According to a press release by University of the West (a Buddhist school in Southern California), Somya Malasri has had his coursework in Buddhism approved by the Army, a crucial step which will allow him to enter the military as a Chaplain (see prior story).
To date, Malasri is the only graduate of the school’s M.Div. program.
According to a Navy release, Muslim Sailors aboard the USS Harry S Truman were able to celebrate the end of Ramadan while on their cruise. The US Navy followed standard policies on religious accommodation, and provided meals especially for the observant Sailors, as described by the Truman‘s Chaplain:
“Whatever a person’s religious background, the Navy’s policy is to accommodate that person’s religious needs,” said Cmdr. Jerome Hinson…”We are able to arrange meals for them before sunrise and after sunset. Depending on their work schedules, we accommodate their needs as much as we can.”
The Sailors themselves spoke positively about the Navy’s support of their religious Read more
McClatchy Newspapers originated an interesting article on the various new vehicles now fielded by the US military in its attempts to overcome the threats of IEDs. The vehicles vary from hulking “buffaloes” to the single-man “Husky,” as driven by US Army SPC Joshua Joe:
Joe, a broad-built 22-year-old from Sumter, S.C., with the Lord’s Prayer tattooed on his bulging forearm, is one of the Husky drivers.
Joe’s platoon, which is part of Task Force Thor, prays together in a huddle before beginning a mission.
Read the full article.
An Air Force Times report notes the Air Force has fallen behind its efforts to recoup money from people who quit the Air Force Academy during their junior and senior years. Those who quit any of the military academies after their first two years are obligated to repay the government for their education; their obligation is even formalized in a “commitment” ceremony at the start of their junior year.
More interestingly, however, Air Force Chief of Staff General Norton Schwartz has said that the Air Force may seek to recoup money from recent graduates as well. According to the report, as many as 18 new Lieutenants may have washed out of their respective schools, including pilot training. Rather than train Read more
According to the Air Force Times, the second F-35 built for training Air Force pilots, not for flight test, is scheduled to be completed this week — but a date for transferring the trainers to the Air Force has yet to be set.
The F-35 is still undergoing basic flight testing at both the US Air Force and US Navy flight test facilities.
The Army.mil website has photos of a memorial held at Fort Jackson, SC, site of the US Armed Forces Chaplains Center, for US Army Chaplain (Capt) Dale Goetz, recently killed in combat.
Interestingly, the traditional “Soldier’s cross,” formed by an upended rifle, boots, and helmet, was appropriately modified with an actual cross to replace the M-16; the former was carried by the non-combatant Chaplain, the latter was not.
The Freedom From Religion Foundation has protested the tradition of evening prayers onboard US Navy ships, saying they
violate the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment because military personnel are being coerced to participate in religious exercises…
These officially sanctioned prayers compel service members of varying beliefs and non-belief to listen to and participate in religious exercises…
While it purported to condemn all prayer, the FRFF intentionally highlighted Christianity, even citing the frequently-used and inaccurately attributed concept that
Jesus condemned as hypocrisy public prayer…
If nothing else, the FRFF appears to be intellectually consistent, since demanding an end to the prayers achieves their end of freedom “from” exposure to religious thought. On the other hand, such consistency is lacking for the MRFF, who also Read more
In an interesting perspective, Eugene Volokh writes an article on the “conflict” between the Koran-burning church in Florida and Ibrahim Hooper of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). To the point, he quotes Hooper saying:
Can you imagine what this will do to our image around the world…And the additional danger it will add whenever there is an American presence in Iraq or Afghanistan?
After going through several explanatory examples and analogies, Volokh draws an interesting conclusion:
In those situations, the mainstream group representative seems to be consciously using the threat of [others’] extremist violence to achieve his own ideological goals. And he also seems to be trying to blame the people who are exercising their rights for the violence that would supposedly ensue. This sort of political tactic does not reflect well on the mainstream group.
Separate from Koran burning and CAIR, Volokh’s perspective has an interesting application to religious freedom in the military. After all, Read more