God and Country

BrigGen Dana Born, Dean of the US Air Force Academy, has announced her intention to retire in the summer of 2013.

Ordinarily, such a move wouldn’t be newsworthy.  However, Gen Born has been under constant attack by Michael Weinstein — aided by his veritable PR arm, Pam Zubeck of the Colorado Springs Independent — for several years.  Zubeck, who has long had sources on the USAFA faculty eager to undermine their own institution, “scooped” even the official US military announcement of Born’s retirement, and she did so without attempting to hide her bias:

Brig. Gen. Dana Born, one of the most controversial figures Read more…

A variety of websites are now reporting on the injuries US Air Force Academy cadets received during attempts by Four Degrees (freshmen) to drag their Cadet First Sergeants through the first snow of the season.  The decades-old tradition is one of many that generally stay out of the public eye, though YouTube videos and the like have revealed them for years.

While there is apparent shock that “nearly 30 cadets” were injured in some form (including — gasp — bruises) during the devolution to a “brawl,” that injury count probably doesn’t crack the records set during Read more…

Despite his claims the US military is overrun by Christians trying to take over the world, Michael Weinstein seems to have more public allies in military leadership positions than he has public enemies. In addition, Michael Weinstein seems to have some very well-placed friends in the US military, despite his claims he is a David fighting an institutional Goliath.

Weinstein’s “close personal…relationship” with an Air Force base’s commanding general has already been discussed, as has his unusual access to an Air Force Colonel’s non-releasable records.  It turns out Weinstein also counts the recently retired JAG of the Air Force as a cheerleader for his cause.

In fact, Weinstein’s apparently unfettered access to military leadership is so unusual Congress has been asked to investigate it.

The most interesting example of Weinstein’s friends in high places was Read more…

Despite his claims the US military is overrun by Christians trying to take over the world, Michael Weinstein seems to have more public allies in military leadership positions than he has public enemies. In addition, Michael Weinstein seems to have some very well-placed friends in the US military, despite his claims he is a David fighting an institutional Goliath.

Weinstein’s ”close personal…relationship” with an Air Force base’s commanding general has already been discussed.  It turns out Weinstein is also miraculously able to discern the private content of an Air Force Colonel’s non-releasable records.  Read more…

The Air Force Inspector General has determined two US Air Force Academy officials were “negligent” when they made “absolute statements” about the Academy.  The IG’s conclusions:

• Col [Richard] Fullerton was negligent in making an absolute statement concerning the academic credentials of [USAFA] faculty members while authoring the Academy’s 2009 Institutional Self-Study Report to the [HLC] of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools.
• Brig Gen [Dana] Born was negligent in making an absolute statement to a local newspaper regarding the military faculty’s specific academic credentials as they related to teaching disciplines without first confirming the accuracy of the supporting data.

The investigation was the result of a complaint lodged by MRFF-associate R. David Mullin, an Academy instructor who apparently lost his teaching position (apparently due to “performance issues“) around the same time he went public with various criticisms of the Academy.  That has led to speculation on both sides — that Mullin has been targeted for mistreatment, and that Mullin is trying to exact revenge Read more…

The Associated Press has distributed an article indicating the military is “investigating” the US Air Force Academy for issues with its accreditation.

A document obtained by AP says the Air Force inspector general ordered a formal investigation into complaints that the academy’s dean and vice dean of faculty gave incorrect information to the Higher Education Commission of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools.

The document says the vice dean was accused of making “a false official statement” and the dean was accused of “inaccurately portraying” faculty credentials.

“The document” appears to be the response by the Inspector General to the two complainants.  The two are reportedly anonymous, though one self-identifies as an Air Force officer, faculty member, and Academy graduate.

In the Inspector General’s letter Read more…

Religious freedom is uniquely valued and protected by the US military.  The US Air Force Academy has done a generally admirable, if sometimes imperfect, job of defending religious freedom from those who would demand the government restrict it, like perennial USAFA critic Michael Weinstein.  Though there’s been a quiet interlude with regard to Weinstein and the Academy for a little while, Weinstein has indicated he isn’t done with USAFA yet.

But it looks like USAFA is done with him.

Michael Weinstein apparently filed a Freedom of Information Act request with the US Air Force Academy in November of last year, which was finally completed in July of this year.  He then provided the information to his apparent ally-reporter at the Colorado Springs Independent, Pam Zubeck, who started her article in the CSIndy this way:

Leaders at the Air Force Academy seem to think that dealing with some complaints about religious bias isn’t worth their time.

That’s the most obvious takeaway from several of the 2,516 pages of documents, mostly e-mails, the academy recently turned over to the Military Religious Freedom Foundation…

The first sentence out of the chute is a mischaracterization of USAFA’s Read more…

The Air Force Times reports that the recent team led by General (ret) Patrick Gamble to assess the religious climate at the Air Force Academy found cadets were actually more fed up with bad press than they were at issue with their religious freedoms:

Air Force Academy cadets are happy overall with their level of religious freedom there but are distressed by the “constant negative press” the academy receives…

The AFTimes cited the MRFF as the source of the report, as it has not been publicly released; however, the AFTimes appears to have come to quite a different conclusion Read more…

The prior article on the upcoming religious climate review at USAFA noted most major news repeats of the CSIndy story missed some of the more interesting details.

The Associated Press article closed with a single sentence on a related topic:

The Independent reported that the Air Force also plans to review questions raised by an academy faculty member about the qualifications of some of the faculty.

While the statement may seem unrelated to religion at USAFA, it’s actually an integral piece to the puzzle.  Here’s what the Independent said:

A second inquiry…involves alleged accreditation violations, religious discrimination and cronyism in hiring civilian faculty.

“I am very concerned that [USAFA] may have committed persistent, gross violations of allowing inadequate academic credentials of many military instructors,” R. David Mullin, associate professor of economics, writes in his complaint to the Higher Learning Commission, Chicago, which accredits the academy.

“Also there have been violations of First Amendment rights and academic freedom by Brigadier General Dana Born, Read more…

The Air Force Times notes the push by the US Air Force Academy to inspire cadets about a career field most still dread: UAVs.

Flying a drone isn’t sexy — and the cadets at the Air Force Academy here don’t pretend that it is…  Read more…