“Antisemitic discrimination in the ranks
of the services now and then”
From: (Former military member and current MRFF client's e-mail address withheld)
Subject: Antisemitic discrimination in the ranks of the services now and then
Date: May 5, 2024 at 7:40:03 PM MDT
To: Mikey Weinstein <mikey@militaryreligiousfreedom.org>
As a military member there are challenges we must face as Jews which are, in these times, unimaginable; despite the Constitution, Presidential Directives, U.S. Laws, and Military Regulations affirming our religious freedoms.
When I was a young enlisted service member I did not know Mikey Weinstein and did not know I could turn to the Military Religious Freedom Foundation for support when being harassed. You now have that option and I thank him for creating an opportunity for us to have resolution with illegal religious persecution and discrimination.
The laws simply don't exist for us because antisemitic leaders won't enforce them.
I was on a U.S. Air Force security forces team before commissioning which often was tasked with Presidential and Foreign Head of State, even Pope security. The operations NCO frequently hounded me and Muslim service members about our religions. It got so bad that at group events they would cook pork products and he would make a point to drop pork sausages on my plate while I was eating. They even made death threats to me that if we ever got into a fire fight, I would take a friendly fired round in the back of my skull. They weren't joking. The commander even stated if I would convert, I could enjoy eating the pork they so loved.
I had an O-6 (full Colonel) Christian Chaplain leaving notes taped on my barracks room door stating I was part of a dying breed and I needed to come see him for salvation. When I filed an I.G. complaint against him, they turned the table on me and allowed me to stay in the military if I would apologize to him for trying to ruin his career just before his retirement.
I had no top-cover back in the day and it was either apologize or separate from the service. But all of you in the armed forces now are most fortunate to actually have powerful top-cover with the advent of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation’s forceful and successful advocacy.
I was nominated for both the Airman's Medal in 199X for saving a runaway (jet fighter designation withheld) fighter and the crew chief inside and the Bronze Star in 19XX for stopping a damaged bomb from exploding on a packed fight line. My middle initial on my citation was listed as an (initial withheld) instead of an (initial withheld) and it was caught at the Pentagon. Major (name withheld) had just replaced LTC (name withheld) and made it very clear he was a born again Christian and openly stated if I wanted my awards amended so they could be approved or I wanted to get commissioned in the USAF, I must start attending his personal Christian Prayer Breakfasts he held in his conference room with senior leaders as the Commander of the (USAF unit designation withheld) Squadron headquarters in 199X and 199X. I was an Orthodox Jew and refused.
Not only did he have both of my awards downgraded but he had performed an administrative reduction in grade from (rank title withheld) Sergeant to (lower rank title withheld) Sergeant and gave my stripe to a Christian soldier I worked with who was having self-induced hard times. Though I held both the Bronze Star and Airman's Medals I had well earned in combat and at the risk of my own life in my hands with their respective official military citations citing my actions, both were revoked and downgraded.
The question becomes what is more important; one's integrity or advancing in the ranks after being wrongfully converted to Christianity under the never punished duress and oppression of my Christian military commanders?
(Former military member and current MRFF client's name and all other ID withheld)
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