US Air Force LtGen Ronnie Hawkins is the new head of the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA). He is reportedly getting grief over a commander’s call in which he listed the personal “rules” he has lived by since he was a Captain — and they included references to God:
Hawkins, who just took over the directorship of DISA in January, said his presentation has been taken out of context… 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:
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
In its annual “The Military Commander and the Law,” the Air Force Judge Advocate General‘s School publishes guidance for commanders to help them understand some legal complexities related to their jobs.
For example, the nearly 700-page text contains explanations on issuing Articles 15, how to deal with FOIA, personnel issues, and sections on virtually every issue in which the law may impact a commander’s actions.
More interesting, however, was the new addition in 2010 of what could be best described as “Weinstein Guidance.”
The manual gives commanders new guidance on how to handle advocacy lawyers Read more
The Stars and Stripes notes some deployed American troops filmed a short video under the auspices of OutServe, a homosexual advocacy group, for the “It Gets Better” project,
an initiative created to show young gay and transgender individuals the happiness and potential that awaits them if they can make it through their tumultuous teen years.
The Stripes article was written at the end of January, shortly after the video was posted to YouTube. There has been little public reaction to the publication. (As a point of clarification, “transgender” individuals are still banned from military service.)
The video begs an interesting question: What would the reaction be if uniformed, deployed (and armed) servicemembers posted a YouTube video on behalf of their non-Federal entity extolling the religious Read more
The Colorado Springs Independent‘s Pam Zubeck — a veritable PR arm of Michael Weinstein’s MRFF — has a post stating a US Air Force Academy fourth class cadet (freshman) sent an inappropriate religious email to his classmates. She said the cadet
has been “counseled” for sending an e-mail to the entire freshman class urging them to pray and citing specific Scriptures. [formatting original]
She then includes the content of the 500-word email, which had been sent only two days prior. The email does, shockingly, “urge people to pray” and does, indeed, cite “specific Scriptures.” What Zubeck fails to mention is the email is a forward of a daily devotional by Gloria Copeland, distributed on the same day the cadet forwarded it: Read more
Michael Weinstein, the only paid officer and President of his Military Religious Freedom Foundation, reduced his personal compensation by nearly $80,000 in 2010, according to his most recent tax documents. That same year, his “charity” saw a slight decrease in revenue of about $13,000, despite $120,000 in grants from the Rockefeller Family Fund and $10,000 from the Aspen Community Foundation.
In prior years Weinstein’s exorbitant salaries — which are paid by himself, to himself, from his charity’s revenue — have been highlighted as inconsistent with both his implications that donations to his charity “support the troops” and with the general practices of other charities, whose president/CEO compensations are generally markedly lower (even if the charities are markedly larger).
The $218,201 Weinstein paid himself from the MRFF funds still represented 41% of his charity’s total revenue in 2010. That’s down from the 54% he paid himself in 2009, though it still represents a substantial percentage of what his donors are presumably Read more
US Representative Randy Forbes (R-Va) has written a letter (PDF) signed by 35 members of the House asking the Air Force restore a unit’s motto that was changed after an atheist’s complaint. 
The incident to which Rep Forbes is referring was actually first reported on ChristianFighterPilot.com, with the Religion Clause and the ADF Alliance Alert subsequently citing this site.
As noted three weeks ago, the USAF Rapid Capabilities Office responded to “needling” from former Army Captain Jason Torpy, an atheist, and changed its motto from “Doing God’s work with other people’s money” to “Doing miracles with other people’s money.”
The letter, addressed to Secretary of the Air Force Michael Donley and Air Force Chief of Staff General Norton Schwartz, says:
It has come to our attention that the US Air Force Rapid Capabilities Office (RCO) has modified the logo on its official patch to remove its reference to “God,” following a complaint from Read more
Update: The Army defended its actions, with FoxNews saying it was a “cautionary move to preserve “military order and discipline,”” not censorship.
In a surprisingly underreported story, the US Army reportedly censored — and then admitted the wrong of censoring — US military Catholic chaplains during their performance of their Catholic Mass. Catholic priests were apparently given letters to read to their parishes explaining the Catholic opposition to the Department of Health and Human Services mandate requiring insurance coverage for things that violate Catholic beliefs.
On Thursday, January 26, Archbishop Broglio emailed a pastoral letter to Catholic military chaplains with instructions that it be read from the pulpit at Sunday Masses the following weekend in all military chapels. The letter calls on Catholics to resist the policy initiative, recently affirmed by the United States Department of Health and Human Services, for federally mandated health insurance covering sterilization, abortifacients and contraception, because it represents a violation of the freedom of religion recognized by the U.S. Constitution.
The US Army’s Chaplaincy office responded: Read more