Tag Archives: air force

Mikey Weinstein Demands Air Force Remove Chaplain Video. Because Jesus.

mikeywilliamsLast month, Michael “Mikey” Weinstein claimed he had made an “important achievement” in “rebuilding the shattered wall separating church and state!” because, according to him, the Commanding Officer of the Air Force Recruiting Service promised to remove a chaplain recruiting video Weinstein found “inappropriate.” According to Weinstein, MajGen Garrett Harencak

responded within a few hours that all Chaplain [sic] videos are being removed pursuant to an overhaul of ‘AirForce.com’ and that he would see to it that the removal of this particular video is accelerated.

A month later, not only is the video still up at AirForce.com — but, in unusually blunt words, the Air Force is actually defending it [emphasis added]:

Air Force Headquarters at the Pentagon told Military.com it does not see a problem with [the video]…

“Chaplains being available to airmen for spiritual support, and sharing these experiences in their official capacity, does not violate the establishment clause or Air Force regulations.”

There are three important issues here:  Read more

Colonel Bob Starr: “Obligated” to Support LGBT in US Air Force

starrpride1A fascinating set of developments has occurred in a Texas GOP primary race for the US House of Representatives. Michael Bob Starr is a retired Colonel and was recently the Wing Commander at Dyess AFB, which is in the district for which he is running. Promoting himself as a conservative — his Twitter tag line says “Conservative. Christian. Husband. Father.” — one of his opponents is accusing him of participating in “social engineering” while in the Air Force:

The candidate, Colonel Bob Starr, can be seen in a number of photos wearing gay pride clothing, throwing his arms in the air as a champion in gay pride runs, and even wearing a rainbow painted gay pride shirt…

Col Starr eventually responded, saying [emphasis added]

“I believe and strongly support traditional marriage, but as commander of Dyess Air Force Base, my job was to enforce the law and not discriminate against anyone who made different lifestyle choices than the ones that I agreed with,” Col. Starr says. “All I had to do was make sure that homosexual airmen were not discriminated against. That’s what changed in the law in 2011…”

“As leader of the base, I participated in as many events as I could to support as many airmen as I could…”

“I created an atmosphere of acceptance,” Col. Starr claims. “I did it regardless of the group or organization.”

Critics pointed out that he seemed to go beyond “all [he] had to do” when he participated in the “gay pride” events.  In another article Col Starr is quoted as saying he was “obligated” to Read more

Report: Awesome KC-135 Tanker Crew Saves Helpless Fighter Pilot

A news release from the 22nd Air Refueling Wing spiraled into infamy as it highlighted how a KC-135 Stratotanker crew “saved” an F-16 pilot:

“The lead F-16 came up first and then had a pressure disconnect after about 500 pounds of fuel. We were expecting to offload about 2,500 pounds.”

After the F-16 disconnected a second time, the pilot went through his checklists and told the crew he had a fuel system emergency. Over 80 percent of his total fuel capability was trapped and unusable.

Since the F-16 could take some gas, he stayed with the tanker and flew back to his base along side the tanker, taking gas every 15 minutes or so.

Then he landed. And the tanker went back to his orbit. And life went on.

There are a variety of things that could go wrong to make a fighter experience “trapped fuel” or a similar fuel system malfunction. The standard thing to do when that happens is land — or, if unable to land, find a tanker, and then top-off with the tanker every few minutes on the way home.  That’s what they did.

The crew’s squadron commander put an interesting spin on it, though:  Read more

Character: Not the Views of the US Air Force

Reserve BrigGen Udo “Karl” McGregor is the US Air Force Vice Commander to the little-known Joint Enabling Capabilities Command. He has a storied career, from a helicopter mechanic as an Airman in the 1970s to the C-5 and joint billets today, logging more than 11,000 flight hours along the way.

On February 2nd, the official Air Force website published Gen McGregor’s commentary entitled simply “Character.” This was the very first line, emphasized in the original italics:

The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Air Force, Defense Department or the U.S. Government.

For its part, the short article almost seemed to Read more

Air Force to Allow Enlisted to Fly Drones

Hearkening back to the days of the “flying sergeant,” the US Air Force will soon allow enlisted personnel to control RQ-4 Global Hawks:

“Our enlisted force is the best in the world and I am completely confident they will be able to do the job and do it well,” said Secretary of the Air Force Deborah Lee James…

The secretary and chief directed Air Combat Command to develop an implementation plan over the next six months to address items like entry requirements, training plans, career path development, delineation of duties, compensation details and an appropriate force mix. Implementation is focused on the Global Hawk community, not the MQ-1 Predator and MQ-9 Reaper force.

To be fair, the RQ-4 is a “fly by keyboard” drone: While it Read more

Pilot Nate Saint, Ecuador Missionaries, Martyred 60 Years Ago

saintsLast week, Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF) noted it was exactly 60 years ago on January 8, 1956, that Nate Saint, Jim Elliot, Ed McCully, Peter Fleming and Roger Youderian were killed by the Waoranis (Auca), an unreached native people the group had been hoping to evangelize. Saint had flown the group out in his PA-13 and landed on a riverbank.

The story made international news, including a 10-page story in LIFE Magazine entitled “Go Ye and Preach the Gospel – Five Do and Die.” The US Air Force deployed Read more

Pentagon Leads on Sexuality and Gender, Defers on Religion

When dozens of retired General Officers lobbied Secretary of Defense Ash Carter to lift restrictions on Sikhs serving in the US military, the DoD had a somewhat odd response [emphasis added]:

A Pentagon official speaking to Military.com on background said there is no Defense Department policy on Sikhs…to review…

The Defense Department issues standards that the individual services may interpret broadly and implement on their own, with no service bound by a decision made by another…

In essence, the DoD said it doesn’t have a policy preventing  Read more

Mikey Weinstein Attacks Air Force, Ignores “Putrid” Prayers at Navy, Army

usafapray2Michael “Mikey” Weinstein is trying to make significant waves over the continued practice of US Air Force Academy football players taking a knee in the end zone prior to the start of their games. He has famously called the practice “putrid” and a

monstrous travesty and brutal breach of federal constitutional law…

Weinstein’s group has even categorically said these football players are Christians (how he knows that, no one knows) — and that they sound “like the Taliban…or worse.”

Oddly, even though West Point and Read more

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