RE: Atheists in Foxholes
May 25, 2015 at 9:52 pm
(This post was last modified: May 25, 2015 at 9:57 pm by Thumpalumpacus.)
(May 25, 2015 at 6:46 pm)Faith No More Wrote:(May 25, 2015 at 6:20 pm)Parkers Tan Wrote: I wore "atheist" on my dogtags ... but I was smart enough to join the Air Force, so no foxholes here
Isn't the Air Force one of the more religious branches?
![[Image: 2mdfamh_th.jpg]](https://images.weserv.nl/?url=s5.tinypic.com%2F2mdfamh_th.jpg)
There have been a couple of scandals about proselytizing, but I don't know that it's any more religious than any other branch, andI might be surprised if it were.
I, and the other atheists with whom I served, were all open about our lack of faith -- we'd have BS sessions out in front of the fire station after chow, and religion came up enough in them. We never were treated any differently by anyone of any rank at all, except for this one airman whose name escapes me, but who was pushy with his preaching. The courtesy we showed the other believers in our discussions was not present the moment he got preachy. But other than that, we had some great conversations about our differences and I never suffered for it that I knew of.
(May 25, 2015 at 7:06 pm)AFTT47 Wrote: I served in D'haran, Saudi Arabia during Southern Watch as a member of the US Air Force, shortly after Desert Storm. I don't remotely think of myself as a hero for that but there were two incidents that took the lives of my fellow military members there. An Air National Guard unit was bombed there previously:
http://www.qmfound.com/14th_Quartermaste...chment.htm
and the living quarters I stayed in were bombed later:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khobar_Towers_bombing
A buddy of mine from fire school worked in the Scud attack on the 14th's barracks.
Myself, I passed through Dhahran on my way to Riyadh in Mar 92, and on my way out in July of the same year. Funny to think we might have been a hundred feet away from each other on that flightline 23 years ago.
(May 25, 2015 at 7:06 pm)AFTT47 Wrote: I wore "NO PREF" on my ID TAGS (I'm not a dog) which is what was available in 1985 when I joined. The "No Atheists in Fox Holes" thing pisses me off to no end. I sure as hell didn't change my beliefs during combat. If I had, that would have reflected on my own weakness - not the truth of my beliefs. If I had been killed there, I would have died an atheist - for all the good or bad it would have done me or anyone else.
No doubt. I'm no combat troop, but as a firefighter, I can say we were far too busy doing our jobs to worry about incantations.
