Former US Navy Chaplain Gordon Klingenschmitt has filed a suit in the US Court of Federal Claims seeking reinstatement and back pay or access to retirement.
Klingenschmitt was discharged in 2007 after a controversial couple of years largely revolving around his insistence on ending prayers “in Jesus’ name.” He has been filing appeals ever since.
Notably, Klingenschmitt’s timeline in the filing indicates Read more
Any article that starts with “retired male supermodel” and touches on peace and religion is bound to draw some kind of attention. From the Wall Street Journal, no less:
Retired male supermodel Cameron Alborzian sat down with Maj. Gen. Phil Jones at the U.S.-led coalition headquarters in Kabul this past summer to discuss a novel way to persuade Afghan insurgents to lay down arms.
Apparently Alborzian, who was once associated with Madonna’s music videos, has bent the ear of American and British Generals in Afghanistan with his suggestion that everyone should just meditate together, and everything would be ok: Read more
The Military Times notes the unveiling of a Navy airship at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, New Jersey.
The MZ-3A is the Navy’s scientific test platform for surveillance cameras, radars and other sensors…[used] “to prove LTA [lighter-than-air] has a place in our military construct,” said Cmdr. Jay Steingold.
The slow, long-endurance vehicles are variations on the blimp/dirigible and could fill a variety of roles. The Navy isn’t the only one to have such a program: Read more
Last month the Washington Times covered an article by former Secretary of the Navy John Lehman entited “Is Naval Aviation Culture Dead?”:
[He] wrote that the swagger and daring of yesterday’s culture has given way to a focus on integrating women and, this year, gays.
Pilots constantly worry about anonymous complaints about salty language, while squadron commanders are awash in bureaucratic requirements for reports and statistics, he added.
“Those attributes of naval aviators — willingness to take intelligent calculated risk, self-confidence, even a certain swagger — that are invaluable in wartime are the very ones that make them particularly vulnerable in today’s zero-tolerance Navy,” said Mr. Lehman, Read more
For the second time, US Marine Corps recruiters have been the sole respondents to an invitation by a homosexual group to set up a recruiting booth, though they had to get a little funding help from the organizers to attend:
Alan Chan, San Gabriel Valley Pride’s secretary, invited military personnel in the Pasadena recruitment office across from the college to set up booths at the event. The Navy, he said, did not have adequate staffing. The Army had previously committed to another event. The Air Force Read more
The Marines have decided to deploy an unmanned helicopter to Afghanistan to conduct cargo delivery operations:
Adm. Bill Shannon, program executive officer for Unmanned Aviation and Strike Weapons, approved Lockheed Martin/Kaman’s K-MAX unmanned helicopter for a six-month deployment to augment Marine Corps ground and air logistics operations.
The unmanned helicopter has reportedly Read more
The Navy Times notes US Naval aviators (not pilots; pilots are the guys that drive the boats) are “chafing” at fairly new rules on the wear of their flight suits.
The January policy required black T-shirts be worn with green suits and brown T-shirts be worn with tan suits. It also relegated graduate-level aircrew training patches to the right shoulder and required garrison caps to be stuffed into either leg pocket with the zipper open and cap exposed.
One aviator summarized this as all of the bad parts of the Air Force rules (which also recently changed) and none of the good: Read more
Though “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” is technically no more, the conversation over the law’s demise continues.
The Air Force Times notes that, for the most part, the US military academies expect “few changes” in the post-“Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” environment.
Still, the US Naval Academy at Annapolis [Correction:] US Coast Guard Academy did announce one specific change: Read more