A U.S. Air Force captain who once served on missile combat crews filed suit Aug. 29 against the Air Force, claiming the military service punished him for requesting accommodation of his religious beliefs.

The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty is defending Capt. Ryan Berry, saying he was suspended from certain duties and later permanently decertified because he had asked for accommodation of his belief that as a married Catholic man he should avoid situations where he had to spend 24-48 hours in a small underground bunker with a woman.

Berry had threatened to file suit some three years ago, saying then that he would do so if all administrative remedies within the Air Force failed him (NCR, Aug. 27, 1999).

The suit, which also names the Department of Defense as a defendant, alleges the Air Force terminated the religious accommodation after previously agreeing to grant it to him. Subsequently, it alleges, the military service suspended him from missile alert duties and permanently decertified him from the Personnel Reliability Program, effectively demoting him.

The suit asks the court to declare that the Air Force's actions were unconstitutional and to order the service to remove false and negative statements about Berry, who is now on active reserve status, from its records.