USAFA has its “Falcon Circle,” and just down the street Fort Carson has its unique religious “chapel” as well.
As previously noted, the Turkey Creek ranch US Army facility of Fort Carson has been used for some years to support the religious freedom of men and women in the US military of all kinds. The kind of worship? A native American sweat lodge.
Michael Hackwith is the local spiritual leader and leads the group in Read more
US Air Force General Stephen R. Lorenz recently retired as the head of Air Education and Training Command. (He is also a former Commandant of the US Air Force Academy.) He frequently wrote commentaries alliteratively entitled “Lorenz on Leadership.” On July 19th, the Air Force published his most recent article, in which he recounted a Chaplain’s run-in over pre-mission prayer:
As the troops were preparing to board the helicopters to an FOB that had recently been under attack, several Soldiers asked the chaplain if he could lead them in a prayer. A lieutenant colonel happened to be with the group and the chaplain, who was a captain, thought as a common courtesy he would ask the senior officer for permission to say a prayer for the troops about to enter combat. The lieutenant colonel replied to the chaplain that, “It would not be necessary” and walked away. The chaplain followed this senior officer’s guidance and did not lead the men in a prayer.
General Lorenz took the Lieutenant Colonel to task: Read more
The Journal of Faith and War has published a lengthy set of articles on “The Religious Rights of those in Uniform.” The series was written by Jay Sekulow and Robert Ash. Dr. Sekulow is chief counsel of the American Center for Law and Justice (and debated Michael Weinstein at the US Air Force Academy in 2007). Robert Ash (USA, Retired) is a West Point graduate, served 22 years in the Army, and teaches law at Regent University.
The articles originally appeared as “Religious Rights and Military Service” in Attitudes Aren’t Free: Thinking Deeply about Attitudes in the US Armed Forces, which contained the infamous article by Chris Rodda denigrating the celebration of Easter by Christians in the military.
The publication is a refreshingly positive perspective on what men and women of faith can do while serving in the US military. So often critics have emphasized (or created an environment focused on) impermissible conduct; as a result, some military members (or religious persons considering military service) may assume their religious exercise is restricted.
That is not the case, as the JFW articles show.
The first article covers the “General Legal Principles” Read more
Jason Torpy of the Military Association of Atheists and Freethinkers recently wrote an article with mixed praise and criticism for the US Air Force Academy’s religious climate. Notably, he claimed the USAFA “freethinker” group had
been operating outside the Academy’s chaplain office due to misunderstandings of policy and intellectual freedom.
Apparently one of the problems was an explicit USAFA policy against “denigrating” other religions. The issue?
The term “denigrating” seemed to prevent discussion of nearly anything related to atheism.
According to Torpy, Read more
A letter to the editor at the Colorado Springs Gazette, the paper local to the US Air Force Academy, proposed an interesting conundrum following the repeal of the policy best known as “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell:”
…Let’s consider the dilemma the Air Force Academy faces in assigning roommates now that homosexuals can serve openly. If everyone’s values and beliefs are considered, as they should be, they will need to consider the heterosexual’s values, too.
Roommates with conflicting sexual preferences will encounter unhealthy and unfair sexual tension. If two homosexuals are roomed together, this is clearly a sexual-preference bias equalized only if men and women were allowed to room together, too, which the cadets would cheer. Read more
The Wall Street Journal noted President Barack Obama appointed openly homosexual Army veteran Brenda “Sue” Fulton to the US Military Academy (West Point) Advisory Board.
Fulton is USMA Class of 1980, the first West Point class to include women. She is also part of the Forum on the Military Chaplaincy, an activist organization toward DADT repeal. Another member of the “forum,” retired Navy Chaplain (CAPT) John Gundlach, recently called military members’ religious opposition to repeal “bigotry.”
The WSJ notes her appointment puts Read more
As previously noted, an F-16C crashed during a training mission out of Nellis AFB, NV. As a commenter previously mentioned, the Air Force later said it had “conclusive evidence” the pilot went down with the aircraft.
The pilot has been identified as Capt Eric Ziegler, Read more
The US Air Force Academy annually hosts Teen Aviation Camp, inspiring the children of active duty, retired, reserve, or guard Air Force members to a career in aviation.
Teens and their families only have to pay for the cost of transportation to the Academy, the camp and its activities are free. The Air Force Services Agency sponsors and organizes the camp… Read more