On October 25, 2013, Business Insider reported the following:

Cadets at the United States Air Force Academy now have the option as to whether to say “so help me God,” when they take their oaths, according to a new report by Air Force Times. 

The Air Force Academy, the premier academic institution for creating Air Force officers, located just north of Colorado Springs, Colo., requires their students to take an oath.

It reads “We will not lie, steal or cheat nor tolerate among us anyone who does. Furthermore, I resolve to do my duty and live honorably, so help me God.”

That same month, I went after records regarding this change, and requested all records pertaining to this change of the oath.  In the response, I received quite a few emails and conversations pertaining to this change, and as the evidence shows, it was quite controversial, and did not sit well with many who wrote in about it.

Document Archive

 Air Force Cadets No Longer Required to say “… so help me God” at the end of their Oath [336 Pages, 52.4MB]

The post Air Force Cadets No Longer Required to say “… so help me God” at the end of their Oath first appeared on The Black Vault.

Air Force Academy cadets are no longer required to say “so help me God” at the end of the Honor Oath, school officials said Friday. The decision came after a complaint from the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, an advocacy group, that the words violated the constitutional concept of religious freedom. The oath states: “We will not lie, steal or cheat, nor tolerate among us anyone who does. Furthermore, I resolve to do my duty and to live honorably, so help me God.” Cadets must take the oath once, when they formally enter the school as freshmen after boot camp, an academy spokesman said.

Shortly thereafter, I requested under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) all records that pertain to this change, correspondence relating to the words “so help me God” being removed, etc.

It took over a year, but hundreds of pages were released in response to my FOIA request.  Below, you will find the archive of documents, with some highlights.

 Documents Relating to the Air Force Academy’s removal of “So Help Me God” from the Honor Oath, Released November of 2014 [ 335 Pages, 49.64MB ]

The post Air Force Honor Oath Makes “So Help Me God” Optional first appeared on The Black Vault.