In the debate on the policy commonly known as “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” some have taken to saying service by open homosexuals is no morally different to religion than is service by those who have divorced and/or remarried. That argument fails, however, because the military works actively to support marriages and prevent divorce: Read more
In an interesting and well-received move, the US Army has begun assigning Chaplain-candidates to the US Army’s Leadership Development and Assessment Course, through which ROTC cadets train. The commander of the school, US Army Col. Paul Wood, praised the efforts to integrate the Chaplains-to-be with the officers-to-be:
“We know chaplains as those responsible for religious services, pastoral care, and answering the difficult, solitary questions we all sometimes ask.”
“The Army Chaplaincy is…giving its candidates a place to train while assisting Army ROTC with the leadership development process. Through religious support, counseling and their ministry of presence, they play a crucial role in the making of lieutenants.”
By being alongside cadets for 29 days embedded in each regiment, sleeping in tents and under the stars, navigating the same terrain, and overcoming the same obstacles, these young candidates carry a kind of credibility that other cadre and leaders here can’t match, Wood said.
The unique program seems to have the benefits of engendering a beneficial relationship between both the officer corps and the Chaplaincy within the Army.
On 13 July 2010 US Army 1LT Chris Goeke was killed in combat in Afghanistan. He was one of three Soldiers to die in that firefight and his loss, like theirs, has been mourned across the continents.
The legacy of Goeke lives on, however. He was known not only as a good Soldier, but also as a good Christian. This was told in the first person by his friend, Rajiv Srinivasan, a Hindu, at a blog at the New York Times:
Chris discovered his personal relationship with God and served as one of his finest Christian servants… Read more
Canadian Capt. Brian Bews ejected from his CF-18 just moments before it impacted the ground at the Lethbridge County Airport in Alberta, Canada. CNN.com carries a professional video of the crash captured from the reviewing stand. In an interesting irony, the music playing from the flight line speakers is “Stayin’ Alive.”
High resolution photos of the incident taken by Ian Martens of the Lethbridge Herald show the ejection sequence in amazingly precise detail.
The first picture shows the seat leaving the aircraft: Read more
First Lady Michelle Obama christened the US Coast Guard Cutter Stratton last Friday. There was a slight groan from the crowd when the first swing failed to break the bottle; the second was successful. Maritime tradition considers the failure of the bottle to break on christening “bad luck.” In one recent example, the Queen Victoria was reported to be a victim of the “Camilla curse” when a virus broke out on the cruise ship’s maiden voyage after the Duchess of Cornwall failed to break the bottle on the ship’s christening.
Maritime superstition notwithstanding, of course, it is laudable the First Lady would take the time to support the Coast Guard and the longstanding tradition of christening sea-going vessels.
Perhaps someday such celebrations will be overcome by events. After all, ship christening has a long and historied spiritual connection, and even the term christening is ripe with religious connotation. (See the US Navy’s official history on ship christening.) Those who want to strip any vestige of religious association from the US military will undoubtedly claim the blessing or christening of military equipment violates the Constitution and endangers American servicemembers fighting in our nation’s wars. Such a critique would be ridiculous, of course, but that hasn’t stopped similar ones made to date.
US Army Lt Dan Choi, the opponent of the policy known as “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” who has protested publicly in uniform, has formally been discharged from the Army for being homosexual. He announced his homosexuality on TV last year. Criminal charges for his protest at the White House were recently dropped.
Though it is surprising to see the military suggest a connection between religion and the warfighter, it did precisely that when it highlighted US Islamic government civilians who are supporting the military’s efforts at war.
Azza Meshal. Dr. Rony Shahidain. Muhammad Mizan. Three American-Muslim engineers supporting U.S. Army to equip the Soldier with the capabilities he needs to defeat this country’s enemies abroad.
Meshal, who wears the hijab, also noted the response of her government coworkers when she continued to wear the Islamic garb immediately following the terrorist Read more
The US military notes its continuing efforts to use money and cultural support for Afghans to normalize their lives and their country. As noted previously, the US military has direct access to government funds to “meet emergency needs of civilians in support of humanitarian operations.”
The article notes that one intentional recipient of such US government funds has been mosques, both in Afghanistan and Iraq. As noted by a unit Chaplain, Chaplain (Capt) Abraham Sarmiento:
The next project brought buckets of paint, brushes and rolls of carpet in an effort to refurbish two mosques that were still in disrepair from the Soviet occupation. Read more