Posted on 04/01/2020 6:55:41 AM PDT by Kaslin
This is an honest question. Was suicide as much an issue for the military during WWII, and just kept quiet?
Silveria is by far the worst superintendent in the history of USFA. He’s a complete leftist who is only concerned about his own image and being liked by the media. The grad community by and large cannot stand him and General Edmondson, the Commandant is not far behind. The last Commandant, General Goodwin, was railroaded by Silveria because she actually wanted to instill a more disciplined and demanding environment for the cadets. The fact that she had a wife, while not the preferred model of an AF family, had nothing to do with the fact that she actually wanted to return USAFA to a more disciplined institution.
The last time I was outside was over two or 3weeks ago when I walked toward my car where our son was waiting so he could take me to Fort Campbell Commissary. Unfortunately he couldn't go in with me because he doesn't have a military ID card. He could get an Assistant card but he is to impatient to wait in line.
So he does our shopping at Walmart. I asked him to let me go with him when he told me that he was going to Wally world to get groceries. I asked him to let me go with him. His answer was I'm not gonna drag you around. I am handicapped and can only walk very slow or have to use one of those handicap riders
. So I made a shopping list out for what I wanted and gave it to him.
= = = = = = = = = = = = =
That is eerie when one figures that in the 50s powdered eggs and milk were the norm.
Had a joker cook aboard ship that never tired of asking if we wanted our powdered eggs over easy or poached.
Of course NEVER forget the fresh baked bread with the built in 'proteins'.
Did an extended hop across country and found that midrats on the flight line were not quite what us Sailors were used to for midrats or even some breakfasts AND the dishes rather that trays were unique....
Were YOU ever in the Service? YES, I was in the Air Force. SERIOUSLY, were you ever in the Military????
I used to call my car Jealously/Flattery because it got me nowhere.
You’re not alone.
Back in my day, what was more important for service academies was not a high GPA or participation in certain clubs but an endorsement letter from a congressman or senator. I kid you not. Someone in my HS graduating class wanted to get into the AFA but first needed to get the endorsement of his congressman which I understand was very difficult and why he gave up on the idea eventually.
“Back in my day, what was more important for service academies was not a high GPA or participation in certain clubs but an endorsement letter from a congressman or senator.”
I heard the exact same thing way back in the day and I am sure it is even more important today.
God bless you and your son. Find time when possible to get sunlight even though you are stuck at home. Your body needs this to help fight off illness.
It’s like we’re all just sitting inside, watching society and our retirements crumble.
But, but, but. It will all come back.
I’m 78. I used to wish I could be 18 again but could retain all the knowledge from experiences I learned through the years. Of course if that were possible I would in short order become the worlds richest man.
But seeing what is happening these days and looking at what the future may hold I must say although I consider myself extraordinarily fortunate to be born when I was and to have lived through this Nations greatest era.
I am in perfect health, take no medications and walk 3-4 miles daily but if the good Lord took me tomorrow I would be happy with the time he allowed me.
I feel so sorry for the kids today because they may never even know what we have lost in the past 50 years.
The contrast with the enlisted men’s mess hall was pretty great. The cook would ask how you liked your eggs. There was a selection of the little boxes of Kellogg’s cereal. The meal was served using dishes, cups, saucers, and cream pitchers. The small tables had tablecloths on them.
I only remember going one time because it was a ten mile round trip.
Sad. Many of these have no genes of the Greatest Generation. Diversity is not our strength. It waters down everything about us.
“... Or be a P.O.W. and probably not be treated nicely but not break under the pressure?...”
The ChiComs will rectify that shortly enough, if things go bad. After all, they were SO damned nice to our prisoners during the Korean War /s.
They’re laughing at us right now, and what they’ve unleashed. Sitting back, observing the chaos they’ve created, and taking notes.
What would the wimps do if captured by an enemy during a conflict? We saw a good example of what to expect with Gary Powers a few years back cried like a baby, and spilled is guts. People like that should not be in the USA military!
Maybe they should make isolation a new requirement for future classes of all officer wanna be.
Frankly, they need to return to the harsh physical and psychological training of over 50 years ago - the type their forebears went through who survived the wretched North Vietnamese prison camps. That was before they started admitting women into the Academies. The program has notably "softened" since then. Now it seems their greatest institutional goals revolve around avoiding sexual harassment and discrimination - not winning wars.
Or Thule, Greenland and Shemya in the Aleutians.
“Silveria is by far the worst superintendent in the history...Edmondson, the Commandant is not far behind. The last Commandant, General Goodwin, was railroaded by Silveria because she actually wanted to instill a more disciplined and demanding environment for the cadets...” [usafa92, post 42]
It’s always interesting, to encounter threads like this, and learn (again) how many forum members know so much that isn’t so, about the federal service academies.
My special thanks to usafa92 for bringing me up to date on some of these personalities.
I graduated from USAFA in 1975, went through undergraduate navigator training, crewed B-52s and B-1Bs, and served in several staff positions in organizations responsible for operational testing, and studies and analysis, ultimately racking up 24 years and 7 months on active duty - providing technical advice to many senior commanders, working closely with most professional specialties in all branches of the Defense Dept, most of the intelligence agencies, security and law enforcement organizations all over the nation, and representatives of several Allied nations.
The first misconception evident on this forum is that military leadership is completely understood and operates universally across every armed service and all situations, against all adversaries. Reality is different: scarcely any principles of leadership work equally well in different organizations, different environments, different time periods, with different generations and cultural milieus, against different opponents. These are the main reasons the country established so many federally funded academies.
The second misconception: that the service academies are hallowed halls chock full of eternal verities and timeless wisdom. They are, rather, ongoing experiments in psychology, managerial technique, and a wide variety of applied sciences and technology. Academy officials can rarely resist the urge to tinker. Times, circumstances, alliances, adversaries, and whatnot simply vary too much to set formulas for success in stone - attempts to do so have been tried often but rarely turn out well. “Hallowed traditions” are at best neutral, often irrelevant, but mostly harmful. That is, when they aren’t merely arbitrary nonsense dolled up and enforced by gentleman rankers.
A third misconception: that appointments to a service academy have been made politically only in recent times and that results are detrimental. Candidates seeking appointments as cadets or midshipmen have been required to obtain personal approval from Congress since very soon after President Thomas Jefferson signed the enabling legislation for the US Military Academy in 1802. Word was, he feared domination of the officer corps by his political opponents. He required candidates to win approval by their home district House Representative or Senator, spreading the wealth over the nation at large. Eventually, each Senator and Representative was allotted a specified number of slots at each academy; small numbers were reserved for Presidential appointment and other categories, such as the children of Medal of Honor awardees.
This political-appointment system has been criticized down the years as “too political.” In the 1960s, Department of the Air Force officials began prodding the other armed services to adopt a universal “best qualified” selection process in which all applicants for a given class were given standardized tests, then ranked top to bottom by test performance and other uniform criteria, and the highest-qualified would be offered appointments. I’ve no information on what selection methods apply today; perhaps usafa92 can enlighten us.
Times & circumstances limit cross-comparisons, but I would submit that Silveria & Edmonson would have to sink pretty low to compete with Hoyt S Vandenberg Jr, the Commandant during most of my time as a cadet. He was a textbook example of how not to behave as a leader. Word was, he was sent to the Military Assistance Advisory Group in Iran, but the Shah’s government kicked him out of the country.
There are other cautionary tales. John W Rosa Jr and Johnny A Weida were Superintendent and Commandant early in the 21st century, when the institution was wracked by sexual assault scandals. Both maintained a studied indifference; neither was a USAFA graduate. One remarked that “this might be the Air Force Academy, but it isn’t our Air Force Academy.” Word reached my ears from faculty that neither possessed any qualifications nor talent for the job, save the ability fly really good four-ship.
None of which sheds light on why Firsties were sequestered while the lower three classes were sent home.
Nor ought I opine on how the psychology of the Cadet Wing has changed since I left. Few aspects of American life have come down to us unaltered from that era.
Interesting perspective, and I really don’t know if you are being philosophical, devils advocating or disagreeing. What is interesting is that you state that others know so much that isn’t so, yet you cast your opinions as more right and absolute than others. Anyway, thank you for your service. The one thing I know that we have in common besides being USAFA graduates is that the place continues to get smaller and smaller in our rear view mirrors.
“...I really don’t know if you are being philosophical, devils advocating or disagreeing. What is interesting is that you state that others know so much that isn’t so, yet you cast your opinions as more right and absolute than others. Anyway, thank you for your service...” [usafa92, post 59]
Concerning the first phrase, none of the above. Just a few conclusions drawn - reluctantly - after years of personal experience.
And to address your second phrase, my comments aren’t mere “opinions” either. Any fool can voice an opinion; the rest of us are under no obligation to take them seriously. If they’ve garnered some experience, we might attend more seriously. Even then, it doesn’t guarantee accurate insight nor professional judgment that is worth anything.
Without knowing your professional specialty, I will admit that I differed sharply with AOG when they named Ron Fogleman as the first recipient of their Distinguished Graduate award. So much so that I have since refused to attend class reunions on principle.
Reflecting further, I finally realized that no grad with whom I crossed professional paths on active duty was of the slightest use; most were a hindrance to what I was attempting to get done. All the talk of esprit, mutual respect, classmates helping classmates, solidarity among grads etc was just that: talk. “Mentoring” was a euphemism for cronies giving cronies a leg up, in ethically questionable and untoward ways - the kind of behavior that would get a cadet booted for Honor Code violations. Mentoring is cheating.
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