Month: June 2010

Religion and the Military in Pictures: Prayer

Following the first installment of pictures documenting religion and its place in the US military, the second is now posted on the Resources page.  These photos largely show uniformed military members in prayer, practicing their right to free exercise of religion, even while in the US military.

Men and women of faith can be — and express their faith — in the US military.  These pictures and those to come — all of which are publicly available — show that faith has a fitting and integral role in many lives in the military.

Petraeus to Replace McChrystal in Afghanistan

In a seemingly unusual move, US Army General David Petraeus appears poised to give up his leadership at Central Command to take over the job of one of his former “subordinates.”  While the situation is not quite that simple, from a military leadership perspective, the ISAF leadership position is certainly inferior to CENTCOM.

That aside, one of the more interesting aspects of this firing/hiring of US military General officers has been the attempt by the media to characterize the enemy’s response.  Newsweek had an entire article on “what the Taliban think…” about Read more

F-35 Training Units Stand Up

An Air Force Times article highlights the progress in standing up the multi-service training units for the F-35 Lightning II at Eglin AFB, which is scheduled to begin this fall with the arrival of the first F-35 in November.

For the record, the F-35 variants have taken their first flights in only the past few months.  The 200 “instructors” cited in the article (which may include maintainers) haven’t logged a single hour in an actual aircraft.

No worries, though; according to the wing vice commander, Marine Col Arthur Tomassetti, the training shouldn’t be too difficult:  Read more

Fighter Pilot Traditions: Hat in the Freezer

It’s been said many times before that being a fighter pilot is a lot like being in a college fraternity.  Yes, its true, “pranks,” to use an equivalent word, are still prevalent among the elite fighter pilot crowd.

If you lose something in a fighter squadron, check the freezer.  If you’re lucky, it will just be wet.  If you’ve been gone awhile, there’s a distinct possiblity your lost item, most famously, your hat, is now in a solid block of ice, or your car keys will now need to be thawed before you can drive home.  (Another technique is to put just the head of the key in the block of ice, so the driver can still enter and drive his car, albeit with a 5 pound block of ice hanging off of it.)

While this is a longstanding fighter pilot tradition, the modern Air Force has Read more

Shahzad Admits Terrorism, Calls Himself Muslim Soldier

Faisal Shahzad, the man accused of leaving a failed car bomb in New York Times Square, admitted his role in the plot — and did so defiantly.  He said it was an act of vengeance for the actions of Americans:

[Faisal] Shahzad told US District Judge Miriam Goldman Cedarbaum he was “a Muslim soldier” avenging the deaths of Muslims killed by Americans overseas, and that he didn’t care that his bomb could have killed children.

Interestingly, Shahzad did not say it was America’s Christianity, or the religiosity of its military, that brought about about his act of violence, as some might have claimed.  It was he who viewed it as a religious conflict, even if his adversaries did not.

Life of a Conservative Christian in the Military Isn’t Always Easy

A newspaper highlights local Dewayne Wolf, who is going through the Chaplain school at Fort Jackson, SC, to become an Army Chaplain.  Already Wolf seems to recognize the challenge in integrating faith and profession, and also his purpose as a Chaplain:

The lifestyle is kind of rough, especially in the infantry. To break away from that lifestyle really makes a distinction…It’s not the easiest environment to stand for what you believe. Nowhere is it easy to be a conservative Christian. That’s why they need good chaplains in the military.

That said, it appears Wolf — who was formerly a Chaplain’s assistant — may yet have something to learn at the Chaplain school:

As a chaplain, your main focus is evangelism.  Read more

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