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50 years later, disagreements over young Trump’s military academy record
Washington Post ^ | 10 Jan 2016 | Michael E. Miller

Posted on 01/10/2016 7:40:46 AM PST by mandaladon

From the moment 17-year-old Donald Trump was named a captain for his senior year at New York Military Academy, he ordered the officers under his command to keep strict discipline. Shoes had to be shined. Beds had to be made. Underclassmen had to spring to attention.

Then, a month into Trump’s tenure in the fall of 1963, came an abrupt change.

The tall, confident senior with a shock of blond hair was removed from that coveted post atop A Company and transferred to a new job on the school staff — another prestigious assignment, but one with no command responsibilities. He moved out of the barracks and into the administration building, swapping jobs with a fellow high-ranking senior who took command of Trump’s old group.

Explanations vary as to what actually happened.

In Trump’s telling, he was elevated as a reward for stellar performance. “I had total control over the cadets,” he said in a recent interview. “That’s why I got a promotion — because I did so good.”

Former cadets recall the change differently. They say school administrators transferred Trump after a freshman named Lee Ains complained of being hazed by a sergeant under Trump’s command. School officials, those cadets say, were concerned that Trump’s style of delegating leadership responsibilities while spending a lot of time in his room, away from his team, allowed problems to fester.

“They felt he wasn’t paying attention to his other officers as closely as he should have,” said Ains, who lives in Connecticut and works in the aerospace industry.

Bill Specht, the cadet who switched places with Trump, recalled an administrator telling him about the hazing incident and saying that “the school has decided that they are going to make a switch.”

The incident, previously unreported, offered an early glimpse into a pattern that would follow Trump through much of his life and has been evident in his rise as a leading Republican presidential candidate. Often the center of controversy, he finds a way to emerge by declaring victory and claiming success, even if the facts are more complicated and some people around him are left with sour feelings.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Extended News; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: 2016election; billspecht; danratherreturns; dds; demagogicparty; districtofcolumbia; election2016; elections; memebuilding; michaelemiller; newyork; partisanmediashill; partisanmediashills; rathergate; repositorytrump; tds; trump; trumparticle; trumphitpiece; washingtoncompost; washingtonpost
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To: mandaladon

Reviving the old Romney “He’s a beast!” stuff from 2012.


21 posted on 01/10/2016 7:56:11 AM PST by miss marmelstein (Richard then Third: I like to destroy the Turks (Moslims))
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To: mandaladon

“another prestigious assignment, but one with no command responsibilities”

See what they did there? No command authority. And he wants to be the commander in chief.

In addition to that, this is like the perfect anti-Trump fairy tale to resonate with liberals.


22 posted on 01/10/2016 7:56:58 AM PST by ifinnegan (Democrats kill babies and harvest their organs to sell)
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To: mandaladon

You can not lead effectively without delegation, but you have to have trust and check up on those you delegate too.


23 posted on 01/10/2016 8:01:00 AM PST by mylife
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To: Ciexyz

One friend tells the story that at one dance three young women showed up Sent by NYC friends. He made sure each had a date Six happy people ! He dated no one steadily/seriously. As an eligible young man he was constantly being fixed up.
Spent his weekends with family. Saturday working for his father. Sunday was church and family day.


24 posted on 01/10/2016 8:01:36 AM PST by hoosiermama
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To: dowcaet

Because he wasn’t snapping towels and grab assing with his male classmates. If he did he’d be a hero to the liberals.


25 posted on 01/10/2016 8:01:56 AM PST by ObozoMustGo2012
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To: huldah1776

I’ve read some of his contractors were stiffed out of the last 20% of their contracted payments. This is the part of contractor’s payments that is typically inclusive of any profits made on the job. Also, I’d bet a lot of the note holders in his various corporate bankruptcies and defaults weren’t so happy.


26 posted on 01/10/2016 8:03:41 AM PST by sitetest (If Roe is not overturned, no unborn child will ever be protected in law.)
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To: Right Brother

How about a story on why Hillary was thrown off the Watergate Investigation.


27 posted on 01/10/2016 8:03:49 AM PST by Signalman
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To: Gaffer
Zero is nothing but a meat-puppet. Like "Mendo", different packaging/faces pushing the same type music/words written by someone else.

Like any decent marketing program, you find the right look to sell your product.

28 posted on 01/10/2016 8:05:40 AM PST by NativeSon ( Grease the floor with Crisco when I dance the Disco)
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To: ifinnegan

“No command authority” probably means that he was moved into a command oversight position — kind of like when officers serve in the Pentagon.

They are not directly commanding troops in that position; rather, they are part of forming policies/procedures.

Geesh, what a demotion. /s


29 posted on 01/10/2016 8:05:55 AM PST by rightazrain ("Suppose you were an idiot...suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself" -Mark Twain)
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To: mandaladon
Interesting high school experience. Not many people get to work out leadership principles, cause and effect, the hows and whys of success and failure, while still in high school.

Quite a step forward to have gotten some of those mistakes out of the way so early and in such an environment.

A JROTC sanctioned, military hierarchy, adhering to an honor code and learning to live with respect for the chain of command, and all at a young age as you do in a military school, seems like a great place and way to learn those basics of leadership, much better then and there than later in the real world where the mistakes hurt for real.

No matter what WaPo says and whatever his record of successes and failures in high school might be, I see Trump's high school days as a major advantage over the rest of the field.

30 posted on 01/10/2016 8:20:26 AM PST by GBA (Here in the matrix, life is but a dream.)
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To: mandaladon
The incident, previously unreported...

And therefore unsubstantiated. Throwing crap at the wall.

And I am not a particular Trump supporter - although I relish the demolition of the GOPe.

31 posted on 01/10/2016 8:27:20 AM PST by MortMan (I am offended by those who believe they have a right not to be offended.)
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To: MortMan

“throwing crap at the wall” - You are right — Just look what stuck with Romney — “the dog rode on the top of the car”.


32 posted on 01/10/2016 8:29:47 AM PST by bunster
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To: Maelstorm

At least he didn’t cut anybody’s hair.


33 posted on 01/10/2016 8:33:42 AM PST by ladyjane
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To: mandaladon

This type reporting can be expected from wapo. I would become concerned only if they began to talk nice about Trump.


34 posted on 01/10/2016 8:36:52 AM PST by DJ Taylor (Once again our country is at war, and once again the Democrats have sided with our enemy.)
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To: huldah1776

Talk to his present employees and those who oversee his construction plus his contractors. Get a good overview.

*****************************************************

Even the union members he employs like him.


35 posted on 01/10/2016 8:41:29 AM PST by Graybeard58 (Bill and Hillary Clinton are the penicillin-resistant syphilis of our political system.)
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To: mandaladon

At least his school records are open for all to see...unlike the current usurper in chief.


36 posted on 01/10/2016 8:44:09 AM PST by FrankR (You're only enslaved to the extent of the charity that you receive!)
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To: Gaffer
Barack Hussein Obama has no military training whatsoever

How do you know that, we have no idea of all he was taught in Indonesia or on all those globe trotting vacations as a yute.

37 posted on 01/10/2016 8:51:01 AM PST by Mastador1 (I'll take a bad dog over a good politician any day!)
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To: Right Brother
Can’t wait to see the WaPo articles about Hillary’s involvement with Whitewater, cattle futures, ‘bimbo’ eruptions, etc.

Vince Foster, Ron Brown and all the other Arkancides.

38 posted on 01/10/2016 8:52:33 AM PST by Mastador1 (I'll take a bad dog over a good politician any day!)
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To: hoosiermama
If he wasn’t directly involved he knew all the details. The word FUN seems to be used by each of them

Remember a book by Mark Twain called Tom Sawyer. It used to be that is how boys grew up and became men. Know it is banned and we have metrosexuals texting each other on their latest revision of the talking points.

39 posted on 01/10/2016 8:59:00 AM PST by AndyJackson
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To: AdmSmith; AnonymousConservative; Berosus; bigheadfred; Bockscar; cardinal4; ColdOne; ...
Thanks mandaladon. Another PMS hatchet job from the Washington ComPost.

40 posted on 01/10/2016 9:00:10 AM PST by SunkenCiv (Here's to the day the forensics people scrape what's left of Putin off the ceiling of his limo.)
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