{"id":35340,"date":"2016-06-23T00:30:56","date_gmt":"2016-06-23T03:30:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/?p=35340"},"modified":"2016-11-24T21:26:32","modified_gmt":"2016-11-25T00:26:32","slug":"update-air-force-launches-investigation-into-booted-airman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/2016\/06\/23\/update-air-force-launches-investigation-into-booted-airman\/","title":{"rendered":"Update: Air Force Launches Investigation into Booted Airman"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-34864\" src=\"http:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/oscar.jpg\" alt=\"oscar\" width=\"804\" height=\"280\" srcset=\"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/oscar.jpg 804w, https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/oscar-300x104.jpg 300w, https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/oscar-768x267.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 804px) 100vw, 804px\" \/>In response <a href=\"http:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/2016\/06\/22\/retired-airman-threatens-lawsuit-over-assault-constitutional-violations\/\">to demands<\/a> made by the First Liberty Institute regarding military religious freedom, Secretary of the Air Force Deborah Lee James has reportedly instructed the Air Force Inspector General to review the incidents surrounding the <a href=\"http:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/2016\/04\/07\/retired-airman-thrown-out-of-ceremony-because-of-religion\/\">forcible ejection<\/a> of retired USAF SMSgt Oscar Rodriguez from a retirement ceremony.<\/p>\n<p>In a statement that has been repeated <!--more-->across a variety of media outlets, the Air Force has also explicitly said retirement ceremonies are <strong>personal events<\/strong> at which retirees may have flag-folding scripts <strong>at their discretion<\/strong> [emphasis added]:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Air Force personnel <strong>may use a flag folding ceremony script that is religious<\/strong> for retirement ceremonies.\u00a0 Since retirement ceremonies are personal in nature, <strong>the script preference for a flag folding ceremony is at the discretion of the individual being honored<\/strong> and represents the member\u2019s views, not those of the Air Force.<\/p>\n<p>The Air Force places the highest value of the rights of its personnel in matters of religion and facilitates the free exercise of religion by its members.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>If that is the official position, it is unclear why no official statement has been made validating the demands of SMSgt Rodriguez, who has asked for an apology and punitive action against those who accosted him for doing what the Air Force has now said is permissible.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: xx-small;\">As noted now at <a href=\"https:\/\/pjmedia.com\/trending\/2016\/06\/20\/usaf-vet-forcibly-removed-from-flag-folding-ceremony-for-mentioning-god\/?singlepage=true\">PJmedia<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.allenbwest.com\/allen\/outrage-air-force-veteran-dragged-off-military-base-for-uttering-this-one-word\">Allen West<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.stripes.com\/air-force-to-launch-investigation-into-veteran-s-removal-from-ceremony-for-speech-invoking-god-1.415487\">Stars and Stripes<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/dailysignal.com\/2016\/06\/22\/air-force-base-silences-veteran-for-using-the-word-god-in-a-retirement-speech\/\">The Daily Signal<\/a>, and the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.airforcetimes.com\/story\/military\/2016\/06\/22\/air-force-talking-god-retirement-ceremonies-does-not-violate-policy\/86243824\/\">Air Force Times<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"fb-like\" data-share=\"true\" data-show-faces=\"true\" data-size=\"small\" data-action=\"like\" data-layout=\"standard\"><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: xx-small;\"><strong>ADVERTISEMENT<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js\"><\/script><!-- blogpost --><ins class=\"adsbygoogle\" style=\"display: block;\" data-ad-format=\"auto\" data-ad-slot=\"2728423835\" data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-6450825356098669\"><\/ins><script>\n(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});<\/script><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In response to demands made by the First Liberty Institute regarding military religious freedom, Secretary of the Air Force Deborah Lee James has reportedly instructed the Air Force Inspector General to review the incidents surrounding the forcible ejection of retired USAF SMSgt Oscar Rodriguez from a retirement ceremony. In a statement that has been repeated<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":34864,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[134,5535,4303,4415,2,7,5534,17,10,171,801,2624],"class_list":["post-35340","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government-and-religion","tag-air-force","tag-chuck-roberson","tag-deborah-lee-james","tag-mike-berry","tag-military","tag-mrff","tag-oscar-rodriguez","tag-religious-expression","tag-religion","tag-religious-freedom","tag-retirement","tag-travis-afb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35340","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35340"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35340\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34864"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35340"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35340"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35340"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}