Golden Girls - Arthur's Sex Disease Uncovered In Government Papers

Friends insist the actress never talked about her military service for fear someone would dig deeper and uncover her most embarrassing details.

But newly-released government documents, obtained by America's Globe tabloid, expose the truth.

Arthur received a single misconduct report while she was stationed at Cherry Point in North Carolina in the mid-1940s and charged with "incapacitation for duty".

The actress, who passed away in 2009, was honourably discharged in 1945 and spent the rest of her life flatly denying she had served in the military, fearing that the secret would ruin her career.

Arthur was married to another Marine, Arthur Robert at the time.