23 May 2022

Duty, Honor, Country

On May 12, 1962, General Douglas MacArthur addressed the Corps of Cadets at the US Military Academy (West Point) and gave his famous “Duty, Honor, Country” speech.  This month marks the 60^th anniversary of the address, so we at STARRS want to commemorate the event.  The ideals espoused by GEN MacArthur are what we believe the military academies and our military should be teaching.  The ongoing replacement of principles like the ones expressed by GEN MacArthur with neo-Marxist teachings led to the formation of STARRS. 

STARRS Turns Up Heat, Secures Small Win

Superintendent Says He’ll Let Cadets Have Degree!

By Tracey Meck, Col, USAF (Ret), STARRS Newsletter and Blog Editor-in-Chief, USAFA ‘87

Over the past week or so, STARRS turned up the heat on the USAF Academy (USAFA), Air Force and DoD leadership to do the right thing for four senior cadets who were told that not only will they not receive commissions, nor be allowed to serve their country, but they will not even graduate (i.e., not receive a degree even though they have finished the academic course work). Not only that, but the superintendent stated he would recommend they repay the Air Force approximately $165,000 (some sources say it could go as high as $200K) for their academic instruction.

Fox News picked up the story and published an article on 13 May. In Colorado Springs, The Gazette reported on the situation on 14 May, and The Washington Times got onboard on 18 May. The Daily Mail from the United Kingdom even picked up the story.

Mike Rose, STARRS General Counsel, is providing legal counsel to the cadets and is working on a federal lawsuit on behalf of all unvaccinated AF cadets and 16 from West Point (some from each class). The existence of the lawsuit and the points being argued were made widely known, including in an interview with USAFA graduate Chaplain Gordon Klingenschmitt (Chaps) on a May 5th Pray In Jesus Name newscast.

STARRS President, Lt Gen Rod Bishop (USAF Ret) and Chaps lead a peaceful protest outside the academy gates on Saturday, 14 May. They were joined by other STARRS staff and supporters, as well as cadet family members. Informational emails were sent to the leadership of numerous like-minded groups, AF and DoD leaders, and members of congress. Gen Bishop was interviewed on Steve Bannon’s War Room and Real America’s Voice’s War Room Pandemic (Part 1 and Part 2).

Mike Rose and a cadet appeared on Fox and Friends on 18 May. During this discussion it was revealed that one of the other cadets had decided to get the vaccine because he is a cancer survivor and, if discharged, he would not have insurance to cover his on-going care. He fears that the potential adverse effects of the vaccine could lead to a re-emergence of the cancer due to the vaccine’s documented negative impacts on the immune system. The cadet’s doctors strongly advised him NOT to get the vaccine because of the risk, but he felt he had no choice. CD Media also reported on this new development. On 19 May, STARRS was informed that one of the cadets had submitted a resignation request, leaving two cadets in limbo.

Based on the information he received, Congressman Doug Lamborn, CO 5th, sent a letter to the USAFA Superintendent regarding the situation on 17 May. A couple hours later, the superintendent announced the senior cadets would graduate with the Bachelor’s degrees they had earned. Congressman Lamborn’s office told STARRS that “many other members of congress are at a breaking point about how the vaccine exemption issues have been handled.” They will be introducing legislation addressing it soon and plan to fight it through the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) process.

The legal fight will continue with the goal of securing commissions for the graduates and vaccine mandate exemptions for all cadets and midshipmen still in legal and professional limbo. To this end, STARRS secured the help of the law firm that won the case against mandatory anthrax vaccinations. Several lawyers are working pro-bono, but there are still legal costs involved with filing motions and taking other actions to navigate through the legal process. 

If you would like to help cover these legal costs, please click the link below.

A Call To Action

Thank you for expressing interest in STARRS.  We encourage you to take an active role in our mission, to include educating your elected representatives at the local, state and national levels, and expressing your concerns.  We also encourage you to educate your fellow citizens by speaking at gatherings, writing editorials for local papers, talking to school boards and encouraging others to join you and STARRS.

STARRS is an all-volunteer organization, but we have financial obligations to maintain webpages, subscribe to software, pay travel costs associated with presentations, as well as fund other related matters.  Your donations make all this possible and are greatly appreciated!

Freedom Of Information Act - Update

STARRS has filed 26 requests for information under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).  SECDEF 1, USMA 2, USNA 1, USAFA 22.  As of this writing, six have been closed, and only one request has been answered.  The 20 remaining open requests are all well beyond the 20-day statutory response window. 

STARRS Leadership Interviewed on CD Media

On April 29, 2022, three members of the STARRS leadership team were interviewed by L Todd Wood, founder and publisher of Creative Destruction Media (CD Media).  Todd is a 1986 graduate of the United States Air Force Academy and a former Special Operations helicopter pilot.  The interview appeared in CD Media’s Information Operation, Episode 115.  Click the link below to watch Rod Bishop, Lt Gen, USAF (Ret) and STARRS President; STARRS General Counsel VP, Legal, South Carolina Sen. (Ret) Mike Rose; and STARRS Advisor, Scott Sturman, MD, discuss the COVID-19 vaccine mandates at the military academies and STARRS efforts to help cadets and midshipmen who have been, or will be, disenrolled for vaccination refusals.

Troops Allege that the Military’s COVID-19

Vaccine Mandate is a “Religious Purge”

On April 28, 2022, three active-duty service members appeared on a podcast hosted by Representative Matt Gaetz, R-FL. They accused the Department of Defense (DOD) of using the military’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate to rid the military of religious service members. Since the details of this accusation are yet to be disclosed, STARRS has taken no official position. Even so, STARRS includes the details thus far to promote public awareness of the multi-pronged fight against radical policies in the DOD, as these appear to be. In an article that appeared in Edition 16 of the STARRS Newsletter, the authors noted, “Despite thousands of applications [for religious exemptions], very few cases have been approved.” Linked below is an April 28, 2022, article by Meghann Myers on the subject, which appeared on the Military Times website. 

Air Force Whistleblowers Reveal Intimidation

Tactics Used Against Unvaxxed

In the May 7, 2022 edition of Friday Roundtable on CD Media’s website, Polly Tommey interviews three Air Force officers who relate their administrative treatment in the wake of their decisions not to receive the COVID-19 vaccination. Specifically, pilots and navigators are not allowed to fly, nor to go on any temporary duty (TDY). Nor can they hold leadership positions or attend Professional Military Education let alone socialize with other military members. These policies apply to those who have already applied for and received religious or medical exemptions. Pam Long, MD, and Meryl Nass, MD, detail how the military is doing a “bait and switch,” in which it is using an experimental “emergency use” vaccine rather than one approved by the FDA. These officers also relate stories of intimidation and bullying of other service members including one involving a chaplain transitioning between assignments, who had to pay out-of-pocket for five months in a hotel room for which he was not reimbursed.

STARRS Spotlight

Vice President of Finance

Tracey Siems

STARRS is happy to announce that Brig Gen (Ret) Tracey Siems, USAFA ’88, has assumed responsibilities as the Vice-President for Finance. In 2019, she retired from a 31-year Air Force career in Financial Management that included active duty, ANG and AFR assignments. Her last assignment was Mobilization Assistant to the Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Budget at the Pentagon. From 1996 to retirement in 2021, Brig Gen Siems had a dual civilian career at State Farm Insurance, where she worked in information technology and cyber security. 

When asked why she joined STARRS, she stated, “I joined STARRS to have a voice in educating people on the importance of meritocracy and allowing people to speak freely without fear of retribution. All individuals should have the chance to showcase their abilities and be considered for opportunities.”

Why Violence is an Inevitable Outcome of

Critical Race Theory

In the last few editions, the STARRS Newsletter has focused on the military’s vaccine mandate. Even so, we must not lose sight of where it began: combating Neo-Marxism, especially as it has been expressed in Critical Race Theory. The good news is that more attention has been drawn to the current trend to politicize and radicalize the military. The bad news is that the Department of Defense is not backing down. In fact, with the possibility looming of a governmental shift toward the right this November, DOD seems to be increasing its efforts to make as much progress as it can in the interim.

A related article by J. Allen Cartwright appeared on The Federalist website on April 19, 2022. It’s a quick read, but it succinctly and convincingly explains the reasons the author feels that teaching CRT leads to violent behavior. 

The Intellectuals: Episode 9

Rebecca Friedrichs

In this episode of The Intellectuals on CD Media’s website, Dr. Ron Scott, Col, USAF (Ret), STARRS Board of Directors Vice Chairman, interviews Rebecca Friedrichs, author of Standing Up to Goliath: Battling State and National Teachers’ Unions for the Heart and Soul of our Kids and Country.  In the interview, Mrs. Friedrichs recounts how she and other California teachers fought and won a legal battle against the teachers’ unions.  She believes the teachers' unions represent special interests, not the teachers.  “Standing Up to Goliath” is the story of this battle, and includes the testimonies of teachers, parents, and children.  Their experiences led her to found For Kids and Country, an organization whose vision is “to restore our educational system to the excellence, morality and patriotism envisioned by our American Founders.”  In the interview, they discuss how the teachers’ unions no longer represent teachers, and how they have been infiltrated by communists.  They review the history from 1912 to the present, and then focus on what is going on in our schools today. 

The Intellectuals: Episode 10

Dr. Carol Swain

In this episode of The Intellectuals on CD Media’s website, Dr. Ron Scott interviews Dr. Carol Swain.  Dr. Swain is a former tenured professor of political science at both Princeton and Vanderbilt Universities.  She is currently a Distinguished Senior Fellow for Constitutional Studies with the Texas Public Policy Foundation, and an educational advisor for the American Cornerstone Institute founded by Dr. Ben Carson.  She is the author, co-author, and/or editor of eleven books, including the bestseller Black Eye for America: How Critical Race Theory is Burning Down the House.  In the interview, Dr. Swain relates how she came to write the book and what it is about, including how Critical Race Theory (and other critical theories) evolved from Marxism.  The book also contains information on how to recognize when these ideologies are being taught under other names, and how to fight back against them.  When they move on to what’s happening in America today in the media and academia, Dr. Swain makes the profound statement that “they are not interested in educating; they are interested in indoctrinating.”  Though Dr. Swain is clearly an intellectual, she is very plainspoken and makes her points clearly and succinctly.  This is an excellent interview.

US Navy Chief Quietly Takes Woke

Books Off the Reading List

The efforts of groups like STARRS and the Navy-focused Calvert Group are paying off!  On May 8, 2022, Bradford Betz of Fox News reported that the Professional Reading Program of Chief of Naval Operations (CNO), Admiral Mike Gilday, no longer includes such works as How to Be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi, The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander, or Sexual Minorities and Politics by Jason Pierceson.  These books were all on the Navy’s 2021 Reading List.  The article credits several unnamed Republican members of Congress with “raising concerns about these titles.”  We would also like to think STARRS played a substantial role in "raising concerns" over these titles. 

Boots on the Ground Perspectives

on Racism and Radicalism

1.    From Rod Bishop, President, STARRS:

A USAFA appointee called me yesterday unhappy that part of the training he must complete before entering USAFA includes movies seeming to advocate for Black Lives Matter. Apparently, they are the exact same BLM training videos USAFA used last year. He told me this kind of training made him feel "uncomfortable." He was wondering why USAFA would seemingly endorse such an organization as he knows the damage BLM has done across the country. 

2.    Pat Hueman, a 1962 graduate of USMA (West Point), in an email to USMA Superintendent LTG Darryl Williams (following the Superintendent’s address to Pat's class at its 60^th reunion), asked questions about various subjects, including the lack of balance between left-leaning and right-leaning speakers in recent years, as well as cadets reporting they are being taught “what to think” rather than “how to think.” Hueman had reached out to cadets, asking them to list the “liberal/radical” and the “conservative” speakers they had heard, or were told about, since January 1, 2021. Cadets listed six liberal/radical speakers and no conservative speakers.

Mr. Hueman’s email further contained an excerpt from a USMA Social Sciences syllabus that was sent to him from a West Point cadet: “EMPHASIS WILL BE PLACED ON THE INHERENT INEQUALITIES FOUND WITHIN THE STRUCTURES, RULES AND PROCESSES OF THE AMERICAN POLITICAL SYSTEM.” This same cadet stated that a History Department instructor showed the class a video from the 1950s called “West Point Belongs to You.” The instructor forced his opinion on the class that the video was sexist and misogynistic. When cadets wrote essays that included political points of view different from those of the instructor, the instructor scratched out cadets’ different views with a red ink pen. The instructor did not allow debate; rather the instructor told the cadets WHAT to believe.

Mr. Hueman further asked, “Did you feel sufficiently comfortable to speak against CRT tenets during class discussions?" One cadet responded, "I know many who would just go with the narrative out of fear. I didn't because I would rather speak the truth and accept a bad grade than lies. That said, I did not feel comfortable enough to speak up against it in class." When Mr. Hueman asked cadets about what books they were required to read, they reported, “Integrating the US Military: race, gender and sexual orientation since World War II,” described as being entirely focused on how “whites” marginalize minorities. Another heavily-biased work cited was, “Intimations,” by Zadie Smith. 

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