Senior Master Sgt. Michael Sydney arranged for an unnamed woman to have sex several times with Chief Master Sgt. Troy B. Parker of Peterson Air Force Base, according to a charge sheet against Sydney.

Sydney was the top enlisted man at the 45th Security Forces Squadron and Parker was a member of the Space Command team inspecting the squadron. The woman was a reservist and staff sergeant on active duty who reported to Sydney. He allegedly threatened to prolong her stint on active duty unless she performed sexual favors.

The trysts with Parker allegedly happened in or near Cocoa Beach while Parker was there as part of Patrick Air Force Base's biennial Operational Readiness Inspection.

Poor showings on such inspections can hamper the careers of commanding officers and senior NCOs.

The 45th Space Wing earned an "Outstanding" rating as the result of the inspection, the top possible grade. It was the second top rating in a row for the wing.

Parker, who is stationed at Space Command headquarters in Colorado, was charged with dereliction of duty and impeding an investigation related to the alleged encounters.

On May 12, Parker pleaded guilty to the dereliction of duty charges, and the Air Forcedropped the other charge. Parker was sentenced to a reduction in rank to senior master sergeant, 45 days of hard labor without confinement, the loss of $1,000 a month pay for three months and a reprimand.

He is on active duty in the Air Force.

The Air Force said the alleged incidents did not affect the outcome of the inspection.

There are too many people involved in the inspection process and too many review procedures for one person to change the outcome, said Capt. Joe Macri, a spokesman for Air Force Space Command.

"The (inspection) process is such that there is no way for one single person to influence the inspection. . . . There is absolutely no reason whatsoever to believe there was any kind of influence on the inspection process," Macri said.

The charges also allege that Sydney arranged for the woman to have sex with Parker at least two other times between October 2004 and November 2005.

The Air Force also charges Sydney with arranging for the woman to have sex with at least three other men.

Those men's names were removed from the information released to FLORIDA TODAY under the Freedom of Information Act. Patrick spokeswoman Lt. Col. Maria Carl said the other men were not part of the inspection team.

According to the charge sheet released Friday, Sydney also allegedly had sex with other enlisted women subordinate to him and used a government computer to store and transmit pornographic materials.

A July 10 court-martial date has been set for Sydney.

Sydney is one of two Patrick men charged in the matter.

In April, Capt. Philip Sting, the No. 2 officer in the security forces squadron was charged with indecency and obstruction of justice.

He waived his right to a preliminary hearing and is scheduled for court-martial Aug. 1.

Immediately after Sting waived his right to the preliminary hearing April 10, FLORIDA TODAY filed a public records request with the Air Force seeking information about the specific acts Sting allegedly committed.

Such information typically is revealed at preliminary hearings.

A heavily redacted response to the request shed little light on the charges against Sting. Air Force officials Friday said the graphic nature of the information detailed in the charge sheet played a role in the decision to withhold much of the information.

But the Air Force Times, citing an uncensored charge sheet it obtained in the Sting case, posted a story on its Web site Thursday that said a female staff sergeant performed oral sex on Sting while Sydney watched.

It also said that Sting was alleged to have told the woman to lie to investigators and destroy evidence.

Patrick officials said the information did not come from them.

Friday morning, the base responded to a separate request from FLORIDA TODAY by releasing Sydney's charge sheet.

This time, the documents detailed the alleged acts, though some names were blacked-out by Air Force officials, who cited privacy concerns.

Neither Sydney nor Sting has a listed telephone number. At FLORIDA TODAY's request, Patrick public affairs officials passed on the newspaper's phone number to the men if they wanted to comment for this story. Neither contacted the newspaper.

Brig. Gen. Mark Owen, 45th Space Wing Commander and the official accuser in these cases, declined to make an official comment on the grounds that it would be inappropriate for him to do so during this pretrial period, Carl said.

She said that "the Air Force takes allegations of misconduct by airman of all ranks very seriously, investigates those allegations fully, and takes appropriate action whenever warranted."

Ukrainian navy spokesman Volodymyr Bova insisted the departure took place because the "reservists' contracts had expired" as they are only called up for duty "for two or three weeks".

Washington however was "chagrined" by the fact that the reservists "could not complete their projects, which would have been useful for the Ukrainian military," the US embassy spokesman in Ukraine, Brent Byers, said.

Protestors ensured a noisy send-off for the soldiers taken by bus from Feodosia to the airport in Simferopol.

"Yankee, don't bother to bring your weapons to our home!" shouted one protester, as a crowd sang patriotic Russian songs.

Ukraine maintained that the troop withdrawal, taking place about two days earlier than planned, did not mean the cancellation of NATO military manoeuvres in Crimea set to start on June 17, Bova said.

"The holding of the exercises Sea Breeze 2006 will be decided by parliament," which will consider the matter on June 14, Bova said.

Sea Breeze 2006 was designed to strengthen ties between the pro-Western government in Kiev and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).

Washington added that the withdrawal of the reservists "will in no way influence our willingness to ultimately cooperate with Ukraine," Byers said.

However opposition to NATO is strong in the Crimean peninsula, an autonomous region within Ukraine, which has pro-Russia leanings as it has been the home base of the Russian Black Sea fleet since its creation by Catherine the Great in the late 18th century.

Crimea was transferred to Ukraine in 1954 by then Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev but remains populated largely by ethnic-Russians.

Besides local protests in Crimea, the planned exercises also triggered reaction from Moscow, which warned the United States and NATO not to push too hard to bring Ukraine into the fold.

Ukrainian authorities say that Russians have taken part in the protests, in violation of Ukrainian law. A leading Ukrainian weekly has said that the demonstrations have been masterminded by the Russian special security services, the FSB, formerly KGB.

On Thursday, up to 2,000 anti-NATO demonstrators protested outside the lodgings in Feodosia of the US reservists.

While preparations for the Ukrainian-US maneuvers were continuing, they would be held "only after adoption of a law" authorizing these and other international military exercises planned to be held by the end of the year, Ukrainian Defense Minister Anatoly Gritsenko said this week.

On Wednesday, Russia issued a sharp warning to the United States and ex-Soviet republics looking to join the NATO alliance, saying expansion of the bloc into lands the Kremlin considers its backyard would have a "colossal" and negative impact.

The lower house of the Russian parliament, the Duma, also overwhelmingly approved a "message" to the parliament of Ukraine expressing the "serious concern" at Kiev's goal of joining NATO and saying this would violate treaty agreements between the two countries.

The contentious atmosphere in Ukraine has led to the postponement of another joint military exercise between Ukraine and Britain.

The Ukrainian defense ministry said Thursday "in the current situation" Kiev and London had decided "unfortunately" to postpone manoeuvres which were scheduled to start June 12. No new date has been set.

Speaking from the state of Portuguesa in western Venezuela, Chavez said: "I wish to thank our great friend, the deputy foreign minister of Syria for the great support he has shown for the Venezuelan candidacy." Brazil had also voiced support, he said.

"The U.S. government has begun a worldwide campaign against Venezuela, trying to prevent us from being elected democratically to a place on the Security Council," Chavez said.

The "powerful" campaign is a "psychological war of pressure and blackmail directed to the world's governments," aimed at preventing the choice of a government that the United States does not like, Chavez said.

Venezuela would fight "the most brutal imperialism" to achieve its goal of a Security Council seat, he said.

"We are going to fight with all the weapons we have," he said. "Let the empire... pressure all the world's governments. We trust in their courage and dignity."

Merrill "has been an avid yachtsman since he first learned to sail at age 7. He has been actively cruising the Chesapeake since 1958," his wife, Eleanor, and children said in a statement issued by Marquardt.

"If there was anyone who could captain a boat competently alone, it was Phil. ... He just couldn't resist a sunny day with the wind at his back."

The wind blew at 15 to 20 mph Saturday near Annapolis, with gusts up to 30 mph, said David Manning, warning coordination meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Sterling, Va.

State and federal agencies joined the search. The Coast Guard sent both aircraft and boats, and was operating under the assumption that Merrill fell overboard, said Senior Chief Steve Carleton.

"When we found the boat, the engine was running and his wallet was found on board the vessel," he said.

Two boaters found Merrill's 41-foot sailboat near Breezy Point, about 25 miles south of Annapolis, officials said.

Merrill is chairman of the board of Annapolis-based Capital-Gazette Communications Inc., which publishes The Washingtonian magazine, The Capital and four other Maryland newspapers.

Merrill took leave from publishing in December 2002 to be president and chairman of the Export-Import Bank of the United States. His term expired in July 2005.

He served as assistant secretary-general of NATO in Brussels from 1990 to 1992 and from 1983 to 1990 he served on the Department of Defense Policy Board. From 1981 to 1983, he was counselor to the undersecretary of defense for policy. In 1988, the secretary of defense awarded him the Medal for Distinguished Service, the highest civilian honor given by the department.

Merrill has represented the United States in negotiations on the Law of the Sea Conference, the International Telecommunications Union and various disarmament and exchange agreements with the former Soviet Union. He is a former special assistant to the deputy secretary of state and has worked in the White House on national security affairs.

The college of journalism at the University of Maryland was named for him, as was the headquarters of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation - both after multimillion-dollar donations.