind of perfect for a "We'd Rather Go Naked Than Wear Fur" ad, huh? We thought so too—and fortunately Michelle has some really strong views about the cruelty of the fur industry. According to my friend Michael, who was on hand to shoot the ad yesterday, Michelle is amazing—she's tough as nails in that badass drill sergeant kind of way, but really sweet and funny at the same time. I'm fighting the impulse to make a lame joke here about how, like, if you wear fur you better watch out. You know, because of how tough she is. But maybe it would be better just to leave you with some of the pics from yesterday's shoot. The actual ad isn't going to be coming out for a little while, but here's a little teaser:

In related news, I really want to be the one who comes up with the slogan for this particular fur ad. I was thinking it would be cool to do something with "Fur Flies" on account of the air force connection, but I can't quite make it work. Any suggestions would be much appreciated.

Oh yeah, and the story got picked up yesterday by the San Antonio news. You can read that here and check out the great video.