U.S. Rep. Walter Jones, R-Farmville(NC), outraged over Islamic medal

[The Straight Story]

Jones outraged over Islamic medal


A Bronze Star presented to a military officer for his PowerPoint on handling Islamic materials has provoked outrage from U.S. Rep. Walter Jones, R-Farmville, and a letter to top Air Force command.

Jones’ letter to the Air Force Secretary Thursday said, “I find it ironic at best that an effort to protect the sensibilities of those practicing the Islamic religion has been rewarded by the Air Force with a medal normally reserved for acts of heroism on the battlefield, while at the same time our Christian military chaplains are being denied the constitutional right to express their individual religious convictions.”

According to published reports, Air Force Lt. Col. Jon Trainer, 51, a nondenominational Christian minister with 17 years in the Air Force and Air National Guard, was honored for a presentation on proper handling of Islamic material prepared for troops after last year’s accidental Quran burning in Afghanistan, which prompted riots resulting in 30 deaths. He was also honored for work running the Army’s suicide-prevention program, which has trained 36,000-plus service members.

Jones introduced a bill in January to ensure that all military chaplains can close a prayer outside of a religious service according to the dictates of the chaplain's own conscience.

http://www.newbernsj.com/news/local/jones-outraged-over-islamic-medal-1.112389

[Cooley Hurd]

1. Ol' Freedom Fries strikes again...

[Recursion]

2. Bronze star *WITH V* is reserved for battlefield heroism

Bronze star sans V is for "acts of merit", which it sounds like this PowerPoint was.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

6. I have seen Legion of Merit handed out for being a program manager

[TwilightGardener]

3. This has been debunked--Walter Jones fell for a rumor. The chaplain in question received his medal

for other, bigger reasons, IIRC--at the end of his tour in Afghanistan, not for his Powerpoint. But the National Review thought it smelled a story that fit in with their narrative that Obama is wrecking the military with stupid or undeserved medals (like the drone warfare medal that is now suspended).

[Recursion]

5. Yeah, Bronze star without V is usually for a body of work over a tour, at least in my experience

Also, just to be bluntly cynical, it means "here's an officer who didn't get anything else; find a medal for him."

[Recursion]

4. Also...

Jones introduced a bill in January to ensure that all military chaplains can close a prayer outside of a religious service according to the dictates of the chaplain's own conscience.

Sorry, Bub: the Royal Navy in Nelson's day had a state religion and recourse to flogging, and even they couldn't force sailors to listen to a service of a religion they didn't believe in (Catholics, Jews, Baptists, and Muslims would retire to the fo'c'sle). You're not going to push religion more than they did.

[baldguy]

7. I wonder how many soldiers & airmen Lt Col Trainer saved with his presentation?

How many civilians were saved? Dozens? Hundreds?

And what will Jones do with his bill when Muslim chaplains in the US Armed Forces use an Islamic prayer to close a service?

[TwilightGardener]

8. It's an appropriate and helpful thing--why anyone would bash it when it helped

smooth relations in Afghanistan is beyond me.

[msanthrope]

9. A textbook case of 'fatwa envy.' nt