A tactical signals system (a very fancy radio) built by General Dynamics called the “Prophet Enhanced” will soon be integrated into US Army Panther vehicles.
Who cares? No one, really. But those who are hypersensitive to religious themes in association with the military will probably be offended (again).
After all, what will our adversaries think if the US military is using the Prophet to listen to them?
An Army Times article notes the US Army’s struggle to end a near-tradition of cheating on military promotion tests. It appears many of the exams are long-running, meaning that gouge of one sort or another is readily available and frequently used.
The Army is far from the only service to experience such scandals. The Navy has had its fair share of cheating, as has the Air Force, and cheating scandals at all of the military academies have made headlines at one time or another.
Hunts for online “help” for military courses is so common that one of the frequent searches that leads people to this very site is “pme,” “sos,” or “acsc” “gouge.” Those who land here will instead find Read more
Chaplain (Capt.) Emil Kapaun, a World War II and Korean War Chaplain who died in captivity in North Korea, was recommended for the Medal of Honor by outgoing Secretary of the Army Pete Geren.
According to the Stars and Stripes,
Kapaun was captured by the Chinese in the fall of 1950, when Communist forces overran the 1st Cavalry Division in northern Korea near the Chinese border. American commanders had ordered their forces to retreat, but Kapaun, a Catholic priest with the 3rd Battalion, refused and stayed to care for the men who couldn’t flee.
Stripes also called Kapaun a “prisoner of war,” which while commonly understood is technically inaccurate. Read more
Thomas Dyer grew up Presbyterian and enlisted in the Marines. Feeling threatened by the training he was receiving to kill, he left the Marines and attended Mid-America Baptist Seminary, eventually becoming a Baptist preacher. His inability to find happiness as a Christian led him to convert to Buddhism. Having obviously given up his job as a Protestant preacher, he joined the Army National Guard and was commissioned a Chaplain in 2008. He will deploy to Iraq in January.
The article on Dyer is quite interesting, detailing both his wife’s reaction (she stands by him, though she hopes he’ll return to Christianity) and Dyer’s own lifelong search for fulfillment. Read more
The Military Religious Freedom Foundation recently “amended” its lawsuit against the Department of Defense. It made one substantive addition, saying Army Specialist Chalker had
sought relief for his claims by invoking an intra-army administrative process. He has exhausted this alternative remedy but has obtained no substantial relief.
The premise of the cryptically vague statement (that Chalker used the Army’s in-place grievance systems) was already included in the lawsuit, so it does not appear that an amendment was judicially required. The announcement of the changes to the lawsuit–which was only filed approximately three months earlier–did highlight the suit in the press for a short time.
The other changes, upon which the MRFF has focused attention, have been additions to the long list of allegations (unrelated to the primary complaint) of Christian endorsement in the US military, which founder Michael Weinstein says is a “national security threat:”
The military command and control of our nation’s nuclear, biological, chemical, conventional and laser-guided weapons has been unconstitutionally compromised by a tsunami of unbridled fundamentalist Christian exceptionalism, triumphalism and proselytizing. Read more
Prior to dropping its previous lawsuit against the Department of Defense, the Military Religious Freedom Foundation filed a new lawsuit on behalf of an Army soldier who was required to attend military formations at which “sectarian Christian” prayers were delivered.
The relief sought by the MRFF is not that the prayers end, but that the soldier not be required to attend those mandatory formations. The unwieldiness of implementing this relief would have the effect of requiring all mandatory formations (whether in fact or perceived) to be free from sectarian prayer (which the 11th Circuit said would be impossible to define), or simply free from any prayer at all.
In its current filing, the MRFF does not attempt to prove that the prayers advanced a religion Read more
According to the Associated Press, the Army has given non-judicial punishment to a soldier who assaulted a fellow trainee (previous discussions). The assault has been widely reported in concert with the victim’s complaints of discrimination because of his Jewish faith; however, the Army indicates there was no evidence the incidents were related. Michael Weinstein disagreed, saying
Michael Handman was turned into a punching bag for the Army because of his religious faith.
The incidents were also reported at the blog Jews in Green, where CAPT Neil Block, USN (Ret), has commented. He was the retired Jewish officer and local leader brought in to provide an assessment of the situation, and his comments are enlightening.
Also noted at the Religion Clause.
According to a variety of press reports, Weinstein’s Military Religious Freedom Foundation has withdrawn its lawsuit filed on behalf of Jeremy Hall against the Department of Defense. The decision comes after months of delays in the MRFF’s deadline (and days prior to the current one) to file a response to the military’s motion to dismiss.
Some reports have implied that the decision was based on Hall’s plan to leave the Army next year; however, since the lawsuit was announced last year Hall has widely reported that he planned to leave the Army. The decision to abandon the case now is inconsistent with Weinstein’s frequent comments in support of it, including a recent assertion that a post-lawsuit IG visit would bolster the case.
The more likely cause Read more