Tag Archives: mark welsh

AF Band Flash Mobs Smithsonian with Christmas Songs (Video)

This, this is Christ the King,
Whom shepherds guard and angels sing:
Haste, haste to bring Him laud,
The babe, the son of Mary.

Continuing a tradition begun last year, the US Air Force Band “flash mobbed” the Smithsonian and performed What Child is This? and Carol of the Bells, to the delight of the crowd:

The Air Force Times Flightlines blog noted that the official Air Force Band website said the first song was Greensleeves.  While Greensleeves is the same tune as What Child is This?, the vocalists were clearly singing the lyrics to the latter.

Military members can Read more

US Air Force Revises Religious Guidelines

As previously noted, the Air Force has published a revision to its AFI 1-1, “Air Force Standards,” which alters the wording and tone on how the service views religious liberty and expression.  The new AFI can be found here (PDF).

The greatest sources of consternation were paragraphs 2.11 and 2.12, and that’s where the Air Force made its revisions. In one notable change, the topics of 2.11 and 2.12 have been reversed: The Air Force now talks about religious freedom and expression before it talks about restrictions and the Establishment clause. While that may seem insignificant to some, it is noteworthy for the tone of the regulation.

The most significant change to the AFI — in direct response to laws passed by Congress — also marks its most dramatic explicit statement. The new regulation now says [emphasis added]:

Every Airman also has the right to individual expressions of sincerely held beliefs, to include conscience, moral principles or religious beliefs, unless those expressions would have an adverse impact on military readiness, unit cohesion, good order, discipline, health and safety, or mission accomplishment.

Every Airman has the right to express their religious beliefs.  Further, Read more

Air Force Updates Religious Guidance after Outcry

The Air Force announced it has updated AFI 1-1 — because of issues regarding religious liberty [emphasis added]:

Air Force officials approved Air Force Instruction 1-1, Air Force Standards, Nov. 7, to clarify guidance on Airmen’s religious rights and commanders’ authority and responsibility to protect those rights.

The announcement contained a summary of the changes. The changes [emphasis added]

clarify guidance for how commanders should handle religious accommodation requests or when Airmen’s rights to free exercise are questioned. Chaplain corps officials also clarified policy language to assist commanders in balancing the constitutional protections for their own free exercise of religion or other personal beliefs with the constitutional prohibition against governmental establishment of religion.

Importantly, General Welsh is quoted as specifically Read more

Group Objects After Air Force Pulls Commander’s Article on Faith

The 180th Fighter Wing Commander has reportedly censored an article written by his Medical Group Commander, Col Florencio Marquinez, because of a complaint by Michael “Mikey” Weinstein.  (The article can be read here.)

According to the Christian legal organization Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), [a civilian] complained about Marquinez’ article, claiming that it was “odious” and “offending.” In response to the complaint, Commander Col. Craig R. Baker ordered the newsletter to be republished without Marquinez’ piece.

Weinstein claimed full credit, praising the commander.  The “odious” and “offending” words were his [emphasis added]:  Read more

Air Force Publishes AFI 1-2, Commander’s Responsibilities

To mixed reviews, the Air Force Chief of Staff has published a second Air Force Instruction, AFI 1-2, Commander’s Responsibilities, which lays out the expectations and responsibilities of commanders.

To some extent, it may permit the Air Force to describe why commanders get fired. As opposed to “loss of confidence,” the AF can now say they violated a specific provision of AFI 1-2.

The AFI contains a few notable phrases, starting with a quote from Title 10 [emphasis added]:

2.2. …All commanding officers and others in authority in the Air Force are required:

(3) to guard against and suppress all dissolute and immoral practices, and to correct, according to the laws Read more

Air Force May Change Religious Freedom Policy

Mikey Weinstein’s confused take on the Air Force’s policy:  It’s like an umbrella in a tsunami…

McClatchy asked the question no other media outlet has in the past few weeks: What ever became of the “offsite” Secretary of the Air Force Deborah Lee James said she was convening?

Late last month, James and Welsh convened a “Religious Freedom Focus Day” conference of senior chaplains and legal and manpower officials to discuss the policy. An Air Force spokeswoman, Rose Richeson, declined to make the results of the April 28 meeting public, saying it would be “too premature to provide an interview.”

It would seem, though, someone may have heard what occurred:

Tony Perkins, the president of the Family Research Council…said that based on what he’d heard from people at the meeting he expected the Air Force to “make a policy change shortly.”

The article says Perkins’ statement “alarms supporters of the policy,” and cites exactly one person: Michael “Mikey” Weinstein.  The policy Read more

General Welsh on the Passing of a Man of Honor

General Mark Welsh, Chief of Staff of the US Air Force, eulogized Col Jim Kasler, a World War II B-29 tail gunner, Korean war ace jet pilot, and POW during Vietnam who passed away on April 24th:

In addition to being the only man awarded the Air Force Cross three times, Kasler was decorated twice with the Silver Star, a Legion of Merit, nine awards of the Distinguished Flying Cross, two Bronze Star Medals, two Purple Hearts and 11 Air Medal awards.

But what was most important to him was Read more

Congressmen Call Air Force Religion Rules Unconstitutional

Update: Congressman Lamborn’s potential political rivals reacted, with Republican Bentley Rayburn, a retired Major General and 1975 USAFA graduate, saying Lamborn hasn’t done enough to support religious freedom at USAFA, while Democrat Irv Halter, also a retired Major General and 1977 USAFA graduate, says Lamborn has gone too far.

A few weeks ago congressmen asked the Secretary of the Air Force to document and explain the Air Force religious policy and its application at the US Air Force Academy, following USAFA’s command decision to pull down a Bible verse on a cadet’s whiteboard. As noted then and in a subsequent congressional hearing, the Air Force has relied heavily on AFI 1-1, a Chief of Staff level AFI published in the final days of General Norton Schwartz’s tenure in 2012.

Now, Congressman Doug Lamborn of Colorado (home to the US Air Force Academy) has written a letter signed by 22 other congressmen asking Secretary of the Air Force Deborah Lee James to revise the policy at issue:

The August 2012 Air Force regulations which govern religious freedom and expression (AFI 1-1) are inconsistent with Congressional intent and current law…

The first issue Lamborn cites is the “undefinable” standard the Air Force uses [emphasis added]:  Read more

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