Month: January 2010

You Can’t be a Good Christian and a Good Soldier

The “interim CEO” of the Stand Up America Project had much to say about the ability of a religious adherent to be a loyal citizen or member of the military:

There is no doubt that a devout [Christian] must proclaim the exclusivity of [Christ] or he is an apostate. Therefore, he must always be a [Christian] first, and that means he is not only unable, but also forbidden from acting in any other fashion. If he is in our military, he may take orders, and obey, but at some level, when the order runs afoul of [Christianity], he must revert to [Christianity] first.

Except, he didn’t exactly say that.  Scott Winchell railed against Muslims in the long piece, ultimately saying  Read more

Pilot Error Caused F-16 Collision

The Accident Investigation Board has determined that pilot error on the part of Capt. Nicholas Giglio resulted in him colliding with his flight lead, Capt. Lee Bryant, near the end of a night sortie over the waters just east of Charleston, SC, in October.  Giglio died in the collision; Bryant landed his crippled aircraft.  It appears that Giglio, an inexperienced F-16 pilot, may have been “distracted” by a radar problem and failed to properly execute a rejoin on this flight lead, leading to the collision.  Giglio is one of several fighter pilots to die in night training accidents in 2009, including one in Utah and one in Afghanistan. 

As noted earlier, Giglio was held up as a man of God and family by his Pastor.

Hasan’s Superiors Worried, but Promoted Him

As noted at a variety of sites, a Defense Department review has found that Army Maj Hasan’s superiors were routinely concerned about his performance and his views, but continued to promote him anyway.  This seems to already confirm what has previously been said about Hasan: people knew and were concerned about him.

Between 2003 and 2007, Hasan’s supervisors expressed their concerns with him in memos, meeting notes and counseling sessions. He needed steady monitoring, especially in the emergency room, had difficulty communicating and working with colleagues, his attendance was spotty and he saw few patients.

The question that isn’t (officially) answered is why they didn’t do anything, though speculation has already arisen that people were afraid to say anything out of fear of being considered prejudiced against Islam.

The discussion in the article about officers being promoted despite poor performance Read more

Ethics and the US Military: the Army Reconsiders

The US Army is “[rethinking] how it teaches ethics.”

Some of the interest in ethics is tied to the wars: the black eye of the Abu Ghraib prison scandal, concerns that stress from unconventional conflict leads to bad decisions, and, for at least one retired general, the sense that the military lost the public’s trust in Iraq.

Officers involved in the effort say that eventually a soldier’s grounding in ethics — strong or weak — will become a factor in promotions.

Two of the primary places that ethics might intentionally be taught in the Army include the US Military Academy at West Point and the Command and General Staff College at Leavenworth.  The need for ethical maturity has already been recognized in some sense at the military academies.  Each has its own variation of a “character development center.”

Oddly, the director of military ethics at West Point provided a contradictory assessment of ethics in the Army:  Read more

Atheist Lawsuit Against US Military Dismissed

Chalker v Gates, the lawsuit which pitted the MRFF and an atheist Soldier against the Department of Defense, has been dismissed.  The case was brought by Michael Weinstein of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation and US Army Specialist Dustin Chalker.  The primary complaint was that Chalker was forced to attend formations at which Christian prayers were given, though Weinstein used the lawsuit as a forum to accuse the military of promoting Christianity.

According to various reports,

US District Judge Kathryn Vratil ruled Thursday that Chalker failed to exhaust all available remedies before filing suit.

Weinstein has said he will appeal the decision.

The ruling that dismissed the lawsuit (pdf) is slightly more complex than the media summary.  The ruling stated:  Read more

Fighter Pilots and Pigs in Space

Fighter aircraft are, by stereotype, fast, maneuverable, and nimble jets capable of amazing feats of dogfighting, turning, and speed.

What many people fail to realize, however, is that most fighters are only stereotypical “yank and bank” dogfighters when they are stripped down to their bare essentials and flown at low altitude.  When loaded with sensor pods, electronics equipment, weapons, and external fuel tanks, virtually every fighter becomes a “truck” or “bus” rather than a Read more

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