Tag Archives: USAFA

USAFA General Recalls Two Years of Leadership

The Colorado Springs Gazette wrote a short article on the US Air Force Academy’s Superintendent, LtGen Michelle Johnson, in which she looked back on the last two years of her leadership of USAFA:

In her first days on the job at the Air Force Academy, Lt. Gen. Michelle Johnson found herself justifying the school’s existence amid a Pentagon budget crunch and a looming government shutdown.

Two years later, she says those first frantic weeks have formed Read more

USAFA Cadets Choose Bombardier, Christian as Exemplar

In a relatively recent tradition, each class of US Air Force Academy cadets since 2000 has chosen an “exemplar” representing the character and fortitude to which they would like to aspire. Exemplars have included airpower giants like Mitchell and Doolittle, famous fighter pilots like Olds, and Major David Brodeur, USAFA Class of 1999, who was killed in Afghanistan.

The USAFA Class of 2018 recently chose as its exemplar Capt Louis Zamperini, Army Air Corps bombardier, POW, and outspoken Christian:

Cadet 3rd Class J. Benson Anderson, Jr., an Exemplar Committee official, said Zamperini was selected because he demonstrated the character and conviction the Class of 2018 strives to maintain.

“His loyalty in Read more

MajGen Dondi Costin Becomes Newest AF Chief of Chaplains

Chaplain (Col) Dondi Costin was promoted two steps to Major General and installed as the Air Force Chief of Chaplains in a ceremony on August 28th.

In a statement quoted in the Air Force Times, Chaplain Costin responded to the stories of his “memorable” invocations, which may give some insight into his opinion on “ceremonial prayer”:

Costin told Air Force Times that he spends a lot of time understanding each ceremony’s purpose and those being honored.

“Invocations aren’t just ceremonial placeholders lingering from a bygone era,” he said. “Rather, Read more

Mikey Weinstein has Lunch with Pam Zubeck. Film at 11.

Pam Zubeck has written for The Colorado Springs Independent, a small, left-leaning local paper, for a few years. Some time ago she became a veritable public affairs officer for Michael “Mikey” Weinstein, taking on his mantle and acting as his outlet for just about anything he had to say. (For the record, that’s a characterization she really dislikes.)

Last Wednesday, Zubeck had lunch with Weinstein…and that was apparently newsworthy for a small paper in town. She asked him about his next big thing:

Mikey Weinstein, the crusader against religious bias in the armed forces, will ask the Air Force Academy to remove the words “in the year of our Lord” from diplomas for the class of 2016, which Read more

Demons Rule at US Air Force Academy

The Air Force recently announced the victory of the Demons over their adversaries during US Air Force Academy basic training, which ends as the new cadets begin their academic year.

Much has been made of the apparently “supernatural” terminology sometimes invoked during Basic Cadet Training (BCT) at the US Air Force Academy. For example, each of the squadrons of cadets is known by a letter, from A to as high as J, depending on the size of the incoming class. They are:  Read more

J. Christ Becomes Permanent Professor at US Air Force Academy

Christ said his desire to improve conditions in the Air Force and around the world is his main source of inspiration in teaching cadets and leading the department…

Brig. Gen. Andrew Armacost, the Academy’s dean, said Christ’s…leadership abilities will benefit the Academy.

It’s Colonel John Christ according to the official article, but for an institution that has been (wrongly) accused of promoting Christianity, Read more

Inspector General Releases Report on Military Religious Freedom

As part of the 2014 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), Congress required the DoD Inspector General to report to Congress on the US military’s promulgation of religious liberty protections. This was presumably due to perceptions the military was being unresponsive to the wording in laws passed by Congress.

As a result of that requirement, the DoD IG released an initial report (3MB PDF) last week more notable for what it did not say than what it did. Despite specific congressional attention on “individual expressions of belief,” the IG report almost completely ignored that topic — though it admitted why [emphasis added]:

Virtually all…events in a service member’s career involve subjective, discretionary decisionmaking on the part of leaders and commanders. Identifying examples of discrimination based on conscience, moral principles, or religious beliefs was unrealistic because those reasons would almost never be cited as the basis for the decision…Further, denials of promotion, schooling, training, and assignment are a subset of adverse personnel actions.

To summarize:  Read more

President Obama Nominates New Air Force Chief of Chaplains

Update: The Honolulu Star-Advertiser, repeated at Military.com and the Stars and Stripes, tells a bit of Col Costin’s story, including his “unique” invocations…

“I hope not to change at all,” Costin said. “I hope I just stay who I am.”

In an official DoD release, Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter announced that President Obama had nominated US Air Force Col Dondi E. Costin to be the next Air Force Chief of Chaplains. As with some other headquarters staff jobs, the move merits a two-step promotion to Major General.

Chaplain Costin would be replacing Chaplain (MajGen) Howard Stendahl, who has served in the position since 2012.

Chaplain Costin is currently the Command Chaplain for PACAF. He is a frequent speaker at National Day of Prayer events, a participant in religious respect events Read more

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