Dec 11 2012
Dear Justin, I am considering joining the Navy, and would like advice on how to go about it as an atheist. What do I tell the recruiter? Are there atheist chaplains? What do I put on dog tags as my religion? Is being an atheist in the military looked at like being gay/lesbian, in regards …
Aug 15 2012
Arthur C. Clarke was one of my favorite authors growing up. I never read his war-themed ‘Glide Path’, but I was aware that he had served in WWII. I had no idea that he rebelled against the RAF’s liberal application of the “Church of England” on its service members. Clarke demanded that the RAF reprint …
Aug 05 2012
Back in December I wrote about a fierce young Marine Corps recruit who was told that she couldn’t have “ATHEIST” on her records and dogtags. I gave her some advice; she fought back, and won. She recently graduated from Boot Camp in top form. She had a blast despite the USMC’s grueling 13 week training. …
Jan 14 2012
Kris Thomas Flory just added his dog tags to the pile in the American Atheists Military group on Facebook. Kris Flory: Today was my last day in the US military. These tags cause a minor shit storm when I had them made by another soldier on an army tag making machine at our mobilization station prior to deploying …
Jan 06 2012
It’s like the guy at almost every dog tag machine all of a sudden forgets about pluralism when an atheist approaches. Len Blakely wrote to me about his experiences in Canada. It sounds all too familiar. After trying about 150 times to photograph it I decided it wasn’t working. I managed to cobble together a …
Jan 05 2012
A while back I posted about a heart wrenching and debate-ending example of why foxhole atheists need to demand NO-REL-PREF be accurately updated on their records to ATHEIST. Many are being told that it’s not possible – and on the contrary it has been for decades. Captain Ryan Jean wrote to me: It took me two minutes …
Dec 16 2011
I needed a bit of good news. I’m sure many of you are of the same mind. Readers may recall a short burst of posts about people being screwed over with NO-REL-PREF on their records at the first stop in their military career. It started with a Marine Corps recruit who was very adamant about …
Dec 12 2011
Another debate-ending story on whether or not it is important to get ATHEIST on your records, rather than the inaccurate and inappropriate NO-REL-PREF. Text below the fold…
Dec 12 2011
This morning’s article about a Marine recruit who got NO-REL-PREF against her will got a bit of attention. Much of it was from people who had almost the exact same experience. I’ve seen hundreds of comments to that effect in the few posts I’ve made that dealt with this topic. For instance, shortly after I …
Dec 12 2011
I’ve written previously about my difficulty getting both my dog tags and my Enlisted Records Brief to accurately reflect ‘ATHEIST’. Some of the story is kind of funny and even eventually made it on the Flying Spaghetti Monster website. My corrected dogtags even made it on Wikipedia! NO-REL-PREF makes you a target for proselytism (even …
The free festival on Fort Bragg's Main Post Parade Field was a massive success! Expect updates, highlights, and other footage over the next few months.
UPDATE: A second festival is in the works for Camp Pendleton - a large Marine Corps base near San Diego, CA. Summer 2013
:)
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