Tag Archives: USAFA

USAFA Religious Respect Conference Highlights Success

US Air Force Academy PA Don Branum writes a post-event update on last week’s Religious Respect Conference, and it contains some amazingly positive comments on the environment of religious freedom at USAFA [emphasis added]:

Cadet 4th Class Wasim Soomro [from a Muslim family] captured the attention of the attendees with a recollection of his experiences. 

Soomro didn’t have to put his faith aside for BCT. The military guidance officer for Soomro’s unit, Cadet Squadron 39, visited him on his second night of basic cadet training. The officer knew from Soomro’s biography that he was Muslim and wanted to know how to meet his religious needs.
 
“He asked me what times of day I was supposed to pray,” Soomro said. “I told him the morning was huge, and then the midday…”  Read more

USAFA Religious Training Gets Positive Reviews, could go AF-Wide

The Colorado Springs Gazette, local to the US Air Force Academy, carried a variety of positive comments from participants in USAFA’s second Religious Respect Conference. In fact, USAFA chaplains are advocating for their programs to be implemented Air Force-wide.  In “AFA religious respect program could soon go service-wide,” reporter Erin Prater noted

Chaplains hope to transition the Religious Respect Training Program throughout the Air Force as soon as possible, chaplain Maj. Shawn Menchion said…

David Oringderff, a local Wiccan leader, had high praise for USAFA’s efforts:  Read more

USAFA Tradition of First Shirt, First Snow Goes Bad. Supposedly.

A variety of websites are now reporting on the injuries US Air Force Academy cadets received during attempts by Four Degrees (freshmen) to drag their Cadet First Sergeants through the first snow of the season.  The decades-old tradition is one of many that generally stay out of the public eye, though YouTube videos and the like have revealed them for years.

While there is apparent shock that “nearly 30 cadets” were injured in some form (including — gasp — bruises) during the devolution to a “brawl,” that injury count probably doesn’t crack the records set during Read more

USAFA Inspires Religious Respect, MRFF Inspires Cadet Disrespect

The US Air Force Academy is holding a Religious Respect Conference this week, inviting “religious and First Amendment advocacy groups” to meet with cadets and chaplains on the topics of religious tolerance and dignity.

On the topic of training in religious respect, the Academy had a noble goal for its future officers:

“The…goal is teaching an ethic of respect regardless of who people are, whether they follow one faith or another faith or no faith at all,” said Chaplain (Col.) Robert Bruno…”What we are trying to teach is a fundamental ethic of respect. We recognize the inherent dignity of every human being…”
 
“We agree to disagree agreeably, civilly, respectfully, professionally,” he said.

On accommodation, Jewish Chaplain (Maj) Joshua Narrowe made an Read more

Michael Weinstein Backs Down on Years of JAG Service

Michael Weinstein, frequent critic of religious freedom in the US military, has often tried to lend weight to his vitriolic attacks by saying he served “10 years as an Air Force JAG.”  (In fact, his website still carries the assertion.)  As has been noted here before, given the dates he entered and left the Air Force, that claim takes a bit of creative math.  Weinstein finally felt the heat and recently began qualifying Read more

Military Professors Write Reports Praising End of DADT

Continuing the theme of the US military putting a proactively positive face on the end of the policy known as “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” US military academy professors are contributing to studies and journals virtually singing the praises of repeal.

US Air Force LtCol (Ret) James Parco should be one familiar name, as the former USAFA instructor was one of the “scholars” interviewed for the Palm Center report, and he has also vocally defended religious freedom critic Michael Weinstein.

David Levy is a current US Air Force Academy professor in the Management Department.  He, too, has been mentioned as a contributor to the biased Palm Center report.

In the Armed Forces Journal, the two co-authored Read more

USAFA Reports on Faculty Input to Palm Center DADT Report

Continuing the theme of publicizing the praises of DADT repeal, the US Air Force Academy noted some of its professors contributed to the Palm Center report — and they had nothing but good things to say.

Col. Gary Packard Jr., the Behavioral Sciences and Leadership Department head, and Dr. Steven Samuels, a professor in the same department, are two of four service academy instructors who contributed to the study, which found that repealing DADT had no effect Read more

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