{"id":37608,"date":"2016-11-23T00:15:34","date_gmt":"2016-11-23T03:15:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/?p=37608"},"modified":"2016-11-23T02:51:27","modified_gmt":"2016-11-23T05:51:27","slug":"us-air-force-leaders-send-generic-non-holiday-salutations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/2016\/11\/23\/us-air-force-leaders-send-generic-non-holiday-salutations\/","title":{"rendered":"US Air Force Leaders Send Generic Non-Holiday Salutations"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>It has become somewhat of an amusing <a href=\"http:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/2014\/12\/26\/christmas-around-the-military-video\/\">annual tradition<\/a> to observe government and military officials attempt to say something about December 25th and its surrounding days without offending <em>anyone<\/em>. Of course, as the Happy Holidays\/Merry Christmas wars have proven, not matter <em>what<\/em> they say, <em>someone<\/em> will be offended. The only question is <em>who<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>It seems the US Air Force is leading off the fight this year with Secretary of the Air Force Deborah Lee James, Chief of Staff Gen David Goldfein, and outgoing Chief Master Sgt of the Air Force James\u00a0Cody sending <a href=\"http:\/\/www.usafa.af.mil\/News\/ArticleDisplay\/tabid\/1487\/Article\/1008658\/air-force-top-3-send-holiday-letter-to-airmen.aspx\">non-specific non-holiday salutations<\/a> for the months of November and December [emphasis added]: <!--more--><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Fellow Airmen:&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>As you celebrate the coming holidays with your friends and families, please take time to thank the ones supporting you as you secure our freedom.<\/p>\n<p>Many of you are engaged in operations far from home and will be unable to celebrate this season with your loved ones. Please know you and your wingmen are in our thoughts and prayers and we look forward to your safe return&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>From our families to yours, <strong>we wish you all the merriment the season has to offer&#8230;and a Happy New Year!<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Interesting that they said &#8220;Happy New Year&#8221; but apparently chose <em>not<\/em> to mention either Christmas or Hanukkah (which runs from Christmas Eve to New Years this year).<\/p>\n<p>It kind of makes you wonder if the Air Force Band will be forced to go non-holiday this year, breaking an <a href=\"http:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/2013\/12\/09\/af-band-flash-mobs-smithsonian-with-joy-to-the-world\/\">annual tradition<\/a> of <a href=\"http:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/2014\/12\/04\/af-band-flash-mobs-smithsonian-with-christmas-songs-video\/\">amazing<\/a> musical <a href=\"http:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/2015\/12\/08\/us-air-force-band-military-bases-show-christmas-spirit\/\">presentations<\/a> (that have bothered Mikey Weinstein, of course, and have inspired Islamic extremism, <a href=\"http:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/2014\/12\/18\/chris-rodda-criticizes-usaf-band-because-isis\/\">according to\u00a0Chris Rodda<\/a>).<\/p>\n<p>It shouldn&#8217;t even rise to the level of a religious freedom discussion, but it does kind of make you wonder what service members think when members of the government or their leadership seem to intentionally avoid mentioning the holidays by name. Is there a problem with\u00a0members of government saying &#8220;Merry Christmas?&#8221;\u00a0 Do members of government have something against Christmas and Hanukkah?\u00a0 Is this an example subordinates must follow?<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s an interesting thought exercise.<\/p>\n<p>Merry Christmas, and Happy Hanukkah.<\/p>\n<div class=\"fb-like\" data-layout=\"standard\" data-action=\"like\" data-size=\"small\" data-show-faces=\"true\" data-share=\"true\"><\/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-client=\"ca-pub-6450825356098669\" data-ad-slot=\"2728423835\" data-ad-format=\"auto\"><\/ins><script>\n(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});<\/script><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It has become somewhat of an amusing annual tradition to observe government and military officials attempt to say something about December 25th and its surrounding days without offending anyone. Of course, as the Happy Holidays\/Merry Christmas wars have proven, not matter what they say, someone will be offended. The only question is who. It seems the US Air Force is [&#8230;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":37710,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[134,175,108,5597,4303,1194,44,4301,85,2,5218,7,17,10,171],"class_list":["post-37608","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government-and-religion","tag-air-force","tag-chris-rodda","tag-christmas","tag-david-goldfein","tag-deborah-lee-james","tag-hanukkah","tag-islam","tag-james-cody","tag-mikey-weinstein","tag-military","tag-military-religious-freedom-foundation","tag-mrff","tag-religious-expression","tag-religion","tag-religious-freedom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37608","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=37608"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37608\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37710"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37608"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37608"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37608"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}