Bush nominates new Air Force Academy leader

By Andrea Shalal-Esa

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Bush on Tuesday nominated
Lt. Gen. John Regni to become superintendent of the Air Force
Academy, which has been rocked by sexual abuse and religious
insensitivity scandals in recent years.

Regni, who earned a bachelor’s degree in biology from the
academy in 1973, has served since July 2004 as commander of Air
University at Maxwell Air Force Base in Alabama, the Air
Force’s other major academic institution.

If confirmed by the U.S. Senate, Regni will replace Lt.
Gen. John Rosa, 53, who plans to retire to become president of
The Citadel, his alma mater.

Rosa took over as head of the Colorado Springs school,
which produces junior officers, in July 2003 and has worked to
address sexual harassment and religious intolerance at the
academy.

His official retirement date has not yet been announced.

The academy has undergone many changes during Rosa’s
tenure, after a major sexual abuse scandal in January 2003
revealed a pattern of sexual assaults against female cadets and
little effort to punish those responsible.

This year, it came under fire again amid reports of
inappropriate proselytizing by evangelical Christians.

An Air Force task force in June concluded the academy had
failed to accommodate minority beliefs but found no evidence of
overt religious discrimination. It did urge the Air Force to
issue guidelines on appropriate religious expression.

The Air Force responded on Monday, cautioning commanders
and civilian leaders against promoting any particular faith, or
even “the idea of religion over nonreligion,” in official
communications or at functions like meetings or sports events.

The guidelines discourage public prayers at official Air
Force events or meetings other than worship services, but they
allow for “a brief nonsectarian prayer” at special promotion
ceremonies or a “moment of silence for personal reflection.”

One outspoken critic, Mikey Weinstein, an academy graduate
from Albuquerque, described the guidelines as “dead on arrival”
because they did not address many of the underlying issues
related to evangelizing at the academy.

The guidelines try to balance the U.S. Constitutional
requirement of free religious expression with limits on
government endorsement of religion.