Shahzad Admits Terrorism, Calls Himself Muslim Soldier

Faisal Shahzad, the man accused of leaving a failed car bomb in New York Times Square, admitted his role in the plot — and did so defiantly.  He said it was an act of vengeance for the actions of Americans:

[Faisal] Shahzad told US District Judge Miriam Goldman Cedarbaum he was “a Muslim soldier” avenging the deaths of Muslims killed by Americans overseas, and that he didn’t care that his bomb could have killed children.

Interestingly, Shahzad did not say it was America’s Christianity, or the religiosity of its military, that brought about about his act of violence, as some might have claimed.  It was he who viewed it as a religious conflict, even if his adversaries did not.

Life of a Conservative Christian in the Military Isn’t Always Easy

A newspaper highlights local Dewayne Wolf, who is going through the Chaplain school at Fort Jackson, SC, to become an Army Chaplain.  Already Wolf seems to recognize the challenge in integrating faith and profession, and also his purpose as a Chaplain:

The lifestyle is kind of rough, especially in the infantry. To break away from that lifestyle really makes a distinction…It’s not the easiest environment to stand for what you believe. Nowhere is it easy to be a conservative Christian. That’s why they need good chaplains in the military.

That said, it appears Wolf — who was formerly a Chaplain’s assistant — may yet have something to learn at the Chaplain school:

As a chaplain, your main focus is evangelism.  Read more

Gazette Chronicles Weinstein Method

The Colorado Springs Gazette, which is local to the US Air Force Academy, had a short article on Michael Weinstein that seems to show Weinstein warming to the USAF Academy view on religion.  What was interesting was the Gazette‘s summation of Weinstein’s method:

The broad outlines of Weinstein’s approach: Condemn in the strongest language possible. Publicly embarrass. Sue if necessary. Each new step raises the pressure on his publicity-averse targets.

Criticize.  Humiliate.  Intimidate and threaten.  This has long been Weinstein’s approach; it enables him to circumvent the policy-making processes, as well as the policies themselves, by coercing a public official to accept his demands.  His intimidation and threats Read more

Putin Says New Russian Jet Bests F-22

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has reportedly said the Russian T-50, sometimes dubbed the “F-22ski”

will be superior to our main competitor, the F-22, in terms of maneuverability, weaponry and range.

One would certainly hope an aircraft first flown in 2010 — with a planned employment date of 2015 — would at least claim to be superior to one developed more than 20 years ago; the YF-22 first flew in 1990.  Also, the news report, seeking to highlight something significant, quoted this from the Russian releases:  Read more

Summer Choices: Band Camp or War Zone

While many upcoming college seniors are spending their summer at the beach, at work, or doing whatever else they might want, the US Air Force Academy continued its tradition of sending senior cadets to the combat AOR.

Air Force Academy seniors, Cadet 1st Class Eric Varner…and Cadet 1st Class Alan Foote…visit the 380th Air Expeditionary Wing at an undisclosed location in Southwest Asia as part of their summer deployed operatons program.

Urban legend has it that USAFA Cadets deployed to Vietnam Read more

Review: Fighter Pilot, Memoirs of Legendary Ace Robin Olds

Robin Olds
St Martin’s Press, 2010

Robin Olds is a legend in the fighter pilot community, though he may not be recognized outside of it.  Many people may remember, for example, the famous Operation BOLO during Vietnam, which used F-4s to impersonate F-105s and succeeded in destroying a third of the North Vietnamese MiG-21s in a single mission – but few know then-Col Robin Olds was responsible for it.  Fighter Pilot is his story, and it is explicitly delivered as a memoir, rather than an autobiography.  Thus, it is not a detailed birth-to-death retelling of his life, but a first-hand recounting of the things he wishes to convey.  (The book was completed after his 2007 death by his daughter, Christina Olds, and Ed Rasimus, himself a retired fighter pilot.)

The book starts off somewhat slowly, almost as if (despite its status as a “memoir”), Olds (or his co-authors) felt obligated to include some stories from the early parts of his life.  He mentions his early pilot training days and a few significant events briefly, but provides little detail or introspective.  For example, he casually mentions, without further insight, that he attended the Air Corps Tactical School, which would ultimately form the basis for all air doctrine in the Army Air Forces and eventually the independent Air Force.  He also covers his entire training, from his early wartime graduation from West Point through becoming a pilot, in a scant 20 pages.  Some of the lack of detail may be for a very understandable cause: he simply didn’t remember much from those early days.  Another may be more pragmatic: Olds is known for his time in Vietnam, not pilot training.

Unlike some other fighter pilot books, Read more

Priests Get Air Force Tours, Incentive Flight

Timothy Broglio, Archbishop of the Archdiocese for the Military Services, recently joined a group of Catholic priests for a recruiting visit at Peterson AFB, CO.  Broglio was most recently in the news for his statement against the repeal of “Don’t ask, don’t tell.”

During the visit, the 8 Roman Catholic priests observed military members in action and got a C-21 ride to view Pike’s Peak from the air.

The military objective of the visit was to recruit more Catholic priests to the military Chaplaincy.  While the Air Force is cutting Chaplains this year, Catholic Chaplains are the one group who are not being reduced.

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