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 U.S. military has accepted six new F-35 fighters without radars installed—but none so far for the Air Force. Marine Corps Lt. Gen. Gregory Masiello, the head of the F-35 Joint Program Office, told lawmakers June 23 that the Marines have to date accepted six short takeoff and vertical landing…