Tag Archives: Military

Fallen SEAL was Christian Warrior, American Warrior

It is important to start by saying that 10-year-old Braydon Nichols reminded the world a few days ago that more than just Navy SEALs died in the Chinook shootdown last week.  His dad died, too; Army Chief Warrant Officer Bryan Nichols was the Chinook pilot.  Seven other American military members died:  the other 4 helicopter crew and three US Air Force Special Forces.

Stories are slowly leaking out, and the military has yet to announce more specifics on those killed.  Family members, however, are telling some stories. [Updated below with names provided by the Department of Defense.]

As told by his widow, Kimberly Vaughn, Navy SEAL Aaron Vaughn was a “selfless” and noble man:  Read more

Christians Should Serve Where They Are

Tullian Tchividjian, grandson of Billy Graham and current Pastor at Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church, has an interesting article with application to Christians in all walks of life, including the military:

You’re free to stay put.

In becoming a Christian, we don’t need to retreat from the vocational calling we already have-nor do we need to justify that calling, whatever it is, in terms of its “spiritual” value or evangelistic Read more

US Military Chaplains Meet with Tanzanian Religious Leaders

US Navy Chaplain (CAPT) Jon Cutler is the director of Religious Affairs for CJTF – Horn of Africa.  In late July, he met with religious leaders in Tanzania to communicate the US military’s religious freedom and coordinate for future cooperation.

Cutler highlighted the US military’s religious plurality and freedom to his hosts in East Africa:

“My close friend and Muslim Imam, Shakur Ali, Africa command chaplain [U.S. Air Force Colonel] Jerry Lewis, and I are visiting Dar es Salaam from August 10 to 15 [during Ramadan],” Cutler told the religious leaders. “It’s unheard of for a Jew, Christian and Muslim to be friends Read more

US Army to Fund Atheist Rock Beyond Belief?

Not everyone can be right all the time, but when it comes to journalists, you think they’d at least try.

Reprinted at the Huffington Post, Religion News Service writer Kimberly Winston wrote on the recently approved “Rock Beyond Belief” to occur at Fort Bragg next spring.  Her article reads like a press release, not a news report.  Explaining the background of “Rock Beyond Belief,” she says

[Rock the Fort], staged by the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, received more than $50,000 in financial support from the base, according to records obtained by local atheists through the Freedom of Information Act.

As the Army already pointed out, that’s a mischaracterization of the “records obtained.”

Winston then makes a statement that is known to be categorically untrue:  Read more

Military Academies Again Top Princeton Rankings

Much as they do every year, the US military academies ranked near the top of the nation’s best colleges by The Princeton Review.

While some may consider the military academies somewhat interchangeable, its interesting to see the differences in “culture” at each institution.  For example, the “most popular major” at USAFA is said to be aero/astro engineering, at Annapolis its economics/history, and at West Point its business and economics.  And, as last year, it seems the Merchant Marine Academy has a reputation to overcome.

Interestingly, USAFA fell off the scale on “most religious students” — and West Point took its place.

Some notable rankings:  Read more

National Guard Chaplain Preaches at 0245

US Army Chaplain (1Lt) Daryl Thul has been supporting the National Guard Soldiers who have been working 24/7 on flood duty in Minot, North Dakota.  He’s made a special effort to meet the spiritual needs of the night shift, which is often sleeping during traditional religious service times.

So he preaches a Protestant service 0245.

Attendance is good because Thul, and his assistant, Pfc. Matthew O’Brien, take the service to the troops.

“I go to the soldiers Read more

Air Force Nuclear Training Misrepresented. Again.

The coincident timing of the recent US Air Force ICBM training “scandal” with the upcoming anniversaries of the nuclear bombing of Japan has lent additional wind to the sails of this manufactured controversy.

Rev. Tyler Wigg-Stevenson, writing at the Washington Post column “On Faith,” demonstrates how the “Air Force nuclear training” addressed over the past week has been woefully (or willfully) misconstrued.

Wigg-Stevenson says  Read more

Catholics and Air Force Nuclear Weapons

Bill Donohue, president of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, wrote a letter to General Edward Rice, the Commander of Air Education and Training Command.  AETC oversees the training program at Vandenberg Air Force Base, which recently dropped a course because, depending on who you ask, it used Bible verses.  Calling the Air Force’s decision to pull the class “wrongheaded,” he says

[T]here is absolutely nothing in the Constitution of the United States that disqualifies a presentation of St. Augustine’s “just war theory,” and related biblical references. In fact, the First Amendment protects freedom of speech, as well as religious liberty…Moreover, biblical passages are often cited when referencing the work of Rev. Martin Luther King. Should we similarly censor them?

I have read the materials used in the class, and can assure you that no one — save an anti-religious zealot — would find fault with them. I therefore urge you to stand fast against these bullies and do what is academically right and constitutionally protected: reinstate the class.

He also notes that Michael Weinstein is a Read more

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