Recently, a brief article addressed a fairly simple question: Did Mikey Weinstein Serve in Combat? The basic answer was “who cares?” — except in those cases in which Weinstein himself tries to play the military/combat card.

That was going to be the end of it.  But Mikey didn’t like it.

Weinstein’s lawyer, Randal “Randy” Mathis, sent a letter the next day expressing Weinstein’s displeasure with one of the closing paragraphs of that article:

You wrote that Mr. Weinstein was not an “Honor Graduate” of the United States Air Force Academy.

If there’s one thing that will raise Michael “Mikey” Weinstein’s ire, it’s an affront to his ego — but that’s not exactly what the article said [emphasis added]: 

A better question would be why Mikey Weinstein (and now his son) continue to say Mikey Weinstein was an “honor graduate” of the US Air Force Academy.

If you were to try to look up what that means, you’d find the “title” doesn’t exist, because the US Air Force Academy doesn’t have “honor graduates.” Now, why would the Weinsteins feel the need to spruce up Mikey’s résumé?

Perhaps Mathis’ inability to accurately articulate a claim is why he’s only managed to lose the lawsuits he’s filed for Mikey Weinstein.

As accurately stated, the US Air Force Academy neither describes nor defines the honor Mikey Weinstein claims — at least not in any public form. Further, if you enter “USAFA honor graduate” in your favorite internet search engine, almost every single result will be “USAFA Honor Graduate and MRFF Founder and President Michael L. “Mikey” Weinstein.” (One poor guy named Troy made the unfortunate mistake of claiming he was a USAFA “honor graduate for athletics.”)  Even Weinstein’s own classmates — a few of whom are pretty famous — don’t make the claim, at least not with Weinstein’s regularity.  (See Daryl Jones, for example.)

Still, Mikey Weinstein is so proud of his “USAFA Honor Graduate” claim that he’ll sic lawyers on you if you question it.

Thus, Randy Mathis to the rescue.

There are two important points in Mathis’ response:  First, he conceded USAFA does not, in fact, have an honor graduate program — but he says they used to.  Fair enough.  Second, he seems to acknowledge there is no public information to support that claim. Thus, Mathis kindly provided a partial copy of the US Air Force Academy graduation program from 1977:

He even pre-highlighted it:

Now we know what Weinstein uses to justify claiming the “honor,” but we still don’t know what it is — because, as stated already, even the Air Force Academy doesn’t define it. Randy failed to provide an Air Force description of any title or graduation honor — but he provided enough information to figure it out.

Mathis also sent a copy of Weinstein’s Graduate Education letter — something USAFA does still have, though it is now known as a “Blue Chip” letter (as referenced in USAFAI 36-163, which is the only place USAFA mentions, but does not define, an “Honor Graduate Program“):

(Mikey, you should really tell Randy to redact your Social Security Number before he sends these letters out.)

The Blue Chip letter lets a USAFA graduate know about their eligibility for future graduate education under military programs.  What’s the criteria? Though it may vary from one year to the next, it is generally a class standing in the top 20%.

There were 867 graduates in the class of 1977. Weinstein’s program shows graduates up to number 175 with an asterisk by their name — approximating 20%. “*Michael Louis Weinstein” was number 130.

In other words, it seems likely Mikey Weinstein was a “USAFA Honor Graduate” because he graduated in the top 20% of his class.

Now, that’s not necessarily something to scoff at. Being tail-end Charlie at the US Air Force Academy is still better than graduating from some other colleges.  That wasn’t the question, though.  The question was why Mikey Weinstein and his supporters incessantly trumpet what we now know is nothing more than his college class standing.  It’s one thing to note your “elite” graduation status in a biographical sketch, but to brandish a college transcript at every opportunity seems pretty pedestrian. (Remember, the entire reason for this conversation was Curtis Weinstein using Mikey’s “honor graduate” status in response to an attack over his lack of combat experience.  Now that we know it’s his class rank, what in the world does that have to do with combat?)

After all, Mikey Weinstein is over 60 years old. Does he really believe anyone cares what his class rank was 40 years ago?

Actually, he probably doesn’t believe anyone cares — which is why he uses the vague phrase of “honor” that, until today, was undefined and unverifiable by generally accessible public means.  “Honor graduate” sounds very grand and noble, though, meaning Mikey Weinstein can “spruce up” his résumé with a term for which people couldn’t find a definition if they wanted to.

In other words, it all boils down to Mikey Weinstein’s ego.

For the record, with the exception of the awkward wording of the Blue Chip program, it does not appear the US Air Force Academy recognizes or categorizes graduates below “distinguished graduate” (top 10%, as described in detail in USAFAI 36-3510) any longer, though there are other “honors” with other criteria.

In attempting to defend his oft-repeated but never-verified bio — and his ego — Mikey Weinstein has now admitted his status as an Air Force Academy “Honor Graduate” reflects little more than graduating in the 80th percentile at USAFA.

This discussion is actually important and very revealing — because it is yet another demonstration of how Mikey Weinstein majors in undefined terms.

Whether its “dominionist Christian,” “MRFF client,” USAFA “Honor Graduate,” or a host of other terms and phrases, Mikey Weinstein is intentionally vague when it suits his agenda — in other words, when he wants to make something sound better than it actually is.  When called to explain what he means by these terms, he’s intentionally obtuse and difficult to pin down (but every now and then someone finally succeeds).

In addition, Mikey Weinstein has demonstrated a penchant for playing loose with the truth — or outright lying (more than once) — so he should be given no quarter in his use of vague, unsubstantiated, and generally unverifiable claims.  When Mikey Weinstein says something, he cannot be taken at his word.  Weinstein must be made to support his claims — and if he cannot, he should be treated the same way any other deceptive person is treated when they make baseless accusations.

• Mikey Weinstein claims US military Christians are “endanger[ing] American troops“?  Provide evidence, Mikey — because in more than 10 years you never have.
• US troops are crying out to Mikey Weinstein for help?  Provide evidence those complaints don’t come from those who already work for the MRFF — as they have in the past — or are related to Weinstein — as they were in the past — and the complaint wasn’t manufactured — as it was in the past.
• Nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for the eighth time?  Show us the MRFF didn’t nominate itself this time — as it has in the past.
• Dozens or even hundreds of people have “retained” the MRFF?  Definitely need proof of that, Mikey.  No one trusts you enough to just grant that 100 people spontaneously complained about something — or even that they’ve “retained” you.

It seems Mikey Weinstein has been pinned down again, revealing that his oft-vaunted accolade of “honor graduate” — or “blue chip graduate,” which doesn’t sound quite as lofty — means nothing more than being #130 in his class.  Nice work in college, Mikey, but the class ranking found on your college transcript doesn’t really mean much anymore.  Care to join the adult table?

Given his apparent desire to clear up his record, perhaps we can now get Weinstein to define some of his other vague and unverified statements, like his very nuanced claim he “served for more than 10 years with the JAG Corps.” That assertion would take some amazing semantic and mathematical gymnastics to be accurate. (Mikey Weinstein graduated law school in 1981, and he indicates he entered civilian life in 1987 — which an “honorable graduate” would admit isn’t 10 years.)

Weinstein released an academic record to prove this point about graduation. Perhaps he could clear up his actual career history by having Randy send us his DD-214, which would also likely show Mikey Weinstein left the US Air Force as a Captain — something else in which there’s no shame, but he’s been shy about admitting.

One final note: Within his letter, Randy Mathis meandered to claims this site is “obsessive about” Weinstein and his MRFF — which again shows Randy’s inability to observe or articulate the root issue.

More relevant is Mikey Weinstein’s obsession with ChristianFighterPilot.com.  It started years ago with Mikey Weinstein threatening this site with a lawsuit, and it continues through today, with Weinstein constantly complaining, criticizing, and making threats over this site.  Thanks to Randy’s inspiration, some fascinating and entertaining displays of Mikey Weinstein’s “obsession” will be discussed here in the near future, so stay tuned.

By the way, Mikey — to translate this to your language: You’ve just been schooled by a distinguished graduate of the US Air Force Academy.

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Update: Mikey still isn’t happy. Rather than rehashing the same story, you can read the second letter from Weinstein’s lawyer Randy Mathis here.

One point of clarification: In Weinstein’s 2008 third-person autobiography, “With God on Our Side” (which you can now purchase at Amazon for a penny), he said that “honor graduate” was “the equivalent of magna cum laude at a civilian college.”  For one point of reference, magna cum laude at Colorado State University is the top 3% of graduates.  Truthful?  You decide.

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