Posted on 12/30/2007 11:56:09 PM PST by Baladas
You do realize that Mormons have carried “the Football” for the President as well. They have also flown with Nukes. The first Air strikes in Afghanistan were from 2 B-2 stealth bombers. Guess what religion one of the pilots was? My Uncle was on one of the observation planes over Nagasaki and has pictures. The Mormon Battalion has the US military record for longest over land march in US history.
You do realize that Fred belongs to a restorationist church that rejects the post apostolic creeds as well don't you?
Shows a lax in government security. I wouldn’t trust any cult member with national security issues. It doesn’t take much for a cult to splinter and end up with members who support armed revolution against the government or doomsday suicide scenarios. And just because a cult member has done something right or even heroic in the past doesn’t discount the higher risk posed by such membership.
Let me give you an example. Desmond Doss was a cult member who was also a conscientious objector in WW II. Refusing to carry weapons, he did win the Congressional Medal of Honor for saving many lives. He was a hero. Yet when selecting people to serve in the military, members of Doss’ cult should be disqualified because Doss’ exceptional performance doesn’t mean the military should be filled with conscientious objectors because of both performance and morale issues. In fact, when I was a kid knew a guy who was a member of the same cult as Doss who decided during basic training that he would become a conscientious objector during the 1970s. The decision was made to break him. He ended up dying of pneumonia before basic training was completed.
As a veteran (pre-9/11) Military Policeman and a Mormon I am tempted to tell you to stuff it. But I'll try to keep it rational. Your comments are a disgrace, not just towards Mormons, but all all service members who have fought and died by their sides.
Famous Mormons in the Military
Colonel Bernard F. Fisher is the First Air Force Medal of Honor recipient from Viet Nam is Mormon.
Corporal Harold Engstrom is resonsible for charting Saddam's family and inner circle connections. The chart is what led special forces to Saddam's hideout.
The Famous "Candy Bomber" of Berlin is Mormon.
4 Star General Robert Oaks is a leader in the LDS church. Many of our current Apostles served in WWII and later conflicts.
I have a personal example that illustrates the conflict you describe between your paranoia and Mormons showing honor and patriotism in serving. My grandfather served a Mormon mission to Germany. He got his camera confiscated by the gestapo for taking a poicture of Hitler in a parade. When WWII started the FBI hired him to break codes because of his intimate knowledge of German, in particular the dialect the SS used. His unit broke a few codes saving who knows how many soldiers lives (though in fairness he said most of the time they spent reading German love letters that had been captured from Officers. Only a few of them contained information worth acting on.) One of his unit members anonymously accused him of sympathising with Germany because of his Mormon mission he served there. The FBI launched and internal investigation and found he was not a security risk and that his accuser had probably reported him out of ulterior motives. He learned about the investigation only when they had closed it mopnths later and they told him they had conducted it. (My Grandpa now has a copy of the investigation report under the Freedom of Information Act). My Grandfather was not a security risk for being Mormon. His co-worker who accused him was either an idiot or just plain ignorant.
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