A poster with the message “On a mission for both God and Country” on display outside a recruiting station in Phoenix was removed Friday morning after it was brought to the attention of the the Army Recruiting Command.
The poster features a Special Forces patch and Ranger, Airborne, and Special Forces tabs with a “stock image” the command makes available for local recruiters to use, “but the text was changed by the local recruiting personnel,” and not cleared by command headquarters, spokesman Brian Lepley told the Army Times on Friday.
“Had the process been followed, the copy shown would not have been approved,” Mr. Lepley added.
It was unclear when the display first went up, but images of the sandwich board have popped up on online forums on Reddit and Flickr with dates as far back as October. The command first became aware of the sign on Friday morning, Army Times reported.
On Thursday another image of the poster appeared in a post on the Daily Kos from Mikey Weinstein, president and founder of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation.
In the post, which now has over 400 comments, Mr. Weinstein called the display a “stunning, unconstitutional disgrace” and labeled it the “Poster of Shame.”
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Army Recruiting Command is investigating who ordered and/or the display, Mr. Lepley told the Army Times.
“The Military Religious Freedom Foundation is delighted that the Constitution has been adhered to by the U.S. Army Recruiting Command,” Mr. Weinstein said after the poster was removed, the newspaper reported. “But whoever, in any way, shape or form, allowed that poster to be designed, prepared and displayed, those individuals should be aggressively investigated and very visibly punished.”
• Kellan Howell can be reached at khowell@washingtontimes.com.
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