Father George Zabelka was a Catholic Chaplain with the US Army Air Forces in 1945. He was stationed on Tinian Island, and he was the Chaplain for the aircrew who dropped the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
After leaving the military the next year, Zabelka ultimately became a pacifist.
In 1980, he gave an interview in which he described Read more
US Navy Lt Haji “Omar” Shareef, a helicopter pilot, was interviewed recently on his ability to adhere to the religious tenets of Ramadan while being a military pilot. (Video below the fold.)
While he says Muslims can largely do their duties, he notes they do ask for accommodations such as not doing physical training during the day, since they cannot drink water between sunrise and sunset.
On his part, as a pilot, he “puts himself on Read more
Dr. Michael Milton is President of the Reformed Theological Seminary. He is also US Army Chaplain (Maj) Michael Milton, an instructor at the US Army Chaplain Center & School at Fort Jackson, SC.
Chaplain Milton recently responded to the criticism of the Air Force’s “ICBM training course” that was allegedly “pulled” over Christian content, including in its reference to Just War. (More recent information indicates the course wasn’t actually part of ICBM training.)
The Chaplain focuses, as others have, on the Just War inclusion in the brief, which was not the point of the course. The course was not designed to teach Just War; it simply mentioned it as one response to criticisms of war and ultimately the use of nuclear weapons. Still, the Chaplain had some interesting things to say.
Attorney Mikey Weinstein, Read more
Rabbi Arnold Resnicoff, a former Navy Chaplain who once acted as a special advisor to the Air Force on religious issues and remains engaged in current events, has a guest column in the Washington Post suggesting it is time for a new Chaplain’s insignia in the US military.
Today’s chaplains wear one of four separate insignias: Read more
According to the Air Force Times, the Air Force is reviewing “all” materials it uses to teaches “ethics, core values, and character development.” The reason?
More Christian-themed course work surfaced.
The gross misrepresentation of the Chaplain briefing at Vandenberg, promoted by Michael Weinstein and his “religious freedom” allies, has already been discussed. The latest issue is a “complaint” about ethics training in ROTC.
The ROTC briefing, called “Core Values and the Air Force Member,” contains references to the Sermon on the Mount and the Ten Commandments as examples of ethical values. Two additional slides list the New Testament teachings of Jesus known as the Beatitudes, and seven of the commandments, including “Have no other gods before me.”
The 22-slide briefing also cites the Golden Rule as an example of ethical values. One of the slides points out that the Golden Rule — “do unto others as you would have them do unto you” — is found in five of the world’s major religions.
Shocking, isn’t it? A slideshow on ethics gives Christian Read more
The Army’s Chief of Chaplains, Chaplain (MajGen) Donald Rutherford, is scheduled to open the Fort Hood “Warrior and Family Chapel Campus” today. The huge multi-million dollar facility will serve the spiritual fitness needs of one of the largest military installations in the US.
The $28 million facility houses approximately 100,000 square-feet devoted to the spiritual fitness of the Fort Hood military community. The four buildings will serve as a multi-purpose activity center, a home for the installation’s Chaplain’s Family Life Training Center, a worship center and a religious education facility.
Fort Hood reportedly has a burgeoning faith community; for example, Catholic service attendance is more than 1,000 each Sunday.
Continuing the US Army’s focus on Comprehensive Soldier Fitness, Fort Carson is closing one of its gyms to “transform” it into the “Forrest Resiliency Center.” The center will be
the cornerstone of a Mountain Post Resiliency Campus that includes a super gym, a behavioral health facility and a child development center.
While the news release focuses largely on the “super gym” and health issues associated with deploying, the Resiliency Campus will include “spiritual” Read more
US Army Chaplain (Capt) Somya Malasri is currently in Australia with his unit, where he is leading Buddhist services for both American servicemembers and their Australian hosts.
An Army article notes Chaplain Malasri is “evangelizing” in his travels around the world:
A chaplain for 10 months now, Malasri is spreading the teachings and philosophies of Buddha to soldiers on multiple continents.
In an interesting perspective, Chaplain Malasri says “it’s not necessarily Read more