Letter: U.S. military makes room for Jedi

Saturday, July 15, 2006 | 7:48 a.m.

Just a quick comment on the problems about getting the Wiccan symbol on a war memorial.

Somebody's personal religious beliefs are just basically important to them and should be respected. This shouldn't be a big deal to any institution wishing to honor Iraq war casualties.

In November 1979 I was a newly minted second lieutenant in the U.S. Air Force. One day I had to go to the Administration Section of my base and fill out a bunch of paperwork. (Family, next of kin, etc.)

On one form was a list of religions and the corresponding codes if I wished to declare one. They had everything from Catholic to "other" and all possibilities in between.

I looked at the paper and, feeling a bit mischievous, told the airman that mine wasn't listed.

He asked which one was that.

I said "Jedi." He almost spit out his coffee. If he had said that I couldn't have declared that, I wouldn't have pushed it.

He coded it into my record. My official Air Force identification card and tags listed my religion as "Jedi."

Once on a mobility exercise I presented my ID tag to a base chaplain on a processing line in case I needed some kind of counseling. He looked at me really hard and said, "Jedi, huh? Probably not much I can tell you."

True story, all of this.

Good luck to the family of Sgt. Patrick Stewart in getting the Wiccan symbol on his memorial.

Mark Bradshaw, Henderson