The U.S. Air Force Academy has been taking fire for building an $80,000 Stonehenge -like worship area for a handful of Pagan and Wiccan cadets.

Yet the academy can justify building Falcon Circle for outdoor, earth-centered spirituality — and the price tag, spokesman Don Branum said today.

The $80,000 figure includes $26,500 spent on erosion control on the east side of the hill where Falcon Circle is situated, Branum said.

The academy did spend $51,484 on creating Falcon Circle, dedicated in 2010, for a small group of cadets — only three in Fall 2011 semester — who identify themselves as Pagans.

“The Air Force Academy did it because it’s the right thing to do,” Branum said. Pagan soldiers, he said, also have served and died for their country.

It’s not a waste of money, said Col. Robert Bruno, the academy’s senior chaplain.

“The First Amendment guarantee of freedom of religion does not just apply to the mainstream faith groups. It also applies to atheists, secularists, freethinkers and those whose belief systems are usually classified under the umbrella term ‘earth-centered spirituality,’ Bruno said. “A denial of constitutional rights to one threatens the constitutional rights of all.”

The academy built Cadet Chapel, for Protestant, Catholic, Jewish, Muslim and Buddhist worshippers, in 1959 for $3.5 million, or more than $25 million in today’s dollars, Branum said.

Although the academy’s Pagan cadets receive scheduling preference for Falcon Circle, he said, other religious services have been held there, including Easter sunrise service (Christian), Bodhi Day (Buddhist) and Eid al-Fitr (Muslim).

Electa Draper: 303-954-1276 or edraper@denverpost.com