Tag Archives: Navy

Military Reviews Moral Solutions to Causes of Sexual Assault

Two Air Force JAGs, Major Ken Artz and 1Lt Peter Smyczek wrote a fascinating article that supported General Mark Welsh’s assertion that the accepted culture is part of the sexual assault problem in the military.  Entitled “Sexual Assaults in the Military: Porn is Part of the Problem,” their piece began with a simple statement [emphasis added]:

If our military is to lower its rate of sex crimes, it must limit its members’ consumption of pornography and educate them about its risks.

The JAGs point out that the Air Force must address the underlying behaviors that lead to sexual assault — not merely attack the Read more

Navy Commander Cites Sense of Entitlement in Homosexual Agenda

In a May 26 letter to the editor at the Marine Corps Times, Navy Commander Robert Spencer replied to an April 15 letter from US Air Force Capt Matthew Phelps, an outspoken military homosexual who had complained of the lack of recognition for his marriage.

Cmdr Spencer calls out Capt Phelps for his sense of “entitlement:”

I fail to see where he is a victim. Homosexual marriages are not true marriages as presently defined.

The homosexual agenda is an attempt to redefine traditional marriage, defined as between a man and a woman.

This traditional definition of marriage has Read more

JAG: Military May Not be able to Ban Offensive Websites

In the middle of the ongoing discussion about US military troops and their use of social media comes an interesting piece at the Marine Corps Times, where former military JAGs make the case that the Marines may not be able to police troops’ use of certain websites, despite their implication they may try to do so.

The impetus behind the discussion are generally certain Facebook pages that were denigrating toward female Marines.  Said General James Amos, Commandant of the Marine Corps:

In a May 29 letter to Rep. Jackie Speier, D-Calif., Gen. Jim Amos denounced Facebook pages and other social media Read more

Blessing of the Fleet Canceled over First Amendment

A 16-year tradition of a “blessing of the fleet” has been canceled because the Americans United for the Separation of Church and State complained.

This wasn’t the military, though.  It was a grade school.

South Bristol Elementary School eighth-graders will launch their handmade skiffs next month without the traditional “blessing of the fleet” after a letter from…Americans United for Separation of Church and State informed the school that student involvement with the historic maritime ceremony violated the First Amendment.

The US Navy and various small towns conduct “blessings of the fleet” in accordance with centuries of maritime tradition.  Indeed, the US Navy just performed theirs.

Just don’t tell the AU…

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UAV Does Touch and Go on Carrier

Just days after its first carrier launch, the Navy’s X-47B, the Navy’s Unmanned Combat Air System Demonstrator (UCAS-D), successfully did a touch and go on the USS George H.W. Bush (CVN-77) last week.

Don Blottenberger, UCAS-D Deputy Program manager, commented, “This landing, rubber hitting deck, is extremely fulfilling for the team and is the culmination of years of relative navigation development. Now, we are set to demonstrate the final pieces of the demonstration.”

But does it wear dogtags when it plays volleyball on the beach?

(That’s a Top Gun reference, for those UPT students who weren’t even born when that movie came out…)

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Atheist Supports Restricting Military Religious Freedom

Update: Former Marine pilot Tom Carpenter of the Forum on the Military Chaplaincy — a liberal activist group — largely repeated the list below a few weeks later, though he did so without attribution.

Jason Torpy, the one-man band that is the Military Association of Atheists and Freethinkers, recently posted a point-by-point refutation of recent accusations of the US military being hostile to Christianity.

Much of his disagreement was nuance or the way in which something was phrased, which isn’t worth discussing here.  The interesting ones, though, were the cases in which he agreed with the US military’s “anti-Christian” actions:

January 2010 — Department of Defense orders removal of tiny Bible references on military scopes and gunsights.
Torpy: True and appropriate.

This issue has been discussed before.  While there is no religious requirement the references remain, the fact they were targeted because of their (obscure) religious reference — only after Michael Weinstein complained, notably — is troubling.  That he would seek this Read more

WSJ Cites Chilling Effect of Air Force Meeting with Weinstein

The Wall Street Journal had a fairly balanced article on the recent dust up over Air Force leaders choosing to meet with religious freedom critic Michael Weinstein at the Pentagon in late April.  Author Mollie Ziegler Hemingway accurately notes that there’s been a bit of sensationalism in recent headlines:

Initial reports on these matters were exaggerated, taken out of context or simply false.

But she also acknowledges that, exaggerated or not, there are still some valid concerns:

For one thing, the Pentagon statement clarifying that military personnel would not be court-martialed if they “evangelize” also said that “proselytization” is considered a [UCMJ] offense. Yet the definitions of those two words are almost identical…

Further, the WSJ piece notes that regardless of any hyperbole in recent claims, there remains concern over the mere fact the Air Force met with Weinstein:  Read more

US Navy Blesses the Fleet

While the US Air Force still only needs two digits to measure its age, the US Navy, or naval power in general, has been around for multiple centuries.  With that long history comes many centuries-old traditions, including the annual “Blessing of the Fleet.”  An official Navy article gives a quick note:

The Blessing of the Fleets ceremony is a centuries-old ceremony rooted in seafaring heritage around the world…

and then proceeds to focus on the “Year of Military Women.”

Another Navy site, a non-governmental organization that runs the US Navy Memorial that hosts the annual event, described the event this way:

The centuries-old “Blessing of the Fleets” ceremony is intended to safeguard crews and ships from the danger of the seas through a traditional blessing given by a clergyman Read more

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