An Air Force article highlights the opening of the first US Air Force Chapel on Bagram Airfield, Afghanistan.
The location chosen for the most recent worship space was specific:
The non-denominational Christian worship service’s unique characteristic is its location inside the entry control point where it can reach airmen who otherwise may not be able to attend a worship service.
“The other chapels on base do an outstanding Read more
The awkwardly named Pentagram, the community paper for Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall, has started a series on the tradition of collecting “coins” in the US military:
For active duty and retired servicemembers, it is the currency of past days of deployment or of military milestones. This custom-made currency is awarded through a discreet handshake following a job well done or in a moment of appreciation.
They are called commander’s coins by Read more
Michael “Mikey” Weinstein’s discombobulated responses to the Air Force Academy decision to make “so help me God” optional in the Cadet Honor Oath (he both welcomes it and threatened to sue) may have been his flailing efforts to regain the narrative in a losing effort. His research assistant, Chris Rodda, seems to indicate the MRFF is trying to point the narrative in a different direction. In a local news report on the Academy decision (original here):
Air Force Academy cadets are no longer required to say “so help me God” at the end of the Honor Oath. The change was made in response to complaints from a group called the Military Religious Freedom Foundation…
Chris Rodda, of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, said…”The people we are battling on this will say that nobody’s forced to say ‘so help me God.’ That actually is not true. The cadets received an email that said that they must say it for their commissioning oath to be legal.”
Rodda’s response is noteworthy because the Cadet Honor Oath has nothing to do with the commissioning oath, and nothing to do with the MSgt’s email. Whether the MRFF is intentionally trying to alter the debate or if Chris Rodda is incompetently Read more
Mark Thompson at Time Magazine’s “Swampland” blog has made an occasional habit of bagging on the Air Force or US military. Yesterday, he recapped the USAFA “so help me God” Cadet Honor Oath issue in a somewhat sarcastically tinged blog noting
the Colorado Springs, Colo., academy has decided to make the “so help me God” coda to its cadet oath optional after a complaint from the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (not surprisingly, the Christian Fighter Pilot group denounced what it calls a “dramatic change” on its website).
It would seem Thompson has become the latest “journalist” to fall victim to Read more
Ed Wuerker, a 74 year old New Jersey Farmer, fulfilled a lifelong dream when he bought a TBM Avenger in 2005.
Wuerker…plunked down $60,000 and bought it. It has taken eight years to restore and to get the FAA approvals for the plane and his own certifications needed to fly it, but Wuerker recently got it airborne for the first time since it was used to fight forest fires in Canada.
The Avenger is the same aircraft President George H.W. Bush flew — and was shot down in — in WWII.
The plane is more functional than Read more
The Liberty Institute, the Chaplain Alliance for Religious Liberty, and the Family Research Council — all members of the Restore Military Religious Freedom Coalition — successfully waged a campaign to have the US Army order an end to briefings which labeled mainstream Christian groups “extremist.”
As reported by Todd Starnes at FoxNews:
“On several occasions over the past few months, media accounts have highlighted instances of Army instructors supplementing programs of instruction and including information or material that is inaccurate, objectionable and otherwise inconsistent with current Army policy,” Army Sec. John McHugh wrote to military leaders in a memorandum I obtained.
McHugh “directed that Army leaders cease all briefings, command presentations or training on the subject of extremist organizations or activities until that program of instruction and training has been created and disseminated,” Army spokesman Col. David Patterson, Jr., tells me.
Multiple briefings were presented as evidence of a widespread Read more
In an anticlimatic but optimistically predicted result, LtGen Michelle Johnson declared that the “so help me God” portion of the USAFA Cadet Honor Oath is optional:
“Here at the Academy, we work to build a culture of dignity and respect, and that respect includes the ability of our cadets, Airmen and civilian Airmen to freely practice and exercise their religious preference – or not.” said Lt. Gen. Michelle D. Johnson, Academy Superintendent. “So, in the spirit of respect, cadets may or may not choose to finish the Honor Oath with ‘So help me God.'”
The current USAFA Athletic Director, Dr. Hans Mueh (BGen, Ret), was part of the faculty that decided on “so help me God” in 1984, when it was created in response to a cheating scandal:
“To add more seriousness to the oath, we decided to mirror the commissioning oath and add the words, ‘so help me, God,'” Dr. Mueh said.
Michael “Mikey” Weinstein, the “religious freedom” advocate who Read more
The Air Force has announced that the November 9th final toast of the Doolittle Raiders — an event closed to the public — will be broadcast live on the Pentagon channel.
The remaining Raiders will join for the final time and open the ceremonial bottle of cognac from 1896, the year Jimmy Doolittle was born.
The event is occurring at the National Museum of the Air Force and will include B-25 flybys, a wreath laying, related movies and a book signing.
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