Posted on 11/21/2023 1:19:15 PM PST by BenLurkin
Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota recently sent service members a text message warning them that their “continued service” could be in jeopardy if they attended a local rally featuring a speaker from an organization that has historically been supportive of former President Donald Trump.
In the text message sent to the Air Force base’s service members, leadership warned “participation with groups such as Turning Point Action could jeopardize their continued service in the U.S. military.”
Leadership warned Air Force members that some of the people attending the rally “could be confrontational to military members.”
...
Turning Point Action spokesperson explained that the recent “Dakota Patriot Rally” event was not officially recognized by the organization; however, the spokesperson described the threatening message sent by Air Force leaders as “absolutely appalling.”
“Tyler Bowyer was simply a keynote speaker. Secondly, Turning Point Action is not alt-right, it’s a mainstream conservative organization, and Tyler Bowyer is not some fringe personality—he’s the COO of TPAction, an RNC committeeman from the state of Arizona, and one of the most accomplished political organizers in the country,”
spokesperson also emphasized the “shocking and totally unacceptable” concept that military members could jeopardize their careers by participating with Turning Point Action.
“This should set off alarm bells throughout North Dakota and DC, that something is terribly wrong at the Minot Air Force base.”
“It’s exactly this type of poison that has caused the Air Force to miss its recruiting goal for the first time in decades,”
(Excerpt) Read more at americanmilitarynews.com ...
That is an outrageous expectation.
Probably because the FIBs will be opening fire on the crowd in order to get more gun control.
Nothing new. Regs always prohibited troops from attending political events. Of course.
This sounds like more of “our democracy” at work....
“Regs always prohibited troops from attending political events”...
unless they secretly joined with FBI undercover operations....
;-)
My response would be “With all due respect, sir, GFYourself.”
I thought that wearing the uniform was a No-No but just showing up as a citizen was fine. I don’t know if these new expectations are simply “don’t show up at all” but if they are really saying that, it seems pretty awful.
I would consider putting out a reminder that attending this in uniform is out of line, but threatening their service by attending in civilian cloths. No way.
“Regs always prohibited troops from attending political events”
No, they have not. They prohibit being in uniform or representing the military at such events.
when I was stationed there back in the 70’s we used to call it Mind-rot
As of 2020 DOD says military personnel are allowed to attend political events but not in uniform. They are not allowed to have leadership roles or actively participate in political programs. But as for attendance, yeah.
Troops can attend political events as long as the views are not “extremist” and cannot attend in uniform.
They wonder why recruitment goals are not being met; I’m surprised anyone with half a brain would join any branch of the service under Senile Biden as CinC.
Regs, at least when I was on active duty did prohibit attending political event IN UNIFORM, but NOT attending them in civilian clothes. However under the Obama-Biden regime, this may have changed. Or probably has changed as demonstrated by this announcement.
“Regs always prohibited troops from attending political events”
No, they have not. They prohibit being in uniform or representing the military at such event
Exactly correct
My memory is that we could not participate in political events that could be violent.
When I was in I was pushing it by being involved with the Nisqually Indians when they were armed, the CID may have missed that though.
The text message to Minot Air Force Base personnel, which was obtained by Fox News, stated, “Leaders, please exercise caution if downtown this weekend.”
The text message cautioned any base personnel who were thinking of going into town while the event was taking place last Friday to “be careful” and “reach out for any concerns.”
Minot Air Force Base is aware that an unofficial message about a local event in the City of Minot was sent in a text message group. The message was based on incorrect data and sent outside of official base messaging platforms. Once the error was identified, base security officials corrected the message traffic to categorize the event as a local political fundraiser, with no security concerns. Further, the updated message communicated there were no issues with military members participating in their personal capacity – in line with their First Amendment rights. All Air Force Airmen have a Constitutional right to freedom of assembly. That said there are some limitations placed on an Airman’s ability to participate in political events in an official capacity. These limitations are set by ethical guidelines in the Code of Federal Regulations in order to maintain the politically neutral stance of the US Military.
Command needs to be relieved of Duty.
https://search.brave.com/search?q=wearing+military+uniform+to+Pride+events&source=desktop
“Some animals are more equal than others...”
This must end.
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