The American Report By Lt. Gen. Rod Bishop Jr. (USAF ret.)
Brigadier Gen. Marty France (ret.), a former Air Force Academy professor and current Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) representative to the Academy, had choice words to say about Cadets who are resisting the COVID-19 vaccine due to religious objections. In a18 May Daily Kos article, Gen. France, an Academy graduate, incorporated almost every aspect of the USAF Academy experience to prove his point. Are cadets, who have lost their commission and risk hundreds of thousands in debt, truly enemies of the values of the Air Force Academy? General France seems to think so, tying together with a quote from legendary Gen. George S. Patton:
“If you can’t get them to salute when they should salute and wear the clothes you tell them to wear, how are you going to get them to die for their country?”
Gen. France asserts the four cadets are insubordinate, and he seems to believe the implications of this will have disastrous consequences. Gen. France claims these cadets’ “Burger King” mentality of having it their way over their firmly held religious beliefs is incompatible with military service – just like wearing a nose ring. False equivalencies aside, it’s rather ironic that a religious freedom representative finds religious beliefs so intolerable. After all, wearing a nose ring is not far from a Sikh wearing a turban in uniform: a practice the military allows.
The assumption these future warfighters won’t die for their country is simply preposterous. There are far more Academy alumni than you would imagine who feel the same as these cadets, and they are risking their careers, retirements, and paychecks to stand for those same beliefs. Among the ranks are squadron commanders, weapons school graduates, members of Air Force special operations, flight test engineers, and others who have seen combat. Gen. France, who spent his career in the safe confines of academia, has no place questioning the resolve of those who have put their lives on the line.
It’s time to ask the tough question: is this mandate about safety, or is it about saving face and insisting on compliance for the sake of it? Gen. France never mentions this mandate exists to protect cadets and airmen. In fact, he doesn’t seem interested in the vaccine as medicine. Instead, he makes it a symbol of compliance and servitude. These cadets went about the religious accommodation process. Is it such an overwhelming price to pay for just four out of close to 1,000 cadets to have an exemption as provided by law?
General France is certainly right about one thing. At the Academy, we were absolutely required to memorize quotes about leadership including that very quote he borrowed from Patton. Gen. France is also correct when he says that Contrails, the book of quotes and knowledge cadets are issued, dictated our lives as underclassmen.
