An Air Force Airman claims he received verbal reprimands after he was dissatisfied with the Air Force’s response and complained to Michael “Mikey” Weinstein in 2010:

I met with the Cadet Wing Chaplain here at the time and the incident was forwarded up the chain-of-command. After over two weeks of nothing being said to anyone…I decided to bring this to MRFF’s attention. Mikey and MRFF were all over it and came down hard on USAFA.

I received verbal reprimands from the top ranking officials here at USAFA for “not utilizing the chain-of-command properly”. The way I saw it was that the Chaplain reported directly to the highest ranking official and after nothing was being done, I didn’t see that I had much of a choice. Maybe I was right, maybe not, but what’s done is done now.

As noted previously, then-TSgt Brandon Longcrier took a picture of two planks laid against a rock, and thus began the “cross at the pagan circle” scandal at the US Air Force Academy.  Longcrier wrote a letter to Weinstein, who provided it to the local paper; Weinstein also published it “anonymously” for the MRFF.  (The investigation into the incident found nothing.)

It’s not entirely clear why Longcrier wanted to “update” the story, but the revelations that he received reprimands (albeit verbal ones) for unnecessarily generating (arguably false) bad press for USAFA are the first public admission that the Air Force has counseled military members that they need to use their chain of command, not the MRFF — though the military leadership itself has been accused of “consulting” Weinstein.

Despite Weinstein’s recent orders to the JAG of the Air Force, Weinstein is not in any military chain of command.

As he has publicized, now-MSgt Longcrier is still at the US Air Force Academy, as the Non-Commissioned Officer in charge of the Astronautics Lab.

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