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No new nukes training in place after review

After pulling its ethics training for nuclear missile officers six months ago due to biblical references, the Air Force has finished its review but has not implemented a new secular-based briefing.

The Air Force halted the course July 27 — the same day truth-out.org published an article and posted training materials that contained images of a Christian saint and quotes from the Old and New testaments of the Bible.

Truth-out.org received the training materials from the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, which obtained them through a Freedom of Information Act request.

The course was taught to about 150 students a year by a chaplain at Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif.

For the past two decades, all missile officers have taken the ethics training as part of their orientation.

David Smith, spokesman for Air Education and Training Command, said officers participating in the Jan. 12 graduation of the 392nd Training Squadron at Vandenberg did not receive ethics training to replace the now-defunct course.

The 392nd Training Squadron is responsible for Undergraduate Space and Missile Training and missile initial qualification training, according to an AETC fact sheet.

The training material for the old ethics briefing included a 43-slide PowerPoint presentation that discussed St. Augustine’s qualifications for a “Just War” and the “Christian Just War Theory,” and drew upon examples from the Bible. In the Old Testament, for example, “David is a warrior who is also a man after God’s own heart,” and Hebrews 11:32-34 “uses as examples of true faith those OT believers who engaged in war in a righteous way,” one slide said.