I know that we don't get to political on this site, for obvious reasons, but this has been all over the place and I thought that it would be a good discussion topic being that some of our members have them and that we do have some retired and active military personnel.
Trijicon has made the news with something I never knew about..
Give it a read....

pentagonbrief.blogspot.com/2010/01/rifle...s-include-bible.html

BMS

It would be interesting to know more details about the acquisition. ACOGS are a completely privately developed product that happened to have cryptic bible references on them. If the government did not specify in the contract something that would require removal of standard features of the Off-The-Shelf product, then the government got exactly what it ordered and no one has any real grounds to find fault with Trijicon besides personal bias about religion or military. The party instigating the complaint has a visible historic political bias against Christians, frequently painting them as "crazy" and otherwise evil.

Again assuming that the government nowhere specified removal or unacceptability of the markings, as the producer I would be pleased to sell, at-cost even, kits to alter the parts to the buyer's desired configuration, and charge labor only for reworking work in process. Because of the hostile political climate and the government's powers I expect Trijicon to do it all for free and even appologize though there be no wrongdoing, just to keep in the game.

I see nothing wrong with the government wanting "spiritually neutral" components, as spirituality is not part of their objective. Outcry and outrage directed at makings on a common off the shelf product the govt likely purchased without paying attention to their own requirements (which happens all the time, trust me) is unfair and unjustified. We need to see the details of the govt's order, but I highly suspect this is another govt S.N.A.F.U. rather than a case of Trijicon "sneaking" bible codes onto US equipment as a covert effort to prosthelytize muslims or others. It does give people with intollerance for Christianity an opportinity to further demonize Christians while sounding "inclusive" however, which I presume was the real objective of the complaint, given the history of the individual who filed it.

It would be nice to see the details of the purchase contract to know for sure how this came about. FOIA Request anyone?

I just read the post by "CRUX" and think it was a very good response. I would also like to have more information before drawing any conclusions.

As always Crux, in with the intellectual and philosophical analyzing of the topic..I would expect no less, glad you're back in the saddle.
You the MAN....
BMS

Well an update on this one.....got this info from a friend.
Looks like Trijicon backed down....I have to say I am somewhat disappointed...

ABC reports:

A Trijicon press release stated that the company would: "Remove the inscription reference on all U.S. military products that are in the company's factory that have already been produced, but have yet to be shipped" and "Provide 100 modification kits to forces in the field to remove the reference on the already forward deployed optical sights."

The company also said it would ensure future procurements from the Department of Defense are produced without scripture references, and offer foreign forces that have purchased the products "the same remedies."

PS. hey Crux, that other post was a compliment by the way...

BMS

Heh I saw the compliment and thanks

Yes I expected Trijicon to do just that. Like I said, when you have a customer with that much power politically and economically you can find yourself out of business or worse quickly if you aren't accommodating.

Many government contracting actions are rife with waste, inattention to detail, unrealistic expectations and constant scope creep. Sometimes it seems like they want everything, don't want to pay for it, change their mind constantly, and often never really knew what they wanted in the first place, but mostly wanted it NOW.

That's expensive my friends, but industries suck up the accusations about contractors "over budget and over schedule" even though it's often a result of what I mentioned above because it doesn't pay to embarrass such a large and powerful customer by saying "you completely changed your mind on what you wanted half way through, and you didn't understand that you can't just turn off a production line for 2 years and switch it right back on again without incurring a cost, and..." the list goes on.

Anyway, I'm going to go see if I can score me a TA11H that still has markings, because I'll be surprised if Trijicon still puts the markings on anything after this. That's simply because it's more efficient to build them all the same way. It will be a nice element of the collection if I can score one with the markings, something I'll enjoy handing down to my son.