Prelude of Things to Come: Navy's Demotion Allowed 3 Years for Public to Forget

Friday, Aug. 20, 2010 - AP- Former astronaut Lisa Nowak’s Navy career is over

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A Navy panel of three admirals voted unanimously to discharge Nowak and downgrade her rank one step from captain to commander. Nowak had initially pled not guilty to charges including attempted kidnapping, burglary with assault, and battery.

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Nowak had been sentenced to a year's probation last November after pleading guilty to third-degree felony burglary and misdemeanor battery. Nowak gained international attention on February 5, 2007, when she was arrested in Orlando, Florida, and subsequently charged with the attempted kidnapping of U.S. Air Force Captain Colleen Shipman, the girlfriend of fellow astronaut William Oefelein.

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Nowak and Oefelein were the first astronauts ever dismissed by NASA, which later created an astronauts' code of conduct.[14] Oefelein retired from the Navy in the fall of 2008, returning to Alaska to start a business with his fiancee, Colleen Shipman.[3]

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Related:

March 2010 - Unwritten Navy Policy or Merely a Pattern

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August 20, 2009 - Unusual Public Relations History

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January 2009 - Ongoing Cover-Up: Bloody Nose, Sexual Harassment and a Deserter - Part 2

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Submarines are always silent and strange.