It takes some serious style to attract eyeballs while surrounded by actresses at an adult-film awards show, but Anthony Berg had one thing no other red carpet-walker had: an Army Service Uniform.
The unit supply specialist's entry was one of about 250 the star received, Carrera said. Most were from service members recommending their friends for the honor — most of the friends politely declined. She selected five finalists and let a few associates in the adult film industry make the final call.
"Being an adult film actress has a lot of pros and cons, but one of the pros is that you have a platform," said Carrera, who frequently discusses veterans issues on her YouTube channel and via social media, and whose father served in Vietnam. "People will notice what you do. I thought it would be a great opportunity to use that platform to use something valuable."
"He's kind of your everyday soldier," Carrera said. "He's not Rambo. It wasn't about that."
"She was all for it, because it was Vegas," said the sergeant said of Tara Berg, his wife of four years. "She loves Vegas. That was the big thing for her, and a free trip. … She knew what [Carrera] did, but it’s not like she followed her or anything. When I said who she was, she had to Google her."
Tara Berg declined an interview request, but Carrera said the sergeant's wife's sign-off scored some big points.
"I loved that his wife was very supportive," Carrera said. "I didn't want it to be a thing where people would be like, 'Yeah, Mercedes totally effed this guy.' That's not why I was doing it. I certainly don't want to cause any marital problems. That's my own personal code of ethics."
Called out on the carpet
Like anyone else on awards night, Anthony Berg needed to pick a nice outfit. Unlike anyone else, he had to get clearance.
"My big question [to superiors in his Appleton, Wisconsin-based Reserve unit] was, 'Is it going to be a problem if I wear my dress uniform?'" he said. "They didn't see a problem with it. I'd been reading in the regs, trying to find some concrete evidence that this would be something I shouldn't wear a uniform to. I didn't really see anything that would prevent me."
The uniform wouldn't have been a deal-breaker either way, Carrera said, but it helped draw welcome attention from attendees.
"It was just a cool experience to see people thank him for his service," she said. "For me, that was meaningful in a totally selfish way. That's the kind of reception I wish my father had gotten when he came back."
He was a hit inside the hall as well, Carrera said. While the actress didn't win either award for which she was nominated — one individual, one ensemble, neither category particularly safe-for-work — her date chatted with starlets and talked shop with several former service members, including spouses of actresses and even some performers.
After a short stop at an after-party — "It was a Vegas nightclub, and the music was ungodly loud," Berg said — the night was over, but the experience wasn't.
As images of Berg in uniform began circulating on social media, some commenters blasted his decision to wear his uniform to such an event, while others questioned his (and his wife's) participation on the whole.
"It's taken me a while to get used to the stuff on the Internet," Berg said. "My wife has had to talk me down on a lot of that. … I've talked to some of my old buddies from other units about it. [They said] don't worry about them. Focus on the good comments, don't worry about any of the negative stuff, because those people don't know what they're talking about."
Carrera, who has more than 89,000 Twitter followers — about 30,000 more than Army Times and nearly 30 times as many as Army Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Milley — said her feedback regarding the event has been "90 to 95 percent positive," and that she's more than used to facing naysayers on social media.
"The amount of hate that I got on that event was just a fraction of what I receive daily, just for doing my job," she said. "So to be frank, the net good outweighs any of the criticism."
'Your work got me through deployment'
Berg said he began following Carrera online in part because of her support for veterans causes. While she called him "a real fan of the industry," Berg said he was far from the only such fan in uniform.
"When you're on deployment, there's very little else to do sometimes," said Berg, who served in Iraq for more than a year with 1st Squadron, 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment, out of Fort Hood, Texas, returning in early 2008. "Sometimes videos get traded among guys. It's nothing that's out of control. They watch it in the privacy of their own … thing. I don't think it's something that should have too much of a stigma on it."
Carrera, who counts service members among her strongest supporters, agreed with her date's assessment.
"I get tons of emails from guys saying, 'Your work got me through deployment,' " she said. "You know, 18-to-25-year-old men, deployed for six months at a time, people watch porn. That's just the reality of things. They can pretend it's not true, but that doesn't make it any less true."
Kevin Lilley is the features editor of Military Times.
