Senior Airman busted for using racial slur against Asian woman on military's Facebook page

The United States Air Force has launched an investigation into a service member who posted racist messages on a private Facebook group.

Stars and Stripes reports that Senior Airman Elizabeth Baker, a public affairs airman based in Ramstein, Germany, repeatedly referred to a woman of Asian descent as "Ching Chong" during an argument in a private Facebook group for Air Force personnel.

The morning after making the comments, Baker appeared on the message board to apologize for making racist statements.

"To everyone, and especially the woman I was speaking to: I am truly deeply sorry for what I said," she wrote. "I can't believe the things I said last night. It was so backwards and ignorant."

Lt. Col. Joel Harper, the public affairs chief for the Ramstein-based 86th Airlift Wing, said he was troubled by the slurs after he saw screenshots of them posted on a different Facebook group.

"We will take appropriate action after reviewing the details of what happened," he said. "There is no place in our Air Force for this — we are on it."