American Family Association and Family Research Council have launched petitions urging Air Force personnel to apologize for forcibly ejecting veteran Oscar Rodriguez from the retirement ceremony of Master Sgt. Charles Roberson for delivering a speech mentioning God.
During the flag-folding part of the ceremony, Rodriguez stood up to deliver the speech at the request of Roberson, but was taken out of the ceremony by uniformed military personnel.
The petitions, addressed to Major Gen. John C. Flournoy and Col. Raymond A. Kozak, call on the military officials to apologize to Rodriguez and Roberson, and have received over 90,000 signatures.
The First Liberty Institute, which is representing Rodriguez, threatened to sue the Air Force in June for violating the veteran's First Amendment rights of exercising his religious freedom and free speech.
When questions about the legality of Air Force personnel's actions were raised, the Air Force thereafter released a statement absolving Rodriguez of allegations that he violated regulations.
"Air Force personnel may use a flag folding ceremony script that is religious for retirement ceremonies," the Air Force said in a statement to Air Force Times. "Since retirement ceremonies are personal in nature, the script preference for a flag folding ceremony is at the discretion of the individual being honored and represents the member's views, not those of the Air Force. The Air Force places the highest value of the rights of its personnel in matters of religion and facilitates the free exercise of religion by its members."
However, the Air Force regulations state that when the flag is being folded, no script is recited unless it is given by the Air Force. The script officially approved by the Air Force speaks about history of the flag, but it has no mention of God. An earlier version of the script acknowledged God, but the Pentagon revised it recently to exclude the word. Roberson asked Rodriguez particularly to recite the traditional speech.
Rodriguez's advocates say that since he is a civilian, he is not under the regulations imposed by the Air Force, and the retirement ceremony is a personal occasion.
The clarification offered by the Air Force was not accepted by the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF), which said it will also sue the Air Force. The group said that the Air Force regulations apply to all public and private ceremonies.
"According to Title 4 United States Code, there is no specific meaning assigned to the folds of the flag. Although there are flag folding ceremony options offered by various national interest groups, these are not official Air Force ceremonies. The Air Force developed a script that provides a historical perspective on the flag. There are no ceremonies in the Air Force requiring a script to be read when the flag is folded. However, when a flag folding ceremony is desired and conducted by Air Force personnel at any location, on or off an installation, this script is the only one that may be used," the MRFF said in a press release.
The traditional speech which Rodriguez wanted to deliver ends with these words:
"It is this one nation under God that we call, with honor, the United States of America. God Bless our flag. God bless our troops. God bless America."
