Tag Archives: mre

PETA Demands Air Force Academy Stop Killing Cute Bunnies

USAFA Survival Meal

USAFA Survival Meal

Every summer US Air Force Academy and select ROTC cadets trudge through the forests west of USAFA conducting Combat Survival Training (CST). They’re taught basic survival skills as well as navigation and night travel, as might occur if they were on the ground in hostile territory.

As part of this training, cadets are expected to kill and eat — or “thump and muck,” as the trainers sometimes say — rabbits, which are provided by the school for that purpose [emphasis added]:

The academy program has been around since the 1960s and trains cadets how to live in the wilderness and evade enemy forces. It stems from an older Air Force Survival, Escape, Resistance and Evasion program that’s has been used to train flight crews since World War II.

As part of the program, cadets are trained to kill and cook their own food under primitive conditions.

It turns out PETA doesn’t like that [emphasis added]:  Read more

Rabbi Elie Estrin Commissioned as Air Force’s Only Bearded Chaplain

Rabbi Elie Estrin (previously discussed here) recently graduated from Officer Training School, officially making him an officer in the Air Force Reserve — and the Air Force’s only chaplain wearing a beard:

During the five week Commissioned Officer Training Course, Rabbi Estrin ate Kosher MRE’s (ready-to-eat meals) and said that staff were fantastic about facilitating his required accommodations, some of which included his adherence to Shabbat and the 25 hour fast of Tisha Be’av, a day which commemorates the destruction of the second temple in Jerusalem.

(Chaplain Menachem Stern currently serves in the US Army with a beard.)

Religious beards mark one Read more

Numbers on US Contributions to Libyan Civil War

The Stars and Stripes published a “by the numbers” of the US efforts to support the rebels in Libya.  Among the list:

  • 19,877 total sorties (5,357 U.S. sorties)
  • 262 U.S. strike sorties that dropped ordnance
  • 101 predator drone strikes
  • $896 million in total cost to the U.S. (through July 31)
  • $222 million in U.S. arms and fuel sales to participating allies
  • $12.5 million in non-lethal U.S. aid (food, medical supplies, etc.)
  • 120,000 Halal ready-to-eat meals (delivered to Benghazi in May)

It seems the US military was accommodating even to the (at least perceived) religious needs of the rebels in Libya.