Black Hebrew fighter pilot at Lockheed Martin claims boss tried repeatedly to convert him to Christianity
A member of the Black Hebrew Israelite movement and fighter pilot working as an F-35 flight instructor for Lockheed Martin claims a spiteful higher-up regularly questioned his religious beliefs, going out of her way to interrupt his observance of Shabbat, and making multiple attempts to convert him to Christianity during an overseas assignment.
That’s according to a federal lawsuit filed by Richard Roland Jones III, whose complaint also accuses the supervisor of – among numerous other things – openly lamenting the fact that their workplace was no longer “whites only.”
Jones always received “superior” work evaluations throughout his three years at the multinational aerospace and defense behemoth, according to the complaint, which says he received a leadership award in 2023 that goes only to those ranked among the top 1 percent of Lockheed Martin employees globally.
But when Jones reported the situation to management, the complaint says the 47-year-old aviator’s concerns were either slow-walked or ignored altogether, until he was finally terminated over ginned-up charges he argues were false and pretextual.
Jones’s lawsuit, which was filed September 2 in U.S. District Court in Maryland and has not been previously reported, contends his mistreatment stemmed from the fact that he “complies with non-traditional Judeo religious beliefs and practices.” It says he was subjected to “systemic discrimination on the basis of his race and religion, including, but not limited to: discriminatory policies, practices, behaviors and procedures; differential treatment; and hostility in the workplace.”
Attorney Leslie Oguchi, who is representing Jones, declined to comment on the case and directed The Independent to the complaint as filed, which she said contained all the information necessary.
In an email on Tuesday, a Lockheed Martin spokesperson said, “In general, it is our company practice not to comment on pending litigation.”
Voicemails, emails and texts to Jones’s former supervisor went unanswered.
Both Lockheed Martin and the supervisor are named as defendants in the suit.
The F-35 is a fifth-generatuuib fighter jet with a per-unit cost that can exceed $100 million. It has a top speed of 1,200 mph, or Mach 1.6, is in use by at least a dozen nations including the United States, and, although the program has been beset by various problems from the start, the F-35 is considered by the U.S. Air Force to be “far and away” the most advanced combat aircraft ever built. Lockheed Martin is the prime contractor for the F-35, manufacturing the planes with principal partners Northrop Grumman and BAE Systems.
Jones, a Florida resident, was hired by Lockheed Martin in 2021 to work as an F-35 instructor and training operations manager at Misawa Air Base in Japan, roughly 400 miles north of Tokyo. The installation is home to both U.S. and Japanese forces, and Jones was the only Black Hebrew instructor in Lockheed Martin’s entire F-35 training program, according to his complaint.
“As part of [Jones’s] beliefs, he actively practices the Shabbat which prohibits any work from Friday sunset to Saturday sunset,” the complaint explains.
However, it says Jones soon found himself at odds with a senior supervisor from a different unit. The supervisor, a white woman named Heidi Moore, would “purposely and consistently” interrupt Jones while he was observing Shabbat, despite Jones’s “repeated requests that she refrain from active interference from his compliance with the Shabbat, she nevertheless persisted,” the complaint alleges.
The supervisor ratcheted things up even further by calling Jones’s direct supervisor and “questioning his support of [Jones’s] observance of Shabbat,” along with “openly complain[ing] to [Jones’s] direct reports about his religious observances,” the complaint goes on.
