The Navy reported that a T-45 Goshawk crashed in Florida on a training mission. Both of the two crewmembers successfully ejected.
The T-45 is used to train both Navy pilots and “naval flight officers,” or navigator/weapons officers.
Before retiring for the holidays, the US Senate confirmed Obama appointee Chai Feldblum to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
Feldblum is the person quoted in the longer version of the “Christian Military Perspective on DADT,” published at the Journal of Faith and War, saying
when religious liberty and sexual liberty conflict…I’m having a hard time coming up with any case in which religious liberty should win. (The Weekly Standard, May 15, 2006).
Feldblum was a law professor at Georgetown University and Read more…
US Navy submariners may have to work on their New Years resolution a little harder this year if they’re smokers. As of January 1st, the Navy will no longer allow smoking on submarines, as it announced earlier this year. Submarines are typically out of port for months at a time, and the submariners lack some of the ‘chemical assistance’ other Sailors might have:
Although many Sailors rely on prescription medication to help them quit — Zyban and Chantix are two popular options — they aren’t available for submariners, because psychotropic drugs are forbidden for the 11,600 Sailors assigned to subs.
The crews think their surface brethren Read more…
Most media stories on military conscientious objection revolve around those who are in trouble for missing movement or suing over their denial. (Approved CO applications hover around 50%.) On Slate, Kathryn Schulz interviews a young man named Josh Stieber who was recently discharged as a CO.
His logic is sometimes strained and much is based on personal perception rather than fact, but that is often the case in situations like this. Ultimately, too, it is difficult to tell Read more…
A letter to the editor in a local Colorado Springs newspaper raised the spectre that open homosexuality in the US military might actually help America’s adversaries:
I can’t wait until the Taliban and Al Qaida use this [DADT repeal] law as a recruiting tool for hardcore Muslim insurgents in its proof just how infidel America is when its government endorses homosexuality by law.
Notwithstanding the rhetoric, he’s right. Islamic extremists have cited America’s “moral depravity” as reason for attacking it. Openly allowing Read more…
Categories: Government and Religion Tags: Afghanistan, al qaeda, conspiracy, dadt, homosexual, Islam, mikey weinstein, Military, propaganda, Religion, religious freedom, taliban
Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA), was recently asked some questions about the logistics of repealing DADT. Frank dismissed concerns over homosexuals showering with straight members of the military as a “silly issue.”
On the other hand, when asked if males and females should be able to shower together, he said “No, that would disrupt people.”
The implication, Read more…
The Frontline Faith Project, started by local Catholic parishioner Cheri Lamonte, is distributing mp3 players to American servicemembers with homilies, religious music, readings, and prayers:
Cheri Lomonte started the grassroots Frontline Faith effort last spring after learning that some servicemen and women can go months without having access to a military chaplain.
“The soldiers in the field … once they get it, they want their best friend to have it too…. And the feedback we are getting is: “I get to hear Mass every day” or ” I get to hear these prayers.”
Importantly, the CNN article notes the FFP is not Read more…
Douglas Wilson, most well-known for his long-term debate and friendship with Christopher Hitchens, has a short post on the issue of homosexuality in the military. He is yet another voice highlighting that many who supported repeal miss the point (perhaps intentionally) when they try to characterize those who oppose repeal.
The public discussion has thus far, in its sophomoric talking points way, addressed whether straight servicemen are willing to “serve alongside” their openly homosexual peers. This question would obviously include evangelical Christians. But this is not the question at all.
Anybody who has spent any time in the military knows that it is not a bastion of righteous behavior. If you join, you will serve alongside fornicators and drunks, and you will learn how to work together with them. Adding patriotic poofters to the mix is a non-issue, and barely worth discussing.
He’s absolutely correct. There are certainly legitimate issues of sexuality in the military, but those discussions have been ongoing for decades — reference gender. Therefore, it is not the central issue on this topic.
The issue is this. Homosexual Read more…
A local Colorado paper interviewed graduates and students of Colorado University on their perceptions of the recent repeal of the law banning homosexuals from military service. Some of the article focused on the desire of former servicemembers, discharged for being homosexual, to re-enter the service, though that has been widely discussed. The end of the article was interesting:
CU senior Kyle Inselman, a member of the GLBT campus community…said the repeal is not a victory for the transgender community, since “don’t ask, don’t tell” is only one of the issues keeping them out of the military…
“I think that to frame this as a victory for the GLBT community is wrong, because transgender people still cannot serve in the military,” Inselman said. “We need to not forget about fighting for (transgender) inclusion in our military as well as gay, lesbian and bisexual people.”
Seems like this line of thinking has been brought up before…
A local news channel interviewed interviewed US Army Chaplain (Col) Lance Kittleson as he described his role as a spiritual support for Soldiers:
As a chaplain in the army, [Kittleson is] the senior pastor and administrator of a military congregation of more than 5,000 soldiers at bases all over Iraq.
“My job is to make sure the commander is informed on religious implications of his mission as well as provide direct support to our soldiers: Catholic, Protestant, Muslim, whatever they may be,” Col. Kittleson said.
He says faith is very important during a time of war. Read more…
FoxNews caught up to the previous article here on the 18 December launch of a Navy F/A-18E Super Hornet with the EMALS. The EMALS is an electromagnetic launch system designed to replace the steam driven systems currently in operation. Interestingly, the article notes
Newer, heavier and faster aircraft will require more force to catapult from the carrier decks than steam-powered systems can supply. Electromagnets will be able to deliver, and allow for smooth acceleration at both high and low speeds, increasing the carrier’s ability to launch aircraft, the Navy said in a press release.
Presumably, that’s a reference to the F-35, the only substantial new aircraft slated to enter naval service in the reasonable future.
The article contains a link to the Navy’s somewhat slow YouTube video of the launch.
When the media mentions “military” and “missionary” in the same sentence, it often causes a near cacophony of criticism from conspiracy theorists about attempts at religious world domination. Recent accusations of impropriety make the sensitivity of the subject evident.
A few decades ago, it wasn’t so.
General Douglas MacArthur, one of the few men to reach the nation’s highest military rank of General of the Armies, was the American face of reconstruction of post-war Japan. The self-proclaimed “soldier of God and the republic” famously encouraged the influx of “a thousand missionaries” into Japan in the hopes that Christianity would overcome Shinto Buddhism in the Japanese isles. Documents from the Truman library reportedly indicate the Joint Chiefs, the Secretary of the Army, and Truman himself supported MacArthur in this endeavor. (Most modern summaries indicate the “Christianization” of Japan largely failed.)
Such an emphasis was likely influential on military members themselves. A recent article in The Deseret News of Utah highlights the Mormon soldiers who “spread the gospel in post-war Japan.” Among those is the current President of the Mormon church, Read more…
A recent study in the American Psychological Association’s Journal of Family Psychology “revealed” that those who waited until they were married before having sexual relations had higher relationship stability, among other factors.
This study is completely unrelated to the military, but there’s an important detail: The behavior in this study had nothing to do with religion. (In fact, it was “controlled” out of the study.)
While some are quick to dismiss calls for supporting “moral” conduct as so much bad couscous, there can be (and are, according to this study) secular “benefits” to conduct or characteristics often attributed to a “religious” origin.
In an interesting dance of politics and semantics, Cardinal Donald Wuerl, Archbishop of Washington, reportedly said
the Catholic church is not in a position to evaluate the impact of openly gay service members on military readiness directly…
but
“That is a question that has to be worked out politically. And there isn’t a specific Catholic Church position,” he said, “but whatever happens, it has to be seen in terms of the church’s teaching position. And that is, Read more…
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