Political correctness craziness: US Air Farce edition
For almost thirty years I called on military installations all over the United States as a health care marketer. Something I learned in that time is that each of the services has its own culture, with the Army being the most relaxed and receptive to new ideas, the Navy being somewhere in the middle, and the United States Air Force acting as if it had a permanent stick up its derrière. These last were sticklers for operating strictly by the rules and regs and resistant to change, even though such change might benefit their troops. I remember asking an older rep who’d called on them for decades about this and being told, “Who knows, son? It’s just the way they’ve always been.”
That is precisely why I have been amazed to see how rapidly and thoroughly the Air Force has seemingly succumbed to the leftist groupthink processes of political correctness. I was reminded of this by an article at Townhall by Todd Starnes relating just how thoroughly the zoomies have been infected with all the liberal leftist nonsense about race, gender, and sexual orientation. It seems that a very high-performing officer, Colonel Leland Bohannon, a pilot with combat experience in Iraq and Afghanistan and enough of the right stuff to be a candidate for a general’s star, has run afoul of the P.C. rules and now faces disgrace and dishonor.
So just what ghastly thing did Col. Bohannon do that merits the total destruction of his honorable and admirable career? As Starnes relates:
Last May the colonel declined to sign a certificate of spouse appreciation for a retiring master sergeant’s same-sex spouse [sic].
He was unable to do so because it would have caused him to affirm a definition of marriage contrary to his sincerely held religious beliefs.
According to the article, Col. Bohannon had already been selected for promotion to brigadier general, but that promotion (and perhaps the colonel’s current rank) has been sacrificially burned on the altar of political correctness for what can only be described as a frivolous matter: the signing of a thank-you note at a retirement. Good thing no one asked him to bake a cake – the Air Farce might bust him all the way back to airman first class.
I wonder what would happen if this politically correct injustice were brought to the attention of Donald Trump and General Mattis.
Donald Trump’s Twitter account
White House phone: (202) 456-1111 or 256-1414
Email: https://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/
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Crossposted at American Thinker
I wonder how long it will take Saint Mattis the Warrior Monk to slash and burn the PC culture the mudda-fuck OUT of the US Military?
While I am also a fan of Mattis’, the pace of dragging the military back to adulthood has so far been glacial.
*Shakes my head ruefully*
“On behalf of what USED to be a proud institution I was part of, I humbly apologize.”
🙁
I also apologize and shake my head. I’m so glad I retired.
Oh, I get it.
Well, no, I really don’t. He’s not disobeying a direct order, is he? No. He’s just not knuckling under to a spoiled brat. So he gets canned and the brats move on.
I thought temper tantrums were supposed to end when you got out of diapers.
When is someone going to tell these spoiled brats to fuck off and die?????
Re: your last.
I don’t either, but I hope it is soon.
What’s the difference between a puppy and a liberal snowflake? A puppy grows up and stops whining all the time.
Where did you get he idea that anyone involved was a spoiled brat?
All I read was that an NCO was retiring, and the commander refused to sign a certificate of spouse appreciation, which is a fairly standard practice. The article doesn’t discuss what the spouse did to deserve a certificate. Who knows, maybe nothing- but maybe this person ran the Family Readiness Froup or volunteered at the hospital.
The Airman was legally married in the eyes of federal law, DoD policy,and Air Force regs. I really don’t see how signing the certificate affirms the marriage since commanders don’t affirm marriages in the first place.
If the colonel was that firm in his beliefs he should have resigned his commission the moment DoD recognized same sex marriage.
What other issues does he get to arbitrate in contravention of law and policy? Does he get to make religious pronouncements about other religious groups as well? I wonder if you have to go to his lunchtime bible study to get a good fitrep.
I had a company commander that flat out told the whole company in formation that if they didn’t give their souls to Jesus right then and there not only would they go straight to hell, but we would fail the command inspection. The Jewish Soldiers took it a lot better than I would have guessed
Since when, reddevil, have political and religious preferences become more important in the military than doing the job of the military?
Can kinda see his point ex…
At some point, the Air Force decided that signing spouse appreciation certificates was his job. A part of me figures, he really should’ve done what he was told, as an officer, regardless of his beliefs.
Happy to be convinced otherwise though
“I had a company commander that flat out told the whole company in formation that…”
Sounds like a CO in need of being Relieved for Cause, I would have looked at him and said “MAY ODIN have mercy on you” or “May the happiness, wisdom and enlightenment of the Buddha be with you”, I love doing that to Jehovah’s Witnesses!
As a believing and practicing Christian, I’d be inclined to tell the guy something along the lines of “Jesus thinks you’re an asshole, too.”
What is full of status seeking busybodies that accomplish nothing more than helping their spouse get a bullet point for their brag sheet? The family readiness virtue signalers. Take one guess who wasn’t standing in front or behind me on patrol in Afghanistan. Fucking Bingo. Hooray for married people helping married people negotiate life like an adult. FRG’s should stop creating mandatory fun and do something useful like eating a bag of smashed dicks.
That’s enough to make a preacher want to cuss.
Here’s hoping that The Warrior Monk rips the Air Farce PC-MFs a new one large enough to drive a C10 through.
Dumb question, why didn’t he just have his XO by-dir the stupid thing?
Evidently he had the deputy IG sign the damn thing, but the retiree got pissed it wasn’t signed by colonel himself.
It is my understanding that the person who signed was a BG, outranking the Colonel anyway.
Because you know that valuable parchment has to go on a wall for all to marvel…
No, that’s a good question.
HOLY SUCKING FHIT!!
You know, it was not that long ago that spouses got nothing at the retirement ceremony and liked it.
all of this pretending that the family is accepting the same burden as the soldier is horse squeeze and this situation would not have happened if we had not gone down this path.
Many kudos to my wife for putting up with me, but I don’t remember seeing her while we were getting shot at in IZ or AF…or pulling all night duty, or waxing floors.
Where does this entitlement crap end?
This is why my wife used to snicker at those “Marine Wife: Toughest Job in the Corps” bumper stickers – “Who the hell are they kidding?” Not that being a military wife is easy, but it sure as hell was a bit easier to be home alone in Arizona than on duty in Iraq, and she’d be the first to tell you that.
Someone gave her one of those once and she threw it away. God I love that woman!
And there was this god-awful “Navy Wife” reading I had to endure at many a retirement ceremony…I can’t even bear to post it here because it will trigger massive heaving
I just added “horse squeeze” to the Wall of Insults®™
😉
You’re a dedicated fellow!
WAR STORY ALERT: When I served as deputy installation club manager at West Point, I developed a presentation about the effects of alcohol on your body in response to a cadet killing himself after drinking way too many beers. After retiring, I updated the seminar and offered it to Arkansas colleges and Little Rock AFB. The air base auditioned me. I did not get the contract because one of the female officers on the panel objected because I said that excessive or even binge drinking can result in contracting the HIV virus (aids), a sexual disease, pregnancy. She just did not get it that candy is dandy but liquor is quicker and booze lowers inhabitations or the ability to not get laid by some jerk because your defenses are down.
STORY ALERT; I used to give the annual STD/HIV/et cetera talk to our H&S Marines. When the I&I heard that I had attributed all sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV (-no it isn’t a mysterious, spontaneously occurring condition that can’t be explained) to “stray pussy” he went high and to the right. I was harassing the WM’s, a “dinosaur,” et cetera, according to the Major. When the tirade blew out, I paddled back to our shop and told my boss to be prepared for another salvo from upstairs. “An ugly topic deserves plain talk,” he said. I defy anyone to refute my contention that without fornication and adultery, we would see the end of ALL sexually transmitted diseases. But I accept the dinosaur label, and the updated version, “Deplorable dinosaur.”
DOUG out
Good fuckin’ riddance. If this Bohannon character can’t dump his outdated prejudices, then he shouldn’t be in power. Let’s hope he gets replaced by someone more progressive.
Ozzie, please FOAD. And I say that with sincere appreciation for all the nothing you have contributed here.
Oh, you say he needs to be drawn and quartered on his way out for not being a perfectly PC snowflake? Would you say the same about us being intolerant because we think that Spenser Rapone the communist 2LT needs to be thrown out of the US Army because he and his ideology should be accommodated in the name of “diversity”? NEWS FLASH, the US Military exists for one reason, to wage war upon the enemies of our Nation and way of life and stay ready to fight when we aren’t in a conflict, it IS NOT A PC Social Engineering Laboratory.
The piece of paper it’s self is meaningless and that SNCO being butt hurt is laughable, but the Colonel making decisions based on his religious beliefs is a way out of bounds. The Supreme Court and the DOD[his bosses} already made the distinction of what constitutes marriage and he did not follow orders. Manning also said his decision was based on morals. Neither has the right to make those distinctions. Way above their pay grade.
So all involved acted like Snow Flakes.
These are two completely different things. On one hand you have an officer who is actively subverting good order and discipline and openly espouses the overthrow of the government by sedition and destruction of the United States, and on the other you have a senior NCO retiring after honorable service who thinks their spouse deserves recognition.
Again, the article makes no mention of whether or not the spouse deserves recognition, but I do know that these certificates are very commonly awarded when an NCO or officer retires, to the point that not getting one makes you look bad.
The article does specifically state that the commander refused to sign based on his religious beliefs, implying that there was sufficient reason to award the certificate otherwise. If that is the case, this is clearly an EO case. The commander is entitled to his religious views, but he is not entitled to set policy based on those views.
So people who only think their way should be removed? People who do not accept other people’s beliefs or ways of thinking should be removed?
So, you are asking Jonn to ban you then?
Well, bye.
Look dipshit, the only one demonstrating prejudices is you since you think anyone not following your Ozzie and Harry alternative lifestyle beliefs is not allowed to have their own different beliefs.
No one cares that you have a dick in your mouth on your own time, just don’t get upset when others don’t fall all over themselves trying to placate your fantasy world. The MSgt’s partner was not a spouse and someone else could have signed the certificate.
You see, some people in this world still have the courage of their convictions and a moral compass not swayed by PC expediency.
By the end of this we will be left with yes men and women, back stabber careerists, and Milquetoasts afraid of their own shadow who are too afraid of offending the snowflakes they can’t even correct a West point Plebe.
Who’s moral compass should we follow?
Manning followed his “Moral Compass” to release all that Classified info. Keep your morals to yourself and follow orders. Even the ones you do not like.
Supreme Court and DOD already decided what constitutes a marriage. He is not above that policy.
Sorry, we give religious accommodation for former MAJ Nidal Hassan while he is on death row and it seems to me it would have taken little effort to accommodate this COL. Its called leadership and whatever touchy feeley general decided to boot him doiesn’t have it.
Maybe you do not have a moral compass and blindly follow whatever comes down the pike but your reaching in trying to equate a treasonous imbecile PFC to a decorated combat COL who declined to sign a feel good certificate for a non-military member because of his religious convictions. Sad.
I am not religious and may or may not have signed the certificate based on the circumstances (which none of us know from that article)but people give a pass to any religious belief except a Christian belief.
You and Ozzie may say good riddance to this COL and hope he gets replaced by someone more “progressive” but but to me this is a travesty.
I concur, it’s obvious that the left constantly expects everyone else to not take a stand and sell their souls bit by bit instead of all at once. To me political correctness is not only social and spiritual suicide, it’s FASCISM with a rainbow-colored smiley face instead of a swastika!
I never once said good riddance, I said follow your oath to follow ALL ORDERS.
Never once said Nidal should get shit.
Doing what you want in the Military never works out good for the military.
IS the “Spouse Appreciation Letter” and official DoD or USAF form? Or is a tradition thing like a shellback certificate or Order of the Spur certificate?
If it’s the former, the Colonel is screwed. If it’s the latter, the NCO can fuck off and look in the dictionary for sympathy (it’s between shit and syphilis).
Sounds like the letter isn’t the real issue, it’s making someone violate their conscience in order to validate their own sense of importance.
It’s the latter and I’m sure this is little more than a crusading foo-foo SJW screaming “LOOK AT ME, everybody owes me because I’m…” while playing the victim/quota card.
Well, isn’t that just swell… a senior NCO decides to file an EO complaint on the way out the door!
Didn’t have the old man’s signature… really? You’ve got to be kidding me. What a looser!
My wife didn’t get squat at my retirement ceremony! She did get a bouquet of roses, that I paid for though…
As I see it, a couple of foo-foo snowflakes didn’t get all the sparkly sprinkles, glitter, attention and group hugs they wanted on their way out so they decided to throw the biggest SJW Flower Monkey shit fit they possibly could!
Jesus Holy Christ, what putrid, steaming, vile, offgassing, heaping megalithic pile of BULLSHIT! Who fucking cares if he signed the note or not? How does that figure into the performance of his duties? Gimme a fucking break. COL Bohannon should challenge this every way he can, and then sue the ever-loving shit out the Air Force if at all possible.
There’s a disturbing trend going on in the news media these days where it’s common for key figures in a story to not be identified. It’s related to another trend of revealing information via “leaks” from anonymous sources.
Notice, for example, that the retiring airman isn’t identified, nor is the spouse, or the EO inspector, or even the designated spokesperson who said the Air Force would decline to comment. There’s something Kafkaesque about Colonel Bohannon being tried in the court of public opinion without ever having his specific accusers named. And such incidents now happen all the time.
It seems to me if you take a longer view of political correctness, the allowance for anonymity often means there’s no way to determine the relative scale of sides in conflict. Therefore, the tendency is to avoid offending anybody ever, which eliminates actual consensus. The risk, to quote T.H. White, is that eventually things reach a state where “Everything which is not forbidden is compulsory.”
You know, I’m tempted to write a mock version of what should have been presented at the ceremony but am confident the Duffel blog will do a much better job….something along the lines of “I write this on behalf of a most grateful nation recognizing that your sodomizing of (S)MSgt Frederick Mercury was vitally instrumental in strengthening our national defense”. Yeah, I know it’s a brave new world and it’s probably good I got out while DADT was still in effect…we had gays and for the most part, they kept their profiles low and performed well enough…now we have to embrace and even celebrate their status..
He should have not said a damn word and had his XO sign it. He must have made it a point to declare he wasn’t going to sign it and why.
Pick your battles.
I once had a company commander who refused to promote a Marine to Sergeant in Company Formation because he didn’t think he rated.
However the promotion had already been approved and signed off by the Bn Commander.
We just promoted him in a platoon formation.
I’ve thought about this a few days since first hearing about it. I don’t have any sympathy for the Colonel. The Supreme Court made the decision on marriage a few years ago. The good colonel, while serving in his official capacity has an obligation to treat all of his personnel equally.
If that takes signing a letter (or even if he had the XO do it) and acknowledging the sacrifices of a service members spouse at their retirement he just needs to do it. As members we don’t get the option of choosing which laws we will and won’t obey based on our own religious viewpoint.