Religion Probe Set for Air Force Academy

DENVER (AP) - The Air Force said Tuesday it is setting up a task force to investigate the religious climate at the Air Force Academy after reports of intolerance, including incidents of anti-Semitism.

The task force will assess Air Force policy and guidance when it comes to religious respect and tolerance, acting Secretary of the Air Force Michael L. Dominguez said in a statement. It will also look into practices by commanders "that either enhance or detract from a climate that respects both the free exercise of religion and the establishment clauses of the First Amendment.

In 1992...I had a new graduate of the AF academy who told me about the arrival of the "religious" mafia...a inside joke about the conservitive religious guys there. They would literally run to the instructor to turn people in for any infraction. I laughed...and then the next month, we got our one of these young Lt's into the office...he started to immedately become a problem. Any offense he found....he reported...even when he did it himself.

Over the last ten years (five as a retired NCO)...I have seen dozens of episodes to demonstrate that the religious nuts have risen up to Major and Col...and they are now problems for the entire AF. Their moral right compass is now making alot of folks consider alternate jobs in life. I never was a liberal or a conservitive...I was simply in the AF to do a job...to make planes fly...and to ensure bombs fell on the right target. The idea that you have to have a moral compass to accompass that...starts to set a disurbing trend...like if smokers should stay in...or if you are living in sin with your girlfriend (I've actually seen Captains question their lifestyle now).

This is not the same AF of our youth...it is heading in a southernly direction with a bad compass...and it needs to be set to a different course.

Years of allegations of sexual assaults of female cadets have been ignored or worse.

Quite the contrary, the allegations have not been ignored. Vigorous investigations have been conducted and many solutions (some good, some bad) have been advanced. The latest investigation culminated in the Fowler Commission report and the recent Agenda For Change launched by the Academy leadership.

The credibility of many of the rape charges is questionable as a large number have not been sustained in the courts. A good case can be made for many of the charges being launched by the "PC police" of the general media in accordance with their anti-military agenda. When comparing the sexual assault statistics of the AF Academy with those of most civilian universities, the Academy is a monastery in the midst of sexual chaos.

As an Air Force veteran (enlisted) I am sorry to be even distantly associated with this sorry institution.

I disagree. My association with the Academy is not so distant as yours and I would suggest that a closer and more informed look on your part might change your mind.

Quite the contrary, the allegations have not been ignored. Vigorous investigations have been conducted and many solutions (some good, some bad) have been advanced.

I'm not talking about the investigations that were conducted AFTER media attention forced the Academy leadership to examine itself.

I'm talking about the years of denials, cover-ups, and general apathy that took place under at least two different commandants over more than a decade.

I cannot agree with your assesment that the "PC Police" of the media are behind these attacks upon the institution of the United States Air Force Academy. If this were the case, the stories would be equally if not more aimed at the Naval Academy or the Army's West Point. They weren't. They were aimed squarely at the United State Air Force.

The idea that you have to have a moral compass to accompass that...starts to set a disurbing trend

The cadets at the AF Academy, the Naval Academy, and the Military Academy all operate under what is called an Honor Code. It states, "We will not lie, cheat or steal, nor tolerate among us those who do." While not perfect in its application, no sensible person would argue with its principles as applied to public service. Are we to tolerate liars and thieves in government service and among those who wield the most awesome military power in the history of the world? As you note, some young Lts may be over-zealous and misapply the code; yet, they usually learn with time and maturity to become fine and honorable officers. They are worthy of public trust.

Contrast this with one recent politician and his supporters who said, "Character doesn't matter." His administration was a disaster of dishonesty and corruption. If I have to err, I will take the over scrupulous young Lt. any day over the man whose only moral compass is his own selfishness and perverted sexual lust.

They were aimed squarely at the United State Air Force.

You are right. Most of the stories were aimed at the AF Academy and were fueled, day after day, by an incessant barrage of Academy bashing articles in the ultra liberal Denver Post. Their anti-military agenda and the PC feminist stance of their staff writers who wrote the articles is beyond question. The fact that the USNA and the USMA escaped relatively unscathed is thus mainly attributable to geography.

I'm talking about the years of denials, cover-ups, and general apathy that took place under at least two different commandants over more than a decade.

I disagree. Real rapes that occured at the Academy in the years prior to the Fowler investigation were reported, investigated and prosecuted under the UCMJ. They were not ignored, denied, or coverd-up. During that period of time, some alledged rapes were consensual affairs or had mitigating circumstances that revealed the female to have been partially responsible for the situation. Of course, in today's PC climate that surrounded the Denver Post stories, no female can ever be even partially responsible for her own actions in cases like these. Any accusations of rape are automatically true; any attempt to defend the man is a cover-up. Most of the Denver Post staff writers were female and, with copious tears and indignation, they portrayed the objective treatment of previous "rape" cases as examples of either outright male chauvinism or general apathy---sort of like you have done. They were especially indignant if a female had been punished for lying, drunkeness, lewdness, etc. as her part in the affair. No, only the male was guilty. This makes a travesty of justice and trivializes real rape. It does a grave disservice to the female victims of real rape cases.

In saying these things, I do not for a moment, excuse male rapists. I have the utmost sympathy for real rape victims. In fact, I believe capital punishment is entirely appropriate for the crime of rape. However, the accusations of cover-up, denial, and apathy that surrounded the Academy's treatment of "rape" victims prior to the Fowler investigation, are PC rubbish.

What does all this have to do with the thread of this discussion: Religion Probe Set for Air Force Academy? Just this: conservative Christianity and nothing else is the focus of this, so called, probe. This attack, in the guise of a probe or investigation, is already taking on the same PC aura that dominated the "rape" investigations spearheaded by the Denver Post. The military is one of the last bastions of conservative and patriotic Americanism. One of its foundations is conservative Christianity and so naturally, it will come under attack by those opposed to it.

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