According to open sources, the US Air Force’s fifth generation fighter is slated to return to flight in the near future. The F-22 fleet was grounded four months ago following crashes in which the jet’s oxygen system was thought to be implicated.
Speaking for Michael Weinstein and his Military Religious Freedom Foundation, Chris Rodda recently went on the offensive against Officers’ Christian Fellowship, a Christian military ministry. (This isn’t really new. Rick Baker lists virtually every Christian ministry in existence in his frequent diatribes against religious freedom in the military.) Rodda’s write-up sounds like the intro to a Twilight Zone episode:
Throughout the US military…lurks an organization of over 15,500 fundamentalist Christian military officers who think their real duty is not to protect and defend the Constitution, but to raise up “a spiritually transformed military, with ambassadors for Christ in uniform, empowered by the Holy Spirit.” These officers belong to an organization called the Officers’ Christian Fellowship (OCF)…
(Rodda later gives a second nod to the Twilight Zone with the Read more
A group of trainees at the US Air Force basic training at Lackland Air Force Base, Texas, was photographed in a religious training event that has raised the ire of a religious watchdog.
On the first Sunday in August a representative of Harun Yahya was allowed, following an invitation from the Muslim chaplain at Lackland, Captain Sharior Rahman, to present two classes: a morning one on “The Collapse of Darwinism and the Fact of Creation” and an evening one covering “Miracles in the Qur’an.”
Dr. Timothy Furnish of Family Security Matters has made it his purpose in life to track the “mahdi movement” (loosely paraphrased, the messianic side of Islam), of which Harun Yahya is a part. Furnish obtained photographs of basic trainees sitting through a class on these Islamic studies: Read more
Navy Chaplain (CAPT) Michael A. Mikstay recently provided a succinct summary of the role of the military Chaplaincy:
Mikstay may be a Catholic priest, but as a Navy chaplain he facilitates religious services for troops of all beliefs.
“When you get down to it, the primary reason we have military chaplains in any of the services is because our nation is adamant about the fact that we provide for the free exercise of religion,” Mikstay said. Read more
A local paper on the Fisher House covers the story of Jesse Claude Cooper Jr., a Merchant Marine during World War II. His ship was torpedoed and sank, and he described his reaction to that event:
He credits God with sustaining his life.
“No other explanation, but that God had a reason for me to live and serve another day,” Cooper credited. “I was, you see, the last man to get in the last little life-rescue boat to leave the ship.”
“I was already a Christian, having been reared in church down in native Decatur, Alabama. But if I had not been a Christian, Read more
Much of the fighter pilot lexicon is not suitable for the ears of Mom or the kids. When translated, this is one of those terms.
YGBSM is short for “You Gotta Be Sh-tting Me,” which is obviously a term of shock, disbelief, or resignation at a realization of institutional stupidity. Where did it come from, and why is it so popular in the fighter pilot community?
Lt Col Allen Lamb, USAF (ret.), wrote a first person account about being one of the Air Force’s (the world’s) first SAM-killers, otherwise known as “Wild Weasels:” Read more
Religious freedom is uniquely valued and protected by the US military. The US Air Force Academy has done a generally admirable, if sometimes imperfect, job of defending religious freedom from those who would demand the government restrict it, like perennial USAFA critic Michael Weinstein. Though there’s been a quiet interlude with regard to Weinstein and the Academy for a little while, Weinstein has indicated he isn’t done with USAFA yet.
But it looks like USAFA is done with him.
Michael Weinstein apparently filed a Freedom of Information Act request with the US Air Force Academy in November of last year, which was finally completed in July of this year. He then provided the information to his apparent ally-reporter at the Colorado Springs Independent, Pam Zubeck, who started her article in the CSIndy this way:
Leaders at the Air Force Academy seem to think that dealing with some complaints about religious bias isn’t worth their time.
That’s the most obvious takeaway from several of the 2,516 pages of documents, mostly e-mails, the academy recently turned over to the Military Religious Freedom Foundation…
The first sentence out of the chute is a mischaracterization of USAFA’s Read more
The Stars and Stripes recently had two articles on atheism in the military, one on atheism at the service academies and one in the military in general. Both were written by reporter Chris Carroll.
The first, “Atheists groups find doors open to them at service academies,” notes that all three primary service academies have groups for “nonbelievers.” The one at the Naval Academy is sponsored by Jewish Chaplain (LtCmdr) Seth Phillips:
“The group is no different than any other student group with connections to the outside world,” Phillips said. “The Baptists are supported by the Baptist Student Union, and some other Christian groups get support from the Navigators. In no way is this group unique, different or specially privileged.”
Of course, Chaplain Phillips’ comment makes the most sense with regard to student religious groups. Because there is a Constitutional protection of the human liberty of religious freedom, religious groups may have “unique” or “different” treatment than, Read more