Tag Archives: Military

Prior Service Academy Slots Unfilled

The military academies reserve some of their admissions for enlisted members of the military, allowing them to go to college and become officers.  This has led to a unique cadre of combat-experienced cadets at the Academies.

However, a US Army news release says that those at West Point are going unfilled, potentially because servicemembers don’t know about them.  Enlisted members of any of the services are encouraged to research the programs at each of the Academies designed to place aspiring enlisted members on the path to officership through a military academy experience.

AU Lodges IRS Complaint Against Liberty University

Americans United for the Separation of Church and State has, again, filed a complaint with the IRS asserting that Liberty University is misusing its status as a tax-exempt (501(c)3) organization.  The original complaint can be read here.

For its part, Liberty barely addressed the merits of the complaint, instead saying that this was simply another attempt by the AU to intimidate Liberty.  In fact, Mat Staver, the Liberty School of Law dean, said the school was considering legal action in response to the AU’s attempt to intimidate Liberty students:

“We’re now looking at whether we are going to respond by filing some kind of civil action against Americans United — because what they’re trying to do is essentially intimidate Liberty University, particularly the students, from exercising their constitutional right to vote,” he argues. “We’re not about to allow this organization to do that to Liberty University students.”

As noted in the discussion last year when AU filed a complaint against Liberty, the AU is frequently associated with criticisms of Christians in the military.  It remains a “partnering link” on the MRFF page, and Michael Weinstein has claimed AU membership at one point.

Christian Officer Commands Combined Arms Center

LtGen Robert Caslen assumed command of Fort Leavenworth, home of the US Army Combined Arms Center, this week.  (Caslen recently returned from a year-long deployment to Iraq, and he pinned on his third star just prior to the assumption of command.)  Home of 16 US Army professional military schools and centers, the CAC is the “intellectual center of the Army” and is responsible for much of the professional training of US Army leaders.  It is also now creating a Mission Command center of excellence to focus on battle command and future Army leader needs.  The CAC website says

CAC provides Army-wide leadership and supervision for leader development and professional military and civilian education; institutional and collective training; functional training; training support; battle command; doctrine; lessons learned; and other specified areas that the TRADOC Commander designates.

All of these are focused toward making CAC a catalyst for change and to support the development of a relevant and ready ground force to support joint, interagency and multinational operations anywhere in the world.

Now an influential military leader, LtGen Caslen is a model of professional success and Christian officership.

Weinstein Defines Religions, Assigns Followers

According to the Advocate, a homosexual advocacy publication, Michael Weinstein’s Military Religious Freedom Foundation is on a new crusade: supporting the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.”

Comically, Weinstein, who has been taken to task for his displays of Constitutional ignorance, again displays his lack of knowledge with regard to the ongoing controversy.  The Advocate asked him…twice…what power the President had to repeal the policy on homosexuals in the military.  Twice, the former White House counsel talked vaguely about executive orders without explaining how an executive order can overturn a law passed by Congress (Title 10, Subtitle A, Part II, Chapter 37, § 654).  (Answer: it can’t.)

When asked about who the MRFF is “fighting,” Weinstein again displayed his tendency to make up his own definitions of religious groups–and then to assign people to them as he saw fit.

We’ve got this fanatical religiosity in fundamental Christianity… Read more

Vanderbilt Chaplain on Islam, Homosexuals, and the Military

A somewhat under-the-radar controversy erupted in late January at Vanderbilt University.  Apparently, the Muslim Students Association and the Army and Navy ROTC programs jointly sponsored a discussion about Muslims in the military, a forum entitled “Common Ground: Being Muslim in the Military.”

Vanderbilt junior Devin Saucier, who is also a member of the Youth for Western Civilization, and Vanderbilt Islamic chaplain Awadh Binhazim participated in a heated exchange that was videotaped and made the rounds of the internet.  (It received enough publicity that Vanderbilt issued a statement clarifying Binhazim’s relationship with the school and expressing its support for free speech.)

Through several iterations of the question, Saucier asked Binhazim if he supported the Islamic belief that homosexuality was a capital crime.  After a variety Read more

Ash Wednesday in Iraq and DC

February 17th was Ash Wednesday, a day recognized by Catholic and some liturgical Protestant denominations by the placing of ashes or oil on the forehead.  As seen in a variety of pictures provided by the Department of Defense, this was a religious celebration that was able to occur even in a war zone: 

DoD Photo (Spc Daniel Schneider)

Ash Wednesday in Iraq. DoD Photo (Spc Daniel Schneider)

While the US military’s abundant support of free exercise enabled these Soldiers to partake in the religious celebration, there are obviously certain limitations in the combat theatre.  For example, the Soldiers would obviously not be able to refuse to put their protective gear (helmets) on because of the oil or ash on their forehead.

By the same token, there is no indication that the Soldiers were required to wipe off the religious observances prior to returning to combat.  Like their freedom to wear a cross or carry a Bible, even in combat, US Soldiers may go into combat on Ash Wednesday with the evident Christian symbol of ash on their forehead.  The US military does not restrict Read more

US Air Force Trains Afghan Air Force

As well as flying and fighting, the US Air Force has also been training the fledgling Afghan national army air corps in the C-27.  A group of 8 US Air Force members, pilots and loadmasters, are training a group of 7 Afghans in the hopes that they will soon form their own air force.

The report on the training squadron notes that one of the pilots attended US Air Force pilot training, “spending over a year training in the T-6 trainer at Columbus Air Force Base, Miss.”  US pilots normally fly the T-6 for only a few months, though the Afghan student’s curriculum was probably geared very specifically to the C-27 he would eventually fly.

Adversaries Use American Virtues as Weapons

As noted in earlier discussions about accusations of religious impropriety, American adversaries have begun to wage effective combat operations by using American virtues against US forces.  In the most recent example, a somewhat overly pessimistic Op-Ed in the New York Times says the Taliban have “beaten American airpower”–a dramatic claim, given that the Taliban has no Air Force or even an anti-air capability.  But, according to the author, the Taliban have found a “non-military” way to “beat” American airpower:  Read more

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