Tag Archives: army

Purple Heart for Soldier Killed in Arkansas?

Senator Joe Lieberman (I-Conn) has joined lawmakers from Texas and Arkansas who have been lobbying to have victims of the Fort Hood and Arkansas recruiting center attacks awarded Purple Hearts.

At a hearing Wednesday, Lieberman said he will try to insert an amendment in the annual defense authorization bill (currently in conference committee) to award a posthumous Purple Heart to Army recruiter Pvt. William Long, who was killed in a brazen 2009 shooting by a radical Islamic adherent.

The Purple Heart is awarded for wounds due to combat.  In order to award the medal, the US government would have to recognize the attack in Arkansas by Abdulhakim Muhammad — now serving a life sentence for the attack — as an act of combat by the enemy.  The same justification might ultimately be used for every other attack by terrorists inside the borders of the United States, including the attack at Fort Hood (“allegedly”) by US Army Maj Nidal Malik Hasan.

Interestingly, that would also open up such attacks to charges of treason Read more

US Army Engages Afghans on Culture, Religion

The US Army has been conducting “religious engagement conferences” to shore up support as the military conducts “turnover of responsibility” actions in Afghanistan.

“In this part of Afghanistan, culture is religion and religion is culture,” said Dauod Parwani, the RCT-5 cultural advisor. “The two concepts are inseparable, and unless you are speaking in the language of religion, no one will listen to you.”

The meetings involve not only US military leaders, but also US military chaplains — once again proving their mettle not only as supporters of the religious freedom of US troops, but also as instrumental to the strategic objectives of the US effort.

In fact, Chaplain (Cmdr) Mark Winward quotes Navy Chaplain (Capt) Paul Wrigley saying US military commanders ignore the importance of religion in military operations at their own peril:

“An operational commander, however Read more

From Artillery to the Chaplaincy

David Severson will soon be a Catholic chaplain with the Montana Army National Guard, and he brings an interesting history with him.  He was a 19-year-old artillery man with the US Army when he deployed in support of Operation Desert Storm.

He’s since attended seminary and obtained a degree uniquely suited to his desired end goal as a chaplain: 

a master’s degree in divinity with particular study of post-traumatic stress disorder…

Severson was recently ordained Read more

The US Military and Christmas Around the World

A few examples of the US military’s commitment to supporting its servicemembers through their religious celebrations:

At Ali Al Salem in Kuwait, a Christmas Eve candlelight service was the “culminating event over the month of celebration.”

US Army Chief of Chaplains MajGen Donald Rutherford presided over a Christmas Eve Catholic Mass at Camp Buehring, Kuwait.

Chief of Staff of the Air Force General Norton Schwartz Read more

Army JROTC Alters Policy on Religious Clothing

Students participating in the Army Junior ROTC high school program will now have more options when it comes to religious clothing in uniform.  In October, Demin Zawity, a freshman at Ravenwood High School in Brentwood, TN, was told she could not wear her Islamic headscarf while in the Army JROTC uniform.  While that policy was consistent with the US Army policy, there was some consternation even by Army officials, some of whom called JROTC a “citizenship” program, not a military program.

Now CAIR, the group that originally accused the Army of discrimination, has said the DoD told them

the Department of Defense will now allow Muslim Read more

PFC Bradley Manning’s Defense May Offend Homosexuals

A few articles have begun to take umbrage at the apparent planned defense of accused Wikileaker PFC Bradley Manning:  In essence, the nation’s worst release of classified information was the fault of the US military — not Manning.  The military was the one who allowed him to keep his clearance despite knowing he had ‘issues’ with his sexuality.

Manning’s lawyers argued his superiors failed to address his struggles with gender-identity disorder…

The defense team says Manning was nearly paralyzed Read more

Weinstein’s Attacks Don’t Dampen US Military Charity

Marines spread joy of Christmas, Soldiers donate to Catholic Charity, Toys for Tots teams with Christian non-profit…

Members of the US military continue to participate in traditional acts of charity and community service, even when such efforts are connected (however remotely) with religious organizations — despite Michael Weinstein’s efforts to quash such efforts last month.

The reason, of course, is that despite a somewhat unusual reaction from the US Air Force Academy last month, the US military has had no problem associating itself with religious organizations in their efforts to conduct humanitarian or charitable work.  In fact, it seems the majority of such work is conducted in concert with organizations that are in some way connected to a faith group, probably because so many humanitarian and charitable organizations are faith-based to begin with.

And that’s OK — because there is no military policy, regulation, or Read more

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