The U.S. Navy has issued a directive ordering the removal of all Bibles from lodges and hotels run on U.S. Navy bases after complaints from an vehemently anti-Christian organization.
“The current direction is to remove all religious material from Navy Lodge guest rooms,” read an email to a Navy chaplain from The Navy Exchange Service Command (NEXCOM). “For those Navy Lodges with religious materials currently in guest rooms, the Navy Lodge General Manager will contact the Installation Chaplain’s office who will provide guidance on the removal procedure disposition of these materials.”
The American Family Association who received a separate copy of the e-mail directive confirmed the e-mail’s contents.
The violently anti-Christian Freedom From Religion Foundation has filed a complaint with the military claiming the existence of the Bibles in the hotel room meant the government was automatically endorsing the text.
Kathleen Martin, a spokesman for NEXCOM, avoided giving a direct answer to the issue when confronted by FoxNews reporter Todd Starnes.
“We looked at our policy — and realized there wasn’t a consistent policy regarding Navy Lodges,” she told Starnes. “We decided we needed to have some consistency and be consistent with the Navy.”
The Bibles were placed free by the Gideons.
The land was declared safe for residential housing. No threats to the public.
Now, the U.S. Navy is conducting house-to-house testing for radiation after an empty home on a former Naval base was found to contain radium.
The homes are located on a man-made island called “Treasure Island.” The area once served as a U.S. Navy base and has been redevelopments under an agreement from the Department of Defense with San Francisco’s Treasure Island Development Authority.
The Navy cleaned up the base after closure in 1997. The DoD then leased the homes to civilians that were once military housing.
The Navy had declared the residential area was free of any radiological contamination because the item containing radium was found in the empty home. Now, residents are concerned not only for radiation beneath their homes but also in the groundwater supply.
“In the event a radiological survey of a housing unit reveals a health concern, the Navy will take immediate action to protect the residents,” the Navy said in a statement.
Naval troops who rushed to Japan to help following the meltdown of the Fukushima nuclear power plant are now reporting multiple health issues including losing the ability to walk.
Lt. Steve Simmons, a first responder who served on the USS Ronald Reagan, was among the first troops to arrive as part of Operation Tomodachi. The ship rushed into the disaster zone but was not told they were in the middle of a massive radiation plume released from the meltdown of the plant.
Simmons returned from his deployment and began to experience deterioration of his health. Seven months after returning home, he was no longer able to walk.
Simmons and over 100 other soldiers are now suing Tokyo Electric Power Company, who operate the plant, saying they never told their government nor the U.S. government of the massive radiation release into the ocean and that rescue ships were sitting in the middle of it.
Congressional officials are now getting involved, asking the Department of Defense about the medical conditions of troops aboard the Ronald Reagan and what the DoD is doing to help them.
Soldiers from the USS Ronald Reagan quickly jumped in to help the victims of the 2011 tsunami that devastated Japan.
The troops were simply fulfilling their long held mission of helping the poor and unfortunate throughout the world.
Now, months later, some of the troops involved in the rescue are finding themselves being diagnosed with cancers that could be connected to radiation exposure. At least 51 Navy sailors have been found to have diseases likely connected to radiation.
Two soldiers are speaking out about the situation.
Quartermaster Maurice Enis said that a few months after their deployment to the coastline a few miles from the stricken Fukushima Nuclear Plant, he found strange lumps on his body. He was diagnosed with radiation poisoning and told his illness would get worse. His fiancée, Jamie Plym, said she suffered gynecological symptoms and hemorrhaging so bad she needed to be hospitalized.
The soldiers are now suing Tokyo Electric Power Company claiming the company did not warn the Navy that the tsunami caused a nuclear meltdown and sent huge amounts of contaminated water into the sea. The troops ended up within two miles of the plant while the company ordered an evacuation of towns as far as 12 miles from the plant for safety reasons.
The soldiers say they don’t blame the Navy which acted in good faith.
