Posts

Sequestration Destroying Naval Readiness

/2 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: APDefense budget cuts have reduced the number of Navy forces that would respond to an emergency in the Persian Gulf and the Western Pacific, the chief of naval operations said.

“A year ago I would tell you we had three [aircraft] carrier strike groups and three amphibious ready groups ready to surge. And if there were a contingency, that we had to take on a large operation, the surge force would be a concern,” Adm. Jonathan Greenert told reporters at the Pentagon…

Until this year, the Navy had maintained two carrier groups in the Gulf. Only one is maintained there now because of spending cuts known as sequestration that will require the Pentagon to trim its spending by $500 billion over the next 10 years.

After sequestration kicked into effect, the Navy withdrew all combat ships from its Southern Command, curtailed training and deployments, halted restoration and modernization projects, and minimized base operations.

Read more from this story HERE.

Military Will Not Rescind Reprimand for Airman Who Criticized West Point Homosexual Marriage

/6 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: Fox NewsThe Utah Air National Guard will not rescind the reprimand of an airman who complained last year about a gay wedding at West Point Chapel that he believed violated the Defense of Marriage Act, the airman’s attorney tells Fox News.

TSgt. Layne Wilson, a 27-year veteran of the military, was formally reprimanded for an email he wrote last December to the chaplain at West Point and his six-year reenlistment contract was reduced to a one-year contract.

John Wells, an attorney representing the airman, said the military coerced his client into signing the one-year extension after they cancelled medical benefits for his wife – who is suffering from stage four breast cancer.

“It would seem to me that cancelling the medical benefits for a sick cancer victim to coerce an underling to sign an illegal contract constitutes cruelty and maltreatment under the Utah Code of Military Justice,” Wells said. “This type of action is unconscionable and I would expect the Guard to initiate an investigation surrounding the case.”

Wilson, who is a devout Christian and has religious objections to gay marriage, found himself in trouble after he wrote an email to the chaplain at West Point.

Read more from this story HERE.

Proponents of Religion Push for More Freedom of Expression in the Military

/1 Comment/in , /by

Photo Credit: APThere are famously no atheists in foxholes, but some conservatives say that the American military is not giving a fair shake to soldiers, sailors and Marines who want to practice their faith and express their beliefs more openly.

The Family Research Council and more than a dozen other conservative and pro-family groups this month announced a renewed push in Congress for stronger legislative protection for religious military personnel to combat what they say is a threat to religious liberty in the nation’s armed forces. A report from the Family Research Council documented a range of events in the military — such as one in which an Air Force officer was told to remove a Bible from his desk — that the group said exposed a “growing hostility to religion.”

Critics say the charges are overblown and are part of a covert move to promote evangelical Christianity within the ranks, but the coalition says it has collected a number of examples of violations of religious liberty and expression inside the military.

“There is a growing list of cases and incidents that point to the fact that religious liberty in our nation’s military is under attack,” said Family Research Council President Tony Perkins.

One event detailed in the report described a soldier who was reprimanded for serving fare from Chick-fil-A — known for its owners’ strong Christian beliefs — and for making statements related to the federal law on same-sex marriage at his promotion party. Religious leaders have had invitations to speak at military events abruptly withdrawn, and military personnel have been ordered to remove religious signs and symbols.

Read more from this story HERE.

Rand Paul, Ted Cruz Set Off GOP Scramble on Military Sex Assault

/1 Comment/in , /by

Photo Credit: APSenate Republicans scrambled for cover Tuesday after Sens. Rand Paul and Ted Cruz partnered with a budding bipartisan coalition pushing the Pentagon to overhaul how it handles military sexual assault cases.

GOP lawmakers said they planned to quickly schedule a closed-door conference meeting to hear out the two tea party firebrands on their decision to cosponsor legislation removing the chain of command from military prosecutions, a measure the Pentagon opposes.

Republican leaders also will give Sen. Kelly Ayotte the floor at the meeting to explain an alternative approach adopted last month by the Armed Services Committee. The alternative also aims to reduce the number of unreported sexual assault cases – estimated around 23,000 last year – without stripping commanders of their authority to convene a court martial.

Several Republican lawmakers, including the top Republican on the Armed Services Committee Sen. Jim Inhofe and the panel’s former chairman, Sen. John McCain, are supporting the bill that passed out of committee…

Paul and Cruz are no strangers in pushing their Republican colleagues into uncomfortable terrain. Just look at what the Kentucky freshman did in March in staging a 13-hour filibuster over drone strikes on U.S. soil.

Read more from this story HERE.

Obama’s Military Ignorance in Full Display: Unlawful Command Influence Taints Numerous DoD Trials

/6 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: Doug MillsWhen President Obama proclaimed that those who commit sexual assault in the military should be “prosecuted, stripped of their positions, court-martialed, fired, dishonorably discharged,” it had an effect he did not intend: muddying legal cases across the country.

In at least a dozen sexual assault cases since the president’s remarks at the White House in May, judges and defense lawyers have said that Mr. Obama’s words as commander in chief amounted to “unlawful command influence,” tainting trials as a result. Military law experts said that those cases were only the beginning and that the president’s remarks were certain to complicate almost all prosecutions for sexual assault.

“Unlawful command influence” refers to actions of commanders that could be interpreted by jurors as an attempt to influence a court-martial, in effect ordering a specific outcome. Mr. Obama, as commander in chief of the armed forces, is considered the most powerful person to wield such influence.

The president’s remarks might have seemed innocuous to civilians, but military law experts say defense lawyers will seize on the president’s call for an automatic dishonorable discharge, the most severe discharge available in a court-martial, arguing that his words will affect their cases.

“His remarks were more specific than I’ve ever heard a commander in chief get,” said Thomas J. Romig, a former judge advocate general of the Army and the dean of the Washburn University School of Law in Topeka, Kan. “When the commander in chief says they will be dishonorably discharged, that’s a pretty specific message. Every military defense counsel will make a motion about this.”

Read more from this story HERE.

27-Year Veteran Punished for Objecting to Homosexual Marriage at West Point Chapel

/10 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: shadysidelanternA 27-year veteran of the Utah Air National Guard said he was reprimanded after he wrote an email objecting to a gay wedding in the West Point chapel and was later told to prepare for retirement because his personal beliefs about homosexuality were not compatible with the military’s policies.

“The military is trying to make examples of people who have religious beliefs that homosexual conduct in the military is wrong,” said John Wells, an attorney representing TSgt. Layne Wilson. “The end game is to force conservative Christians out of the military.”

Last December Wilson wrote a letter to a person believed to be a chaplain at West Point. He stated his displeasure at news of a same-sex ceremony held in the Cadet Chapel.

“This is wrong on so many levels,” Wilson wrote. “If they wanted to get married in a hotel that is one thing. Our base chapels are a place of worship and this is a mockery to God and our military core values. I have proudly served 27 years and this is a slap in the face to us who have put our lives on the line for this country. I hope sir that you will take appropriate action so this does not happen again.”

Instead of responding to the private email, the Commandant of Cadets notified the Utah Air National Guard – leading to an accusation that he had brought disgrace and discredit upon the Air National Guard and his conduct was inconsistent with the United States Air Force.

Read more from this story HERE.

What Boondoggle? Carney Unaware of $34M Military HQ Troops Won’t Use

/2 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: APWhite House Press Secretary Jay Carney apparently isn’t reading his hometown paper.

The Washington Post carried a fairly explosive story on Wednesday about a $34 million military headquarters in southwestern Afghanistan that probably will never be used by U.S. forces. A scathing inspector general letter was also released Wednesday morning on the war-zone boondoggle.

But asked on Thursday whether President Obama was outraged by the waste, Carney said he hadn’t heard anything about it.

“I would have to take the question. I haven’t seen the report,” Carney said.

He added: “But we’re obviously outraged by wasteful spending in general — again, I’m not aware of this report, or any specifics about the base that you described.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Is the Obama Admin. Imposing Anti-Religious Culture in Military?

/7 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: JTF GuantanamoThere is a clear and present danger to religious liberty within the military, says a coalition of groups who believe the Obama Administration is pushing a secular, anti-religious culture on the nation’s armed forces.

“Christians who choose to live out their faith find themselves incompatible with the secular view of this administration,” said Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council. “We’re establishing a beach head for religious liberty and the evidence points to a very deliberate attack.”

Representatives of 14 groups concerned about religious liberty joined Reps. John Fleming R-La., Jim Bridenstine R-Okla., and Louie Gohmert R-Tex. on Capitol Hill to urge support for Fleming’s military religious freedom amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act.

The amendment protects the rights of servicemembers to not only hold religious beliefs but to act on them and speak about them. Fleming’s amendment has bipartisan support but the Obama Administration issued a statement “strongly objecting” to the legislation.

Read more from this story HERE.

Study: Pentagon’s MIA Recovery Program “Woefully Inept and Even Corrupt”

/2 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: APThe Pentagon’s effort to account for tens of thousands of Americans missing in action from foreign wars is so inept, mismanaged and wasteful that it risks descending from “dysfunction to total failure,” according to an internal study suppressed by military officials.

Largely beyond the public spotlight, the decades-old pursuit of bones and other MIA evidence is sluggish, often duplicative and subjected to too little scientific rigor, the report says.

The Associated Press obtained a copy of the internal study after Freedom of Information Act requests for it by others were denied.

The report paints a picture of a Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command, a military-run group known as JPAC and headed by a two-star general, as woefully inept and even corrupt. The command is digging up too few clues on former battlefields, relying on inaccurate databases and engaging in expensive “boondoggles” in Europe, the study concludes.

In North Korea, the JPAC was snookered into digging up remains between 1996 and 2000 that the North Koreans apparently had taken out of storage and planted in former American fighting positions, the report said. Washington paid the North Koreans hundreds of thousands of dollars to “support” these excavations.

Read more from this story HERE.

Grieving Parents Sue Air Force for Answers in Daughter’s Death

/3 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: APThe grieving parents of a 19-year-old Idaho woman who died serving her country thousands of miles from home say the U.S. Air Force won’t give them information about the circumstances of her death.

Airman 1st Class Kelsey Sue Anderson of Orofino died June 9, 2011, at Andersen Air Force Base on the island of Guam, a U.S. territory in the Pacific Ocean 3,300 miles west of Hawaii. The military has reported she committed suicide.

But Chris and Adelia Sue Anderson, her parents, filed a lawsuit last month in U.S. District Court to force the Air Force to respond to their Freedom of Information Act request seeking more information about how their daughter died.

The Andersons say their daughter, an avid soccer player and horseback rider who worked in her hometown’s flower shop before joining the military, was unhappy with her job as a security guard on Guam but neither distraught nor depressed in their final contacts days before her death. The arrival of an Air Force colonel at their home, accompanied by local sheriff’s officers from Clearwater County, to relay the terrible news was a bolt from the blue, they say.

“We just want to know what happened,” said Chris Anderson, who with his wife runs a hunting outfitting business in northcentral Idaho’s forests, in an interview Wednesday. “We don’t care if it’s good or bad, we just want closure so we can get on with our lives. It’s been two years with no answers.”

Read more from this story HERE.