Tag Archives: marines

US Army Rebuffs Jason Torpy’s Atheist Complaint about Prayer (Video)

Jason Torpy, the perpetually (and vicariously) offended atheist and former US Army Captain, complained last week that a US Army Air Assault graduation ceremony included a prayer:

MAAF has obtained a video showing enforced Christian prayer at Air Assault training at Ft Campbell. Trainees are directed to bow their head to graduation prayer and to give a response that sounds like “Amen”.

The 36-second prayer is in the video above.

Torpy complained Read more

Chaplains Help the Fight at Undisclosed Location

Reporting from an “undisclosed location,” an official Marine article notes the contribution of the Chaplains’ Corps to the mission:

United States service members are warfighters, first and foremost. No matter how impassable the terrain or daunting the enemy, the U.S. armed forces risk their lives to defend the nation and uphold its most fundamental and cherished values. With new missions always on the horizon, and day-to-day stresses weighing on their shoulders, it can become easy to neglect taking time to cultivate, nourish, and refine their spiritual practices.

To help facilitate religious worship and combat feelings of Read more

Bible Quote Court-Martialed Marine Appeals

Update: Franklin Graham weighs in here.

Court-martialed Marine Monifa Sterling has enlisted the Liberty Institute to help her appeal her conviction, which included a controversy over Bible quotes she had placed on her desk. Sterling was convicted

of failing to go to an appointed place of duty, disrespecting a superior commissioned officer and four specifications of disobeying a lawful order. She was sentenced last year to a reduction in rank from lance corporal to private and given a bad-conduct discharge, a status that will stay on her military record and prohibits her from receiving benefits as a veteran…

Sterling was found guilty Read more

US Marine Court-Martialed for Bible Quotes on Desk

In an apparently unreported story, a US Marine was court-martialed for, among other things, refusing to remove Biblical quotes taped to her desk. The “among other things” part may explain why the case hasn’t attracted much attention.  If the description in the court’s ruling was accurate, the Marine had quite a few “issues” beyond taping quotes to her desk.

However, to the relevant portion of US v Sterling (available here through a restricted access Lexis portal), as documented by the US Navy-Marine Corps Court of Criminal Appeals:

In May of 2013, the appellant’s duties included sitting at a desk and utilizing a computer to assist Marines experiencing issues with their Common Access Cards. The appellant printed three copies of the biblical quote “no weapon formed against me shall prosper”…cut the quotes to size and taped one along the top of the computer tower, one above the computer monitor on the desk, and one above the in-box. The appellant testified that she is a Christian and that she posted the quotation in three places to represent the Christian trinity.

The Marine was ordered by Read more

The 70th Anniversary of Iwo Jima, Chaplain Gittelsohn, and the Purest Democracy

Seventy years ago this month, US Marines slogged onto Iwo Jima, an island some 600-miles from the Japanese mainland. Nearly 6,000 Americans died and more than 17,000 were wounded in the month-long battle. As was the practice at the time, the dead were buried on the island in cemeteries designated for each Marine Division.

The Division chaplain reportedly asked US Navy Reserve Chaplain (Lt) Roland Gittelsohn to speak at the memorial dedicating the Fifth Marine Division cemetery on Iwo Jima. Chaplain Gittelsohn was the first Jewish chaplain to serve US Marines.

There was apparently resistance among the Christian chaplains to a Jewish chaplain presiding over the graves of Christians. Gittelsohn reportedly bowed out, instead delivering a eulogy to a smaller, 70-person Jewish ceremony — a ceremony attended by at least three Christian chaplains incensed by the intolerance of their fellow chaplains.

The chaplain’s eulogy was apparently Read more

Marine F-18 Crashes in Georgia

A South Carolina-based US Marine Corps F/A-18 crashed in Georgia near the end of February.  Both of the crewmembers ejected safely.

The F/18A Hornet was conducting low-altitude tactics training when it crashed…
The two-man crew parachuted from the plane…

The Marine Corps identified the men as Maj. Roy Nicka, the pilot, and 1st. Lt. Robert Reynolds, the weapons system officer

As with other such incidents, Read more

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