God and Country

Lee Ellis
FreedomStar Media

Leading with Honor, Leadership Lessons from the Hanoi Hilton, is a unique and outstanding book by former prisoner of war Lee Ellis, an F-4 pilot who spent nearly six years in POW camps in Vietnam. Its stated intent is to pass on “leadership” lessons from the “crucible of captivity.” In truth, it is much more than that: It teaches lessons that are applicable to all of life.

Ellis, who was a 1st Lt at the time, was on his 53rd mission over North Vietnam Read more…

Chaplains have been serving the troops for almost as long as the US military has existed, providing spiritual support and protecting free exercise wherever US servicemembers are deployed.

Khe Sanh, South Vietnam, February, 1971: Helmets are removed but placed nearby for quick retrieval as Chaplain (Capt.) Albert Hartlage Read more…

Recent events have made a Washington Post article from November even more interesting, as it tries to put meat on the bones of the relationship between the American public and the American military.

While the relationship has avoided the animosity of the Vietnam era, some said a feeling of social “guilt” may be responsible for the change, rather than an actual respect or support of the troops and their mission:

“We, as a nation, no longer value military heroism in ways that were entirely common in World War II,” said retired Lt. Gen. David Barno, who commanded U.S. troops in Afghanistan.

Instead, praise from politicians and the public focuses largely on the depth of a service member’s suffering. Troops are recognized for the number of tours they have endured, the number of friends they have lost or Read more…

A US Air Force article highlights the story of Major Josh Brown, a KC-135 pilot who has earned his 19th Air Medal:

Brown flew his final combat sortie for this deployment July 30, qualifying him to receive the 18th oak leaf cluster for his Air Medal.

The Air Medal is awarded for single acts of heroism or meritorious achievements while participating in aerial flight in support of operations…

In layman’s terms, Air Medals are handed out for one of two things:  unique, heroic events…or for flying a certain Read more…

The Journal of Faith and War reprints a well-written commentary on the repeal of the policy most commonly known as “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” in the US military.  Written by retired Cols Al Shine* and Don Snider, “The Right to be Wrong” forwards a simple premise:  If homosexuality is to be permitted in the military, the military must have a decidedly — and explicitly — neutral stance between both opposing ideologies:  Read more…

Three monuments stand on Arlington National Cemetery’s Chaplains Hill (text).

The oldest, standing in the center and installed in 1926, memorializes by name the 23 Chaplains who lost their lives in “the World War.”

To its left, the second monument, installed in 1989, memorializes by name the Catholic Chaplains who lost their lives in World War II, Korea, and Vietnam.

The final monument, raised in 1981, memorializes by name the 134 Protestant Chaplains who lost their lives in World Wars I and II.

The absence of a monument to the 13 Jewish Chaplains Read more…

Michael Weinstein has written a letter to the USAFA Superintendent, LtGen Michael Gould, “demanding” that an invitation to Lt Clebe McClary (USMC, Ret.) be rescinded.  Lt McClary — an internationally recognized motivational speaker and wounded Vietnam Veteran – has apparently been invited to speak at the 10 February National Prayer Luncheon for the 10th Air Base Wing, the wing that runs the facilities surrounding the Air Force Academy.

Weinstein’s reason?  McClary is the ‘wrong kind of Christian:’  Read more…

Updated with message from Army Chief of Chaplains.

As previously noted, US Army Chaplain (Capt) Dale Goetz was killed in Afghanistan earlier this week.  He evidently died fufilling his pastoral duties as a Chaplain, “fob-hopping” to support his “congregation” of military Soldiers:

Goetz was in a convoy traveling from one forward operating base to another, where he counseled soldiers.

MSNBC reports that he was the first Chaplain killed in combat since Vietnam, not unlike the story of Sgt Chris Stout, the Chaplain assistant killed in Afghanistan in July.  Notably, however, US Army Chaplain Tim Vakoc died in 2009, five years after being wounded in a similar set of circumstances: a roadside bomb on a return trip from ministering to troops.

The Army Chief of Chaplains released the following message:  Read more…

While many upcoming college seniors are spending their summer at the beach, at work, or doing whatever else they might want, the US Air Force Academy continued its tradition of sending senior cadets to the combat AOR.

Air Force Academy seniors, Cadet 1st Class Eric Varner…and Cadet 1st Class Alan Foote…visit the 380th Air Expeditionary Wing at an undisclosed location in Southwest Asia as part of their summer deployed operatons program.

Urban legend has it that USAFA Cadets deployed to Vietnam Read more…

Robin Olds
St Martin’s Press, 2010

Robin Olds is a legend in the fighter pilot community, though he may not be recognized outside of it.  Many people may remember, for example, the famous Operation BOLO during Vietnam, which used F-4s to impersonate F-105s and succeeded in destroying a third of the North Vietnamese MiG-21s in a single mission – but few know then-Col Robin Olds was responsible for it.  Fighter Pilot is his story, and it is explicitly delivered as a memoir, rather than an autobiography.  Thus, it is not a detailed birth-to-death retelling of his life, but a first-hand recounting of the things he wishes to convey.  (The book was completed after his 2007 death by his daughter, Christina Olds, and Ed Rasimus, himself a retired fighter pilot.)

The book starts off somewhat slowly, almost as if (despite its status as a “memoir”), Olds (or his co-authors) felt obligated to include some stories from the early parts of his life.  He mentions his early pilot training days and a few significant events briefly, but provides little detail or introspective.  For example, he casually mentions, without further insight, that he attended the Air Corps Tactical School, which would ultimately form the basis for all air doctrine in the Army Air Forces and eventually the independent Air Force.  He also covers his entire training, from his early wartime graduation from West Point through becoming a pilot, in a scant 20 pages.  Some of the lack of detail may be for a very understandable cause: he simply didn’t remember much from those early days.  Another may be more pragmatic: Olds is known for his time in Vietnam, not pilot training.

Unlike some other fighter pilot books, Read more…

CreateSpace Online Publishers, 2009.
Douglas Haig Jenkins, Jr.

The title of Refiner’s Fire makes it sound as if it is the perfect book for examining the integration of faith and the fighter pilot profession.  While it has potential, it regrettably falls short.

Refiner’s Fire is Jenkins’ autobiography.  It is literally written chronologically, with the first chapter talking about childhood dreams of flying and Read more…

The US Marines are putting Hellfire surface-attack missiles on one of their less traditional airframes:

A KC-130 aerial refueling tanker/transport.

In fact, it’s a fascinating (if not completely new) idea.  Over the years ideas have been floated from putting hundreds of air-to-air missiles on the B-52 to turning C-5 and C-17 cargo aircraft into bombers.  (The payload of a B-2 is reportedly 40,000lbs.  The C-5: 250,000lbs.)  What were once innovative flights of fancy by aircraft designers and Air Force operators are now standard fare (ie, the addition of Hellfire missiles to the Predator UAV).

Still, a little caution is warranted.  Necessity is often the mother of invention (reference the early AC-119 Gunships in Vietnam).  However, boredom and “mission-envy” sometimes play a role as well.

When Faith Takes Flight was written by Jim Walters, a Pastor, civilian flight instructor, and former US Air Force fighter pilot. Walters became a Christian in a military chapel in Vietnam, and was quickly taken under the wing of a Christian in a local military Bible study.

When Faith Takes Flight isn’t an autobiography or memoir, however; it is an instructional book on Christian doctrine. The author is both a faith instructor and a flight instructor, and both perspectives are evident throughout the book.

Each of the 10 chapters covers a basic Christian doctrinal element (the existence of God, sin, grace, the Bible, etc.). The chapters (or “lessons”) begin with a flight related story, draw an analogy to a Biblical concept, and then relate a Biblical lesson — complete with a “quiz” and questions for group discussion. Each lesson is, in many ways, a miniature sermon.

The book’s primary objective is to teach theological concepts using Read more…

Air Force Maj Gen (Ret) Robert White died in Florida this past week.  He was a P-51 pilot in World War II before eventually becoming famous as an X-15 pilot.  He also served during the Korean War and flew combat sorties in Vietnam.

White achieved Mach 6 in the X-15 and also became the first “winged astronaut” when he flew the X-15 to a height of 314,750 feet, more than the 50 mile requirement for the Air Force to bestow astronaut status.

Raytheon, a defense contractor that builds a variety of missiles and other systems for the military, announced that its AIM-9X Sidewinder–a heat-seeking, air-to-air missile–was successfully employed–in an air-to-ground test.

The use of air-to-air missiles in an air-to-ground role has an interesting history.  Pilots who flew in Read more…