Tag Archives: air force

USAFA Chapel Makes World Top 10

As noted at the local Colorado Springs Gazette (via the Stars and Stripes), the US Air Force Academy Cadet Chapel has been named

one of the top 10 most spectacular modern churches by Emporis, a Germany-based compiler of real estate information.

The wing chaplain, Chaplain (Col) Robert Bruno, said

“For a building now 50 years old, I think this is utterly amazing that the Cadet Chapel is in the top-10 listing of the world’s most spectacular churches,” said Col. Robert Bruno, the academy’s chief chaplain.

Given that some of its competition was centuries old, 50 years isn’t too bad.

The chapel is reportedly the most popular man-made attraction in the state of Colorado and has been the source of both pride and controversy.

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Traditional Operation Christmas Drop Continues

The US Air Force conducted its annual Operation Christmas Drop over Micronesia this year:

[Ongoing] since December 1952…Operation Christmas Drop is the longest running humanitarian airlift mission supported by the Department of Defense.

U.S. military service members, their families, and the people of Guam teamed up with the Christmas Drop Organization to ensure a successful mission. The Christmas Drop Organization is a private organization Read more

Top 10 Military Religious Freedom Stories for 2013

As has been the trend for the past few years, issues of religion and the military seem to have largely fallen from the visibility they once had.  This year, as religious liberty sites have compiled their “top tens” for the year, the focus has largely been on DOMA and the challenges to the Affordable Care Act, otherwise known as Obamacare.  The left-leaning Baptist Joint Committee included only one military story, saying the “Pentagon debunks rumors of a policy change on religious expression” in reference to the springtime controversy over Michael “Mikey” Weinstein “consulting” with the Air Force (#9 on the list below).

The Top 10 most-read stories on ChristianFighterPilot.com for 2013:  Read more

Air Force Worried Pilots May Exit

According to Gordon Lubold, writing at Foreign Policy and repeated at the Stars and Stripes, the US Air Force is concerned about the “possible exodus” of military pilots to an ever-enticing private sector:

Over the next year, the commercial airline industry is going to begin hiring tens of thousands of new pilots as aging flyers retire and the industry regains its economic footing. That could put dark clouds in the way of the Air Force’s wild blue yonder as it tries to persuade pilots to stay in a service even as top officials worry that pilots don’t have enough yoke time.

“If pilots aren’t flying in the Air Force because Read more

USAF SMSgt Philip Monk on Military Religious Freedom

US Air Force SMSgt Philip Monk was the unit First Sergeant whose commander allegedly “agreed” that he should step away from his duties earlier than planned because he was unable to say that opposition to homosexuality was de facto discrimination in the military.

The Air Force found his allegations of religious discrimination “unsubstantiated” because “religion was never discussed between the two.”  The Air Force released portions of an investigation alleging he made false, but not punishable, statements, though it has not yet released anything about his commander’s statements, including the allegation she called a fellow Air Force officer — and chaplain — a “bigot” because he did not affirm homosexuality.

“The right thing to do is often the most difficult thing to do…

We weren’t called to do what’s easiest for our career. [We’re] called to do the right thing.”

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Dennis Prager on Christmas, Christians, and Mikey Weintsein

Dennis Prager is a radio talk show host and “religious Jew” who recently wrote a column entitled “Most Jews Wish You a Merry Christmas,” saying he not only has no problem with “Merry Christmas,” he does have a problem with those people who take issue with it:

The notion that non-Christians are excluded is absurd.

Americans who feel “excluded” are not excluded. They have decided to feel excluded. Which is, of course, entirely their right to do…

Saying the “left” has the

aim of secularizing America — which means, first and foremost, the removal of as many Christian references as possible.

Prager segues into commenting on someone he calls an “anti-Christian” Jew: Michael “Mikey” Weinstein, who has recently attacked Nativity scenes on military bases because, in part, some people feel “excluded” [emphasis added]:  Read more

NDAA Religious Liberty Language “a Win”

Update: Retired Chaplain (Col) Ron Crews of the Chaplain Alliance for Religious Liberty was similarly “grateful” that President Obama signed this “improve[d] religious liberty provision” into law.

The Family Research Council released a statement regarding the 2014 National Defense Authorization Act which has passed the Senate and gone to President Obama for his signature. In short, the FRC was pleased to see a strengthening in specific liberty language.

Noting last year’s version of the language, the FRC said the [emphasis added]

DOD has refused to issue the implementing regulations required by that law…Moreover, military branches such as the Air Force have interpreted the law very narrowly to apply only to a service member’s ability to hold a belief, not to practice or express that belief.

That truncated view of religious liberty has Read more

Mikey Weinstein wants Religious Freedom Confined to Chapel

In a short pieced entitled “Atheist says, ‘Boo!’ Navy jumps to attention,” Chaplain Alliance for Religious Liberty executive director retired Chaplain (Col) Ron Crews lamented the US military’s seeming subservience to Michael “Mikey” Weinstein:

“It’s just disappointing that the military, the Air Force and now the Navy, is just caving in to a shout from Mr. Weinstein,” says Crews. “He says, ‘Boo!’ and they hide – and that’s very disappointing.”

More interestingly, Crews highlights the core of the push Weinstein has most recently tried — and the one that brought him this “victory:”  Read more

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