News reports indicate a US Marine Harrier jet crashed in northern Florida on Sunday. The pilot, identified as Capt. Jarrod L. Klement in some reports, was reportedly transported to a hospital as a precautionary measure.
Canada has reportedly announced its intention to purchase the F-35 Lightning II to replace its CF-18 fighters.
Canada has been a funding partner in the F-35 program from its inception, though this marks the first time it announced a plan to purchase the aircraft.
The announcement has already been met with political opposition from within the Canadian government.
Army Chaplain (Capt.) James B. Russell has a unique perspective on the Chaplaincy. Once a nurse, now a Chaplain, Russell now serves in a similar but changed role.
“I could deal with people’s pain as a nurse, but as a chaplain, I can enter into people’s suffering.” Russell says the best part of being a chaplain now is the opportunity to speak to so many people. “Just to sit and be with someone is a gift from God…” Read more
On the continuing theme of military papers discussing religion in the military comes Lt Col Jimmy M. Browning’s “Religious Expression or Religious Coercion: Commanders Caught in the Crossfire.” LtCol Browning, a Colonel-select, was an Air War College student when he published the paper in February of this year. He is also a USAF Chaplain.
The paper brings an interesting perspective to the “conflict” between those who believe in a right to religious expression and those who believe religious expression is de facto coercion in a military environment:
[The] Military Religion [sic] Freedom Foundation (MRFF) is one group that describes itself as a watchdog against religious coercion…These groups are especially leery of evangelical Read more
The Associated Press reported that charges against US Army Lt Dan Choi and former Captain James Pietrangelo had been dropped. The charges were failure to obey police after they chained themselves, in Army uniforms, to the perimeter fence at the White House.
Prosecutor Christine Chang declined to comment on why the government dropped the case. Choi said he believes Obama administration officials didn’t want to draw attention to the policy.
While Pietrangelo would have to be recalled to active duty to face charges from the military, there are no public indications that Choi, who remains in the Army, will be charged for his political protest while wearing a uniform.
Choi had previously indicated his plans to subpoena the President.
According to a recent official news release, the US Army is researching “alternative treatments to medication” in its efforts to compose a “comprehensive pain-management strategy” including acupuncture, meditation, yoga, and biofeedback.
The first three of those have some form of spiritual or ethereal undertones, almost exclusively from eastern religious traditions. The proposals, as discussed by Army surgeon general Lt. Gen. Eric B. Schoomaker, are an attempt to reduce the reliance on medication for every complaint.
Of course, religious faith does play a role in many aspects of life, including both physical and emotional healing. Campus Crusade’s military ministry (see Links) has invested considerable energy in creating faith-based resources for returning servicemembers struggling with PTSD.
The Alliance Defense Fund’s Speak Up website has an article entitled “Faith Under Fire: DADT and Religious Liberty” that summarizes and includes links to the variety of organizations and individuals who have opposed the repeal of the policy commonly known as “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.”
The site also includes a video of a half dozen retired Chaplains — ranging from Lt Commander to Brigadier General — addressing the issue of normalizing homosexual behavior and its impact on religious freedom in the US military.
Many debates about restrictions on personal choices in the military often devolve to what the military is allowed to do with regard to “victimless” crimes or things that are legal outside the military.
The Air Force — notably, not the Department of Defense — recently changed a regulation to expand the prohibition on “mood altering substances.”
The revised language makes punitive the prohibition in the current Air Force Instruction regarding the ingestion of any substance, other than alcohol or tobacco, for the purpose of altering mood or function…
The guidance cited the designer drug “spice,” salvia divinorum, inhalants, household chemicals, solvents and prescription drug abuse.
As noted earlier, the Air Force has already discharged Airmen over use of “spice,” something which is legal in most jurisdictions in the United States.
To remind those who quickly forget, the US military can — and does — regulate personal conduct, even if that conduct is legal outside of the military and even if that “private choice” is believed not to affect any other person.