It’s been 60 days. Do you know where your investigation is?
May 22nd, 2012 | Air Force Flightlines | Posted by Markeshia Ricks
Sixty days ago, the Air Force said it would give “appropriate consideration” to allegations that the Air Force Academy’s dean of faculty ordered a campaign against a religious freedom watchdog group and then lied about it during a deposition.
And low and behold the organization in question — the Military Religious Freedom Foundation — wants to know what the Air Force has found since it began it’s considering.
The foundation has pressed the Air Force to investigate allegations that Brig. Gen. Dana Born directed a subordinate, in writing, to launch a campaign against the watchdog group and then denied it during a deposition taken in December.
The deposition was taken as part of an ongoing Equal Employment Opportunity case filed by former Air Force Academy economics professor David Mullin, who is a client of the watchdog group. Mullin, who now works at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs, alleges that his contract with the academy was not renewed because of disability discrimination by Born and Vice Dean of Faculty Col. Robert Fullerton.
Mullin also is the complainant in an inspector general investigation launched last year that accused Born and Fullerton of “inaccurately portraying” and making a “false statement” about faculty credentials.
In February, the IG found Born and Fullerton negligent for incorrectly telling the Higher Learning Commission of the North Central Association and a Colorado Springs newspaper that all academy instructors had degrees in the fields in which they were teaching.
Whether Born or Fullerton were punished because of the findings is unknown.
An attorney for the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, Robert Eye, requested an investigation Feb. 1 into statements made by Born during the December deposition and demanded a response in a follow-up letter Feb. 29. He’s still waiting on that response.
Born is being accused by the MRFF of writing a note about conducting a “COIN” against clients of the religious freedom watchdog group.
MRFF founder Mikey Weinstein participated in Born’s deposition and said he believes that she did not tell the truth when directly asked if she had ever used the term “counterinsurgency” to describe any conduct of students or faculty at the Academy.
In a follow up letter to the Air Force dated May 21, Eye demanded on behalf of MRFF that the service declare whether it was actually investigating the allegations and pony up a progress report on the status of that investigation.
But the service — famous for its tight lips — says it is still considering.
“While it would not be appropriate to comment specifically, the Air Force takes every allegation seriously and these are being given appropriate
consideration,” said Air Force spokesman Todd Spitler.
Tags: air force, air force academy, COIN, counterinsurgency, Mikey Weinstein, Military Religious Freedom Foundation
Trainees to get new digs at JB San Antonio-Lackland
February 21st, 2012 | Flightlines | Posted by Markeshia Ricks
New basic military training housing at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland is on pace to be ready some time late this summer, according to a press release from the base.
The $900 million dollar project has been under construction since 2009, but it looks like it’s going to be worth the wait.
The Air Force is constructing four airmen training complexes and two dinning/classroom facilities to replace eight housing and training buildings built in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
The old basic training facilities apparently were scattered around Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland, but the new facilities will consolidate BMT into a central area, housing up to 1,200 trainees, according to the press release.
The construction that will be finished by late summer, is the first phase of the project known as the east campus. Plans have also been designed for a BMT west campus. That part of the project is expected to be complete some time in 2018, according to the press release.
Tags: air force, basic military training, Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland
Photo: An airman’s best friend
December 15th, 2011 | Air Force Iraq Photos | Posted by David Larter
Senior Airman Stephen Hanks, 447th Expeditionary Security Forces Squadron military working dog handler and Geri, a 3-year-old patrol explosive detector dog, take a break after a hard day of training in their kennel at Baghdad, Iraq, Dec. 9. Geri is one of two military working dogs left in Iraq today. // Credit: Master Sgt. Cecilio Ricardo
Tags: air force, airman, dog handler, Military working dog
Personnel fitness
November 15th, 2011 | Air Force Photos | Posted by David Larter
Dan Badger from the Air Force Personnel Center's directorate of personnel services participates in the 13.1-mile half marathon at the San Antonio Rock n' Roll Marathon and Half Marathon Nov. 13. // Erin Tindell
The Air Force Personnel Center in San Antonio had a good turnout for that city’s Marathon on Sunday.
All told, 99 members of the AFPC family — civilians, airmen and their family members — made it out.
Nineteen ran the big one: the full 26.2 miles. Another 80 ran the half marathon.
You can read more here.
Spice inventor: Don’t smoke spice
September 29th, 2011 | Flightlines | Posted by Scott Fontaine
Spice has been in the news — at least in our newspaper — quite a bit lately.
The Air Force banned it, and then it developed a urinalysis for it. Occasionally, you’d read about some airmen or some cadets getting nabbed for the synthetic marijuana.
Not that many airmen are smoking spice — the surgeon general told me earlier this month it’s “a small slice of the pie” of drug usage — but the over-the-counter nature of the drug makes regulation even tougher.
All of this leaves the creator of spice and other synthetic cannabinoids shaking his head.
“These things are dangerous — anybody who uses them is playing Russian roulette,” John Huffman told the Los Angeles Times. “They have profound psychological effects. We never intended them for human consumption.”
He later added: “You can’t overdose on marijuana, but you might on these compounds. These things are dangerous, and marijuana isn’t, really.”
Didn’t Eisenhower warn against this exact thing?
September 29th, 2011 | Flightlines | Posted by Scott Fontaine
Efficiencies, efficiencies — everywhere, the military is looking for efficiencies.
Well, Time Magazine’s Battleland blog has one idea of how to save almost $25 million: The Air Force could actually write up its own report on how it does its own work.
Booz Allen Hamilton will receive $24,966,507 to write a series of studies including the vageuely titled “Tactics, Techniques and Procedures Report.” (TTPs on what, folks?)
As Battleland’s Mark Thompson points out, “‘Tactics, Techniques and Procedures” is a oft-used military phrase that simply means how we do things around here; the fact that it’s plucked as the title for a multi-million-dollar report seems strange.”
He later adds: “Not sure what’s more appalling: the lousy grammar, or the fact that the U.S. Air Force apparently lacks the ability to do this kind of work on its own.”
Tags: air force, military-industrial complex, TTPs
Cranial vacancy on display
September 28th, 2011 | Flightlines | Posted by Scott Fontaine
Dope du jour Daryn Moran, the former AWOL-but-not-really-AWOL Air Force NCO, is back on YouTube to take up his crusade against his former commander in chief.
This time, the former Ramstein airman, vows to arrest the president for forging his birth certificate. He plans to “gas up the car, drive in my vehicle to Washington, D.C., knock on the president’s door and tell him he’s coming with me.”
Seriously.
In a bizarre, 13-minute screed, Moran takes aim at a wide range of topics: FactCheck.org, Adm. Mike Mullen, Transportation Security Administration, gays and lesbians, the Democrats, Vice President Joe Biden, Muslims, the Secret Service, the elected officials of Omaha, and, puzzlingly, “Jeopardy!”
Here are a few of the juicier quotes:
Read the rest of this entry »
Top honor for combat controller?
September 27th, 2011 | Flightlines | Posted by Scott Fontaine
Columbist Robert F. Dorr wrote last week about Staff Sgt. Robert Gutierrez, the combat controller who stared down death to call in airstrikes and save his Special Forces A-team.
Dorr, who knows a thing or two about the Air Force, was unequivocal in his writing: “His heroism was unrelenting; his dedication to his service and his country, indisputable.
For his actions, Gutierrez is nominated for an Air Force Cross, the service’s second highest valor award. He should, however, receive the Medal of Honor.
Only the nation’s highest distinction is appropriate for the combat controller, who lost half his blood from a bullet wound yet never stopped fighting, calling in one airstrike after another.”
Part of Dorr’s column (no link available, but a similar column is here) is a plea for more “balance” among the services in the awarding of the Medal of Honor.
We want to hear from you: Do you think the Air Force is being short-changed? Should Gutierrez receive the Medal of Honor? Feel free to add your comments below.
Tags: afghanistan, AFSOC, air force, combat controller, medal of honor
Swingin’ for the fences
September 27th, 2011 | Flightlines | Posted by Scott Fontaine
The Air Force women’s softball team wrapped up the gold medal at the 2011 Armed Forces Softball Championship last week — and that gives me plenty of reason to link to this fun story from the service’s greatest C-17 reserve unit stationed at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Wash.
Staff Sgt. Lindsay Ciullo serves with the 446th Aeromedical Staging Squadron and has played on the Air Force softball team for the past four years and the All Armed Forces tam for the past three years. She is also the only reservist on Air Force squad — an interesting trivia point she would like to see change soon.
“When I talked to my unit about going through the softball process, no one had any idea that the program existed,” she said. “I want them to know it’s possible for reservists to attend training camps for sports at the Air Force level. To me, the more people who are aware of this and want to tryout will help keep the Air Force sports program alive.”
So, are you a reservist who wants to represent your service in one of 16 sports? Here’s a link that can tell you how.
Tags: 446th aw, air force, c-17, jb lewis-mcchord
Aloha, ladies…
September 26th, 2011 | Flightlines | Posted by Scott Fontaine
The Air Force just celebrated its 64th birthday (you don’t look a day above 63!) and naturally that meant photos of celebrations across the world.
Well, it looks like the folks at Hickam had one hell of a shindig. Check out this photo from Senior Airman Lauren Main:
This leaves me with many thoughts (tattoo on the dancer in foreground, anyone?), but perhaps the most important is this one: Why didn’t the Pentagon folks hire these dancers to perform in D.C.? Swing and a miss, Air Force. Swing and a miss.