The Congressional Research Service is a statutory office that provides research services at the request of members of Congress. The CRS says its work is “authoritative,” “accurate,” “objective and nonpartisan.”
The CRS recently published a report entitled “Military Personnel and Freedom of Religious Expression: Selected Legal Issues,” by attorneys R. Chuck Mason and Cynthia Brougher.
The 20-page report Read more
Since the demise of its last lawsuit seeking an end to public religious expression in the military, the Military Religious Freedom Foundation has been searching for a cause. (Michael Weinstein promised to file an appeal, though it appears he has not done so.) After the Trijicon scandal was quickly defused, Weinstein made a furtive effort to revive it a few months later–with little public reaction. He also tried to attach his organization to the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” media frenzy without much success. Weinstein is struggling for relevancy even among his own supporters; a recent fundraiser garnered few contributors.
In his latest bid for publicity, Weinstein demanded Read more
Popular Mechanics, as repeated at FoxNews, notes the US Army’s increasing reliance on and acquisition of UAVs.
Maj. Gen. James Barclay III, the commanding general in charge of Army aviation, today released the “Unmanned Aircraft Systems [UAS] Roadmap 2010–2035” at an Army aviation conference in Fort Worth, Texas. Its subtitle, “Eyes of the Army,” hints at the plan’s early focus on reconnaissance, but the scope of the roadmap expands…
The article describes a “rivalry” between the Air Force and the Army– Read more
Various news reports indicated a NATO aircraft (reportedly a Belgian F-16) was damaged when flying through the volcanic ash associated with the recent eruption in Iceland.
While it may seem hard to believe, the airspace restrictions following the eruptions were not a publicity stunt. For example, Air Force regulations specifically prohibit flying in the vicinity of eruptions. From AFI 11-202v3: Read more
Some people call skydiving “jumping out of a perfectly good airplane.” US Army Staff Sgt Ben Borger took it to a new extreme when he jumped out of a C-17 at 32,000 feet in a “wingsuit.” He reportedly broke a world record for traveling 11.5 miles after jumping, which translates to slightly more than 2 miles of horizontal travel for every mile he fell.
An airplane, of course, could have travelled much further, and it wouldn’t have needed to hitch a ride after landing…
The past week or so has seen the renewal in notice of a 2008 paper written by Army Maj Brian L. Stuckert. (The paper was criticized in December 2009 by the WorldNetDaily, and defended by MediaMatters in the same period.) Entitled “Strategic Implications of American Millennialism,” (pdf) the Major’s paper is largely critical of some aspects of Christian belief.
First, points of clarification: The paper was written as an academic product while Stuckert was a student at the School of Advanced Military Studies, which is an official professional military education course. Such military courses often permit a wide variety of topics for their students’ papers. The topic of religion is not off limits in this environment. In addition, Read more
A local paper documents the upcoming return to combat of a Catholic Priest and US Army Chaplain. The article focuses on details from Chaplain (Maj) Brian Kane’s prior tour in 2005, and several of the anecdotes highlight the strong need for Chaplains in the US military.
The men went to the Al Anbar province at Al Asad airbase in western Iraq. Due to the shortage of priests, Kane spent the year traveling more than 5,500 miles by helicopter or convoy. He visited small bases that didn’t have a Catholic priest and small field hospitals, hearing confessions, saying Mass and counseling anyone who wanted to talk…
In one of the more interesting stories, he would ultimately Read more
The Department of Defense announced yesterday that 26 recommendations from the investigation of the Fort Hood massacre would be implemented in the “near term.” Some articles have focused on the decision to implement a DoD-wide privately owned weapon policy, but a more interesting policy change is about Chaplains (as was the related portion of the original report).
The DoD will implement a policy Read more