U.S. AIR FORCE: The Cancer From Within

Sun Nov 11 02:13:00 PST 2007

Subject: U.S. AIR FORCE: The Cancer From Within
Date: Thu, 8 Nov 2007 21:02:53 -0500

The Cancer From Within

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20071107_the_cancer_from_within/ 
<http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20071107_the_cancer_from_within/>

Posted on Nov 7, 2007

By David Antoon

"I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all
enemies, foreign and domestic. ..." —Oath of Office

"Our mission is to educate, train, and inspire men and women to become 
officers
of character motivated to lead the United States Air Force in service to our
nation." —Air Force Academy mission statement

"We will not lie, steal, or cheat. ..." —Air Force Academy honor code

"Military professionals must remember that religious choice is a matter of
individual conscience. Professionals, and especially commanders, must 
not take
it upon themselves to change or coercively influence the religious views of
subordinates." —Religious Toleration (Air Force Code of Ethics, 1997)

Forty-two years ago, at the age of 18, I took the oath of office on my first
day as an Air Force Academy cadet. The mission of the academy was not 
only to
train future leaders for the Air Force but for America as well, because, 
in the
end, most academy graduates do not serve full military careers. The 
honor code
became an integral part of everyday life. These are the values that I, and
most graduates of the 1960s and early ’70s, took with us from our four 
years at
the academy.

I, as did many graduates, underwent pilot training followed by tours of 
duty in
Vietnam. Like military men and women of today, we did our best to become
technically competent and professional leaders. Never, during my four 
years at
the academy and subsequent pilot and combat training, was the word warrior
used; nor, whether as a cadet or officer, did I ever encounter "Christian
supremacist" rhetoric.

In April of 2004, my son, after receiving a coveted appointment to the 
United
States Air Force Academy, asked me to accompany him to the orientation 
for new
appointees. This 24-hour visceral event changed my life forever, and crushed
my son’s lifelong dream of following in my footsteps.

The orientation began with a one-hour "warrior" rant to appointees and 
parents
by the commandant of cadets, Brig. Gen. Johnny Weida. The fact that the word
warrior had replaced leadership was a signal of what was to follow. I later
learned that cadets, to determine when a new record was established, had
created a game in which warrior was counted in each speech Weida gave.

My son and I then made our way to the modernist aluminum chapel, where I
expected to hear a welcome from one or two Air Force chaplains offering
counsel, support and an open-door policy for any spiritual or pastoral 
needs of
these future cadets. In 1966, the academy had six gray-haired chaplains: 
three
mainline Protestants, two priests and one rabbi. Any cadet, regardless of
religious affiliation, was welcome to see any one of these chaplains, 
who were
reminiscent of Father Francis Mulcahy of "MASH" fame.

Instead, my son’s orientation became an opportunity for the academy to
aggressively proselytize this next crop of cadets. Maj. Warren Watties led a
group of 10 young, exclusively evangelical chaplains who stood shoulder to
shoulder. He proudly stated that half of the cadets attended Bible 
studies on
Monday nights in the dormitories and he hoped to increase this number from
those in his audience who were about to join their ranks. This “invitation”
was followed with hallelujahs and amens by the evangelical clergy. I later
learned from Air Force Academy chaplain MeLinda Morton, a Lutheran who was
forced to observe from the choir loft, that no priest, rabbi or mainline
Protestant had been permitted to participate.

I no longer recognize the Air Force Academy as the institution I attended
almost four decades earlier. At that point, I had no idea how invasive this
extreme evangelical “cancer” had become throughout the entire military, that
what I had witnessed was far from an isolated case of a few religious 
zealots.

In order to better understand this shift to a religious ideology at this 
once
secular institution, I called the Academy Association of Graduates 
(AOG). Its
response: “We don’t get involved in policy.” What I didn’t know was that the
AOG, like the academy, had affiliations with James Dobson's and Ted 
Haggard's
powerful mega- churches. When Dobson's Focus on the Family "campus" was
completed, the academy skydiving team, with great ceremony, delivered 
the "keys
from heaven" to Dobson.

During some alumni reunions, the AOG arranged bus tours of Focus on the 
Family
facilities in nearby Colorado Springs, Colo. I also learned that the same
Monday night Bible studies discussed at orientation were taught by bused-in
members of these evangelical mega-churches and that some spouses of senior
academy staff members were employed by these same religious institutions. It
seemed that my beloved United States Air Force Academy had morphed into the
Rocky Mountain Bible College.

The academy chaplain staff had grown 300 percent while the cadet 
population had
decreased by 25 percent: from six mainline chaplains to 18 chaplains, the
additional 12 all evangelical. The academy even gained 25 reserve chaplains,
also nonexistent in earlier times, for a total of 43 chaplains for about 
4,000
cadets, or one chaplain for every 100 cadets.

In the following weeks, a uniformed Army Maj. Gen. William Boykin began
sharing his Christian supremacist views from church pulpits around the 
country,
declaring that he was "God's Warrior" and that "America is a Christian 
nation."
He demeaned the entire Muslim world by stating that his God was bigger 
than a
Muslim warlord's god and that the Muslim's god "was an idol." He received
little more than a token slap on the wrist. At the time, Joseph Schmitz, 
then
the Department of Defense inspector general (Schmitz is currently the chief
operating officer of Blackwater International), found that Boykin had 
committed
no ethics violations.

Days later, the May 10 edition of The New Yorker featured the Abu Ghraib
torture article by Seymour Hersh, who more than three decades earlier had
brought us the story of My Lai.

As a late critic of the Vietnam War, in which I lost many high school and
academy classmates, I was skeptical and critical of the drum beat for war
orchestrated by the Bush administration. When then-Secretary of State Colin
Powell again sold his soul in front of the United Nations and the world, the
die was cast. I say again because as a major on his second tour in Vietnam,
Powell whitewashed reports of the My Lai massacre and attempted to discredit
and silence those few, most notably Ron Ridenhour, who had the courage 
to get
the story into Hersh's hands.

These were some of my thoughts on the day my son had to decide whether 
or not
to accept his appointment to the Air Force Academy. It was a time in my life
when fatherhood and truth were confronted with faux nationalism. With
tremendous courage and sadness my son declined his appointment and ended his
dream—and my dream for him— to attend the Air Force Academy. Though deeply
saddened, we were not sorry.

In what would have been my son’s academy summer encampment, chaplain Watties
"suggested" that cadets return to their tents and tell their tent mates they
would "burn in hell" if they did not receive Jesus as their savior. At the
same time, the academy commandant, Weida, made a habit of including biblical
passages in official e-mails and correspondence to subordinates and 
cadets. He
had developed a secret "chant and response" with the cadets: When he yelled
"Airpower," the evangelical cadets in the know would respond "Rock, sir" in
reference to the Bible story that Jesus built his house upon a rock.

Coincidentally, at this time and at the invitation of the academy, the Yale
Divinity School was observing the pastoral care program for sexual assault
victims at the academy. Under the leadership of professor Kristen 
Leslie, the
Yale team issued a stunning report on the divisive and strident evangelical
pressures by leadership and staff at the academy.

The response from academy leaders was telling. They at first denied the
reports of Watties' "hell-fire" threats. Under media pressure, they later
claimed the violations were committed by a visiting reserve chaplain, 
when in
fact they were by the recent Air Force Chaplain of the Year himself: 
Watties.
In an interview after receiving his Chaplain of the Year award, Watties 
boasted
of baptizing young soldiers in Saddam Hussein’s swimming pool. It is 
difficult
to think of more inflammatory and Crusader-like behavior in an Arab nation.

In response to the Yale report, the academy demanded that chaplain Morton
denounce the report she had co-signed. When she refused, she was transferred
to East Asia, ultimately resigning from the Air Force in protest. Morton was
the only officer who put her oath of office “to support and defend the
Constitution” above careerism.

Then-DoD Inspector General Schmitz, noted for his Christian supremacist
rhetoric in the book "Blackwater," sent a team led by evangelical "born 
again"
Lt. Gen. Roger Brady to investigate the academy. Schmitz had recently found
no ethics violations in the actions of Gen. Boykin and allowed Boykin's
promotion to senior military officer in charge of Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo and
"extraordinary rendition." The "Brady Report" found the academy only to 
have an
"insensitivity" problem. Air Force Academy graduate Brig. Gen. Johnny Weida,
"silenced" and removed from the major general promotion list, was secretly
promoted with back pay the following year at Wright Patterson Air Force 
Base.

Following the release of the "Brady Report," West Point graduate and 
Secretary
of the Air Force Mike Wynne, ignoring the existing code of ethics, issued
another "code of ethics" that allowed evangelical proselytizing. A month
later, in an effort to appease the religious right, Wynne issued an even 
softer
"code of ethics." Amazingly, Wynne's document is in complete violation 
of the
code of ethics issued in 1997 by Secretary of the Air Force Sheila Widnall
prohibiting proselytizing by commanders and other officers.

The pre-existing Air Force code of ethics in The Little Blue Book states:
“Military professionals must remember that religious choice is a matter of
individual conscience. Professionals, and especially commanders, must 
not take
it upon themselves to change or coercively influence the religious views of
subordinates.”

Here are just a few violations of that principle over the last three years:
Academy football coach Fisher DeBerry hung a banner in the team locker room
reading: "Competitor's Creed: I am a Christian first and last. ... I am a
member of Team Jesus Christ." Baseball coach Mike Hutcheon, recruited from
evangelical Christian Bethel College, forced players to lead team prayer 
during
practice. When asked about locker room prayer in March 2007, Lt. Gen. John
Regni, the academy superintendent, responded “we have chaplains that are
attached to each of the teams and they are very important in that area.”

In a July 12, 2005 interview with the New York Times, Brig. Gen. Cecil
Richardson, Air Force deputy chief of chaplains, stated, "...we reserve the
right to evangelize the unchurched." For over a decade, the official academy
newspaper ran ads stating: "We believe that Jesus Christ is the only 
real hope
for the World. If you would like to discuss Jesus, feel free to contact 
one of
us! There is salvation in no other name under heaven given among mortals by
which we must be saved." The ads were signed by 16 department heads, nine
permanent professors, both the incoming and outgoing deans of faculty, the
athletic director and more than 200 academy senior officers and their 
spouses.

Mikey Weinstein, founder of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, 
in just
a few short years has received complaints from more than 6,000 service 
members
and discovered church-state violations at the academies, at military
installations in Iraq and around the world, and even within the inner 
corridors
of the Pentagon.

In 2005, when Weinstein filed suit against the Air Force for constitutional
violations of church-state separation, the House of Representatives, with
little public notice, passed a chilling bill that undermines enforcement 
of the
First Amendment's separation of church and state. The Public Expression of
Religion Act, H. R. 2679, provides that attorneys who successfully challenge
government actions that violate the establishment clause of the First 
Amendment
shall not be entitled to recover attorney's fees.

According to The Washington Post, the purpose of this bill is to prevent 
suits
challenging unconstitutional government actions advancing religion.

In December 2006, the Military Religious Freedom Foundation brought 
media focus
to the Christian Embassy Evangelical Organization and its now famous video,
which clearly showed the egregious ethics and constitutional violations of
several flag officers and the breadth of the problem. Air Force Academy
graduate Maj. Gen. Jack Catton, who suggested in the film that his religious
beliefs trump country and his oath to the Constitution, was cited last 
year for
sending e- mails to military subordinates and contractors advocating 
they vote
for a particular candidate for Congress, arguing that there are "not enough
Christians in Congress." West Point graduate and Army Brig. Gen. Robert
Caslen, who was filmed stating "We are the aroma of Jesus Christ here in the
Pentagon," is now commandant of cadets at West Point. West Point 
graduate Army
Brig. Gen. Vincent Brooks, another Christian Embassy star, was the 
"voice" and
"face" of the press conferences at Qatar. His office is famous for the
creation of the "Rambo" Jessica Lynch fabrications and the manipulation 
of the
killing of Pat Tillman into a recruiting and media event. West Point 
graduate
and evangelical Lt. Col. Ralph Kauzlarich, involved in the investigation of
Tillman's death, stated publicly that Pat Tillman's family was not at peace
with his death because they are atheists who believe their son is now "worm
dirt." Air Force Academy graduate Maj. Gen. Peter Sutton, assigned as the
senior U. S. military officer in Turkey at the time the Military Religious
Freedom Foundation brought the Christian Embassy into media focus, was
questioned by Turkish officials about his membership in a radical 
evangelical
cult.

Many are aware of the mercenary army, Blackwater USA, led by Eric Prince,
former Ambassador Cofer Black and Joseph Schmitz, the same Joseph Schmitz
mentioned above. It is here where the ties become complex and suggestive 
of an
even grander "crusade."

As described by Jeremy Scahill in his book "Blackwater," Prince, who 
attended
the U.S. Naval Academy, comes from a wealthy theo-con family, is a
"neo-crusader," and a Christian supremacist. He has been given billions of
dollars in federal contracts to create a private army. COO Schmitz, another
Naval Academy graduate, is a member of the Order of Malta, a Christian
supremacist organization dating back to the Crusades, and happens to be 
married
to the sister of Jeb Bush’s wife, Columba. And Cofer Black, former 
coordinator
for counterterrorism at the U.S. State Department and former director of the
CIA's Counterterrorism Center, who was quoted by the BBC as saying

"Capture Bin Laden, kill him and bring his head back in a box on dry ice,"
brings his own skill set to the Blackwater team as vice chairman.

The Christian supremacist fascism first reported at the Air Force Academy is
endemic throughout the military. From the top down, there has been a 
complete
repudiation of constitutional values and time-honored codes of ethics 
and honor
codes in favor of religious ideology. And we now have a revolving door 
between
Blackwater USA, which is Bush’s Praetorian Guard, and the U.S. military at
every level. The citizen-soldier military dictated by our founding 
fathers has
been replaced with professional and mercenary right- wing Christian 
crusaders
in control of the world's most powerful military. The risks to our 
democratic
form of government cannot be overstated.

This evangelical Christian supremacist fascism within our military and
government is a cancer. Officers, especially commanders, who violate the
original code of ethics, must be rooted out of the military. The undermining
of the Constitution, especially by senior military officers, must end.

As I look back at my 30 years as an active-duty officer, two combat tours in
Vietnam, decorations including air medals and the Distinguished Flying 
Cross, I
realize that not once was my service in support or defense of the 
Constitution.
For the very first time, I am upholding my oath of office.