Tag Archives: australia

Is the US Military Forgetting about Post Traumatic Growth?

A fascinating piece at the Australian military’s The Cove asks an important question: With all the focus on PTSD, are we forgetting post traumatic growth?

Highlighting only chronic illness amongst veterans however, risks creating an unhelpful sense of expectancy that illness will follow service

This illness narrative does not align with the experiences of many veterans from both historic and contemporary operations, who have endured varying levels of trauma, but grew from these experiences.

Author Tim Robinson notes the idea has been around for awhile, and James Mattis — now Secretary of Defense for the US military — has proffered it as well: Read more

Military Chaplains Might No Longer “Conquer”

The Australian Daily Telegraph reports that the Australian Army is considering redesigning a military chaplaincy badge that says “In this sign, conquer.”

In a somewhat inflammatory reporting style [emphasis added]:

The Australian Army is removing the motto “In this sign conquer” from the 102-year-old hat badges of army chaplains because it is offensive to Muslims.

The move comes after an imam approved by the Grand Mufti was appointed to join the Religious Advisory Committee to the Services in June.

Australian Army chaplains have had the motto on their hat badges since 1913.

A Defence spokeswoman last Read more

Australians Rebuff Change to “Known Unto God”

It seems atheist Jason Torpy has an Australian ideological doppleganger.

Reports from Australia indicate the commission in charge of the Australian War Memorial had quietly planned to remove the phrase “known unto God” from the tomb of their unknown soldier:

The sandstone war memorial opened in 1941 to commemorate Australians killed in World War I and is among Canberra’s most popular tourist attractions.

[Memorial director Brendan Nelson] had proposed replacing the phrase “known unto God,” attributed to British writer Rudyard Kipling, with the inscription: “We do not know this Australian’s name, we never will.”

While some complained it was an intentional effort to “de-Christianize” Read more

Top Australian General on Christmas, Christian Fellowship

In early December the Military Christian Fellowship posted a Christmas message from its “patron,” General David Hurley:

Christmas is a time of great celebration for Christians everywhere as we celebrate the birth of our Lord….Regardless of where you are next year I encourage you to seek the friendship and fellowship with Christians through MCF or the other military Christian ministries; with old friends and with workmates…I value the work of the MCF and was privileged to attend the Defence Christians Dinner and the MCF Spiritual Boot camp Seminar with my wife Linda this year. Wherever you are serving this Christmas I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, and God bless you and your family in 2013.

For those unaware, General Hurley is the highest uniformed member of the Australian military.  Due to differences in structure, there isn’t a direct American equivalent, though the closest would probably be the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Read more

Buddhist Chaplain Evangelizes Around the World

US Army Chaplain (Capt) Somya Malasri is currently in Australia with his unit, where he is leading Buddhist services for both American servicemembers and their Australian hosts.

An Army article notes Chaplain Malasri is “evangelizing” in his travels around the world:

A chaplain for 10 months now, Malasri is spreading the teachings and philosophies of Buddha to soldiers on multiple continents.

In an interesting perspective, Chaplain Malasri says “it’s not necessarily Read more

Military Christian Fellowship-Australia Hosts “Faith Under Fire”

MCF-Australia will be hosting the “Faith under Fire” seminar in September of this year:

Faith Under Fire will encourage and equip Defence personnel to increase their faith and prepare them to overcome physical and spiritual attacks in the line of fire. To have faith is to be sure of the things we hope for, to be certain of the things we cannot see. Historically, faith has strengthened the resolve of armed forces to achieve extraordinary results under the most trying of circumstances.

One of their speakers includes LtGen David Hurley, Vice Chief of the Defence Read more

Australia to Receive First Export EA-18G Growler

The US government has reportedly agreed to allow the export of Boeing’s EA-18G Growler to Australia.  The Growler is an electronic attack aircraft built on an F/A-18 frame, though it replaces some of the offensive kinetic capability with electronic attack/defense suites instead.

See the prior discussion on the approval of full rate production (and the name) of the Growler, as well as other fighter pilot aircraft.

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