I wonder if Scotty Beauchamp likes fish sticks?
West point like any school produces both stellar and mediocre graduates. Sometimes the mediocre grads become stellar officers and the stellar grads become mediocre officers.
Its life.
The author has no clue as to what Wet Point does.
Just my opinion.
“Jimmy Carter”
AH- HA - HA - HA - HA - HA!
He lost me right there!
Yes there’s some nepotism - show me a school where that isn’t true. There is also real research done by the staffs that would be lost without them. Iight see the coast guard and merchant marine academies combined (note he’s uninformed enough he missed the latter) but otherwise they serve a solid purpose... Leave em be and work on the problems just like any other organization.
Yeah I’m biased just like him in the other direction
Go Navy, Beat Army
USNA ‘89
But the Washington Post loves “bloated government money-sucks.”
do you all realize that the "leaders" of almost every dept in our govt is an obammy appointee and leftist or moslem or gay or all three?....
do you all realize that our national security is a joke.....we have no security...
obammy has successfully destroyed our republic....
and yet we had freepers and conservatives refusing to vote for Romney, on principle....
well, enjoy your principle why we become the banana republic ripe for takeover by ISIS or China or the gay cabal....
you asked for it....you got it....
and now, lets continue to debase Romney/Christie/Jeb etc because that 's what we do....we eat our own and destroy decent candidates infavor of handing elections to democrats..
“But they are not the hallowed arbiters of quality promised by their myths. Their traditions mask bloated government money-sucks that consistently underperform. They are centers of nepotism that turn below-average students into average officers”
Also describing the Ivy league.
What the service academies cost to keep open probably wouldn’t service this country’s debt for a month. I don’t know for sure, but I’m betting the cost of the academies is a very tiny drop in the huge bucket of national debt.
Even he is admitting that the service academies produce something.
Why doesn't he advocate getting rid of some of the tens of millions of parasites on the government teat who will produce absolutely nothing useful in the entirety of their lives?
I wonder what year Scott Beauchamp was rejected by a Service Academy?
Uh, right, little Scotty, I'd like you to show us one below average student who ever got into West Point, much less one who got in and graduted. This isn't journalism school, y'know.
This Beauchamp character neglected to mention, or more likely didn’t know of the Merchant Marine Academy at Kings Point, New York. They also produce Ensigns USNR. Yet their training, though military, is more commercial shipping oriented. A lot of officers in the USNS fleet are USMMA trained.
Parallel to the saying, “Garbage in, garbage out.” Just can’t get one term to be synonymous to the situation. I do love the Lieutenant humor that pervades the ranks.
Have to post this one: THE IMAGE OF RANK
General:
Leaps over tall buildings in a single bound, is more powerful than a locomotive, is faster than a speeding bullet, walks on water, and gives policy to God.
Colonel:
Leaps over short buildings in a single bound, is more powerful than a switch engine, is just as fast as a speeding bullet, walks on water if sea is calm, and talks to God.
Lieutenant Colonel:
Leaps over short buildings with a running start and a favorable wind, is almost as powerful as a switch engine, is as fast as a speeding b-b, walks on water in an indoor pool, and talks to God if special request is approved.
Major:
Barely clears quonset huts, loses tug-of-war with locomotives, can fire a speeding bullet, swims well, and is occassionally addressed by God.
Captain:
Makes high marks when trying to leap buildings, is run over by locomotives, can someimes handle a weapon without inflicting self-injury, can doggie-paddle, and talks to animals.
First Lieutenant:
Runs into buildings, recognizes locomotives two out of three times, is not issued ammunition, can stay afloat if properly instructed, and talks to water.
Second Lieutenant:
Falls over doorsills when trying to enter buildings, says “look at the choo-choo, ” wets himself with a water pistol, and mumbles to himself.
An NCO: Lifts building and then walks under them, kicks locomotives off the track, catches speeding bullets in his teeth, and chews them, and freezes water in a speeding glance. He is God.
Huh?
This the same Scotty Beauchamp who made up fairy stories about soldiers running over dogs and desecrating mass graves during his deployment to Iraq to spark his writing career? Fairy stories he recanted under oath? The Washington Post publishing anything he writes, knowing that all this is easily found and thoroughly documented, says more about the Post than any opinion lil Scotty holds.
Bad idea.