The Defense Department’s General Counsel has ruled that airmen may choose to omit the words “So help me God” from enlistment and officer appointment oaths, service officials announced. The Air Force requested the opinion after an airman at Creech AFB, Nev., omitted the words while taking his verbal oath. “We take any instance in which airmen report concerns regarding religious freedom seriously,” said Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James in a Sept. 17 release. “We are making the appropriate adjustments to ensure our airmen’s rights are protected.” Though it will take a couple weeks to update the appropriate Air Force Instructions, the “policy change is effective now,” states the release.
The Air Force awarded a $13.08 billion contract to the Sierra Nevada Corporation on April 26 for its Survivable Airborne Operations Center aircraft, the successor to the service’s E-4B “Doomsday” plane. Like the E-4B, officially called the National Airborne Operations Center, the SAOC will be meant to withstand a nuclear attack and keep…