Tag Archives: camp lemonnier

US Navy Chaplain Brings Islam to Africa

People tend to connect more through their faith than anything else.
– Chaplain Abuhena Saifulislam

US Navy Chaplain (Cmdr) Abuhena Saifulislam, stationed in Ramstein Air Base, Germany, as the USAFRICOM deputy command chaplain, recently spent a week in Djibouti

with members of Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa Religious and Civil Affairs, they met with the deputy director of Islamic affairs for Djibouti, the Sultan of Tadjoura and representatives of the Red Crescent Society of Djibouti among others.

Besides meeting with local leaders, Saifulislam participated in religious Read more

OTS, ROTC, USAFA Grads, Airman Killed in African U-28 Crash

Update: The military has said enemy action was not involved in the U-28 crash.

A U-28A — an AFSOC version of the Pilatus PC-12 — went down over the weekend during a mission from Camp Lemonnier, Djibouti (in the horn of Africa, for those unfamiliar).  All four aircrew were killed.  The least amount of deployments among the crew was 3 (in 5 years).

Of the three officers, one was from ROTC, one from OTS, and one was a 2009 USAFA graduate.  That represents all 3 possible commissioning sources in the Air Force in one loss.  While there are often good-natured rivalries among OTS, ROTC, and USAFA, risk and sacrifice know no bias.

Captain Ryan Hall…was a U-28A pilot on his seventh deployment. Read more

Chaplains Demonstrate Religious Freedom to African Nation

It has been said here often that the US military can provide an excellent example of religious freedom to other nations who have yet to fully grasp that human liberty.  Unfortunately, in efforts to shore up support with locals, it seems the local religion may get emphasized more than religious freedom.  For example, messages from Afghanistan often tout the United States’ respect for, support of, and even defense of the religion of Islam — rather than its respect, support, and defense of religious freedom.

US military chaplains may be an exception to those omissions.  Within the Read more