SecDef to Deliver Naval Academy Commencement
Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel will deliver the commencement address at the US Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland. Read more
Tag Archives: USAFA
US Air Force Academy Hosts Wiccan Priestess
While the US Air Force Academy is regularly accused of being dominated by Christianity, its support for other faith systems routinely goes unnoticed or unpublicized (even by its own Public Affairs, apparently):
Selena Fox, who calls herself a Wiccan priestess, was recently hosted by the USAFA chaplains. (She’s holding a chapel coin.) They took a hike with some local pagans up to Falcon Circle, formerly known as the LZ, an “outdoor chapel” area created with some intent to host earth-centered religious adherents a few years ago.
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Fighter Pilot Col Stephen Williams to be New USAFA Commandant
Col Williams, left, and his wife at the Misawa 2014 National Day of Prayer.
The Air Force Academy announced Col Stephen Williams has been selected for promotion to Brigadier General and for the position of Commandant of the US Air Force Academy.
A 1989 Academy graduate, he was the top engineering mechanics graduate here….
According to his official biography, Williams attended pilot training after leaving the Academy and was a distinguished graduate at Williams Air Force Base, Ariz.
Col Williams is an F-16 pilot by trade and is currently the Wing Commander of the 35th Fighter Wing at Misawa Air Base, Japan.
Also at the local Colorado Springs Gazette.
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Colorado Candidate Pens Letter on Religious Freedom
Retired USAF MajGen Bentley Rayburn, potential competition for sitting US Rep Doug Lamborn, recently said Congressman Lamborn wasn’t doing enough for religious freedom in the Air Force. He wrote a guest column in the Colorado Springs Gazette, local to USAFA, giving his take on recent controversies:
Nobody can state with a straight face that the act of posting a Bible verse on a white board infringes or damages anyone else’s constitutionally protected individual rights…
Air Force Instruction 1-1 para 2-12 is without equivocation in stating that Airmen “should confidently practice [their] own beliefs while respecting others whose viewpoints differ from your own…”
To walk away from creating a culture at the Air Force Academy where ideas are expressed, debated, defended and strengthened is to make it a third-rate school, hardly deserving to be called a real university.
And what kind of men and women Read more
Obama to West Point, Biden to USAFA for Graduation
President Obama will deliver the commencement address at the US Military Academy this year.
More than 1,000 cadets are expected to graduate and be commissioned as second lieutenants in the U.S. Army after completing their 47-month leadership experience, and the president looks forward to addressing these outstanding graduates,” [White House] spokesman Keith Maley said.
Vice President Biden will give the address at the US Air Force Academy.
Traditionally, the President and several other key military leaders rotate among the service academies. He spoke at USAFA in 2012 and Annapolis in 2013.
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Army ROTC to Hold Lecture on Religion and the Military
The University of Arkansas Army Reserve Officer Training Corps is planning a lecture on April 24th specifically on the issue of religious freedom in the US military.
The lecture and discussion will provide a platform for students to learn more about religious freedoms in the military and discuss experiences with other veteran students. The event will give students and future service members the opportunity to ask questions and discuss the lecture topics and the speakers’ life experiences.
The speaker will be Read more
Congressmen Call Air Force Religion Rules Unconstitutional
Update: Congressman Lamborn’s potential political rivals reacted, with Republican Bentley Rayburn, a retired Major General and 1975 USAFA graduate, saying Lamborn hasn’t done enough to support religious freedom at USAFA, while Democrat Irv Halter, also a retired Major General and 1977 USAFA graduate, says Lamborn has gone too far.
A few weeks ago congressmen asked the Secretary of the Air Force to document and explain the Air Force religious policy and its application at the US Air Force Academy, following USAFA’s command decision to pull down a Bible verse on a cadet’s whiteboard. As noted then and in a subsequent congressional hearing, the Air Force has relied heavily on AFI 1-1, a Chief of Staff level AFI published in the final days of General Norton Schwartz’s tenure in 2012.
Now, Congressman Doug Lamborn of Colorado (home to the US Air Force Academy) has written a letter signed by 22 other congressmen asking Secretary of the Air Force Deborah Lee James to revise the policy at issue:
The August 2012 Air Force regulations which govern religious freedom and expression (AFI 1-1) are inconsistent with Congressional intent and current law…
The first issue Lamborn cites is the “undefinable” standard the Air Force uses [emphasis added]: Read more
Chuck Norris: Air Force “Airbrushes” Religious Liberty
Chuck Norris, a former Air Force Airman among other notable achievements, recently expressed disappointment at the Air Force’s decision to pull down a US Air Force Academy cadet’s Bible verse. He quotes and then agrees with retired General Jerry Boykin of the FRC, who noted
Once the academy allowed cadets to use these whiteboards for their personal use, censorship of religious commentary is unacceptable…
Norris then listed 10 examples of “prohibition of religious expression” in the military over the past few years, including USAFA’s Operation Christmas Child, Just War theory in ICBM training, the Camp Pendleton Cross, and the live Nativity in Bahrain.
He concluded the list with the perception that it gave him: Read more