Navy SEAL Under Fire For Moonlighting As Porn Actor

His porn-star wife says he was just helping her career.
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The wife of a decorated Navy SEAL under military investigation for moonlighting as a porn star said he was just helping her career and shouldn’t be sanctioned.

Joseph John Schmidt III, a Navy chief special warfare officer who has spent 23 years in the military, has made more than 30 porn films since 2010 under the name “Jay Voom,” most of them with his wife, porn star Jewels Jade, she told The Huffington Post on Friday.

Naval Special Warfare Command has begun investigating whether Schmidt violated rules that require SEALs to get advance approval for outside work, and whether his superiors knew of his side job, the San Diego Union-Tribune reports.

“Quite honestly, no one should care because it’s a legal job and a lot of people watch porn,” Jade said. “But he’s such a good operator with a clean record. He’s been Sailor of the Year numerous times and is a great public speaker and recruiter.”

Schmidt, 42, has received numerous medals and ribbons for his service. He had planned to retire from the military in eight months, his wife said. He isn’t commenting on the investigation.

Courtesy of Jewels Jade

Jade, who has worked in the porn industry on and off since 2001, said her husband’s moonlighting was no secret to his fellow SEALs and commanders. She said she has appeared in more than 240 adult films, and has occasionally mentioned in interviews that she’s a military wife.

“People have known I was married to a Navy SEAL,” Jade said. “He did his job and helped me with mine, so I didn’t have to hire people.

“We never did any ‘SEAL’ scenes and he never wore a uniform. We kept it separate.”

In 2011, she said, she was invited to sign autographs for the SEALs after being named a 2011 Penthouse Pet of the Month.

Courtesy of Jewels Jade

Jade said she and Schmidt met in 2002. She quit the industry briefly, but made a comeback in 2008 after a real estate business they started went bankrupt, according to the New York Daily News.

She said “nothing should seriously happen” to her husband for making porn. Besides, she pointed out, the military is a huge consumer.

Courtesy of Jewels Jade

Navy officials have not responded to HuffPost inquiries. A spokesman told the Union-Tribune that Schmidt failed to fill out mandatory paperwork seeking clearance from his chain of command to work as a porn actor. He was, however, granted permission to sell herbal supplements on the side, the spokesman told the newspaper.

It’s possible that Schmidt could face a military trial under the Uniform Code of Military Justice for lack of compliance.

Dan Conway, an attorney specializing in military law, said Schmidt could lose his pension because “the optics are particularly negative.” SEALs, however, don’t like to air dirty laundry, so Schmidt is more likely to face non-judicial punishment, the lawyer said.

Jade said she and her husband have hired an attorney. If her husband is punished by the military, she said, it’s likely to have the effect of producing even more porn.

“If this gets worse, I’ll be supporting the family, and that means I’ll be working in this career more,” she said.

Before You Go

Andy San Dimas

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