This is going to sound like a stupid question but, “banning soldiers from praying in public?” What does that mean? Yes there is praying in public, I get that but what about attending Church services? In Orthodoxy/Catholicism the whole service is a Prayer except for a short little sermon. If a soldier is on leave or even has time on a base to attend a Church service in full uniform is that permissible.
The Supreme Court decision last year basically gave the Federal Govt (including the Dept of Defense) an excuse to persecute Christians for almost any reason, in the name of "civil rights" for homosexuals. The DOMA decision on June 26, 2013, by 5-4, was not even a day old before the DoD gave out new "policy" announcements. The White House had ordered these to be ready, and actually authored them.
That is the hard, cold, awful truth.