Nation: Air Force Academy reckons with mounting drug charges

Associated Press ^ | March 22 2002 | By ROBERT WELLER, Associated Press

[USNA74]

"As an Academy grad, would you speak to the question of ignored violations of the honor code. It seems to me that if these many were guilty of drug, and related charges..then a great many more had to know about it. This type of activity doesn't exist in a vacuum. And the honor code, as I understand it, specifically requires that this activity and those who indulge be reported. So doesn't that make the failure more widespread."

To your question of how the honor code (or honor concept if you're at USNA) applies -- as I said in a post just above, I'm not clear on how it does. If you know your neighbor is smoking pot (and I strongly agree that that stuff doesn't exist in a vacuum), your neighbor isn't lying, cheating or stealing. So, to me the only way the honor code can get you is if you're asked if you know anything about your neighbor smoking and you lie about it.

Of course, at USAFA if you know your neighbor cheated (lied or stole) and you don't report him, you're just as guilty as the cheater. At USNA the honor concept wouldn't make you just as guilty and subject to the same penalties as the cheater.

[grania]

C'mon. Who's kidding who here? After reviewing/investigating the applicants' entire pre-academy school and personal history they have NO clue what the entrants are like? I can see a few slipping by the screening and evaluation process, but this many?

I taught at a public high school and my son went from there to a military academy. When he applied, everyone agreed that he had a lot of the characteristics that would make him very suitable for an intellectually stimulating environment where honesty, ethics, commitment to responsibilites were part of the structure. But a lot of that could only be inferred from a high school transcript.

Most students who make it through the process to get into a military academy are upstanding citizens. But sometimes, there will be students who keep bad habits out of the school environments. Sometimes, students change (when my son was there, it seemed like there was something going on on a subconscious level when a cadet decided they wanted to leave...some messed up big time)

.My son got an unbelievably excellent education, surrounded by the most excellent group of people you can imagine. There were some shockers when he was there, from cadets who should've known better. But, the academies weed them out, which is more than you can say for most other academic environments.

[fnord]

I believe there is more to the honor code than "Don't Lie, Cheat, or Steal". The concept also covers knowingly violating rules, or ignoring (covering up) those that do. Presumably, it is against the rules to smoke pot at the Academy (it sure is in the rest of the military), so that would be a violation. Knowing your neighbor smoked, but saying nothing, would also be a violation. AIUI.

[2Jedismom]

"The kids that are coming out of these public high schools don't know what honor is," he said. "They have quite an adjustment to make when they come to an academy that has such high standards of integrity and ethics."

Incredible! Thanks for bringing this to my attention.

I hope they get these problems under control. I've got two sons and the eldest is already wanting to be a Marine! How is the military responding to the homeschooling community?

[USNA74]

I didn't know the honor code at USAFA included the "violating the rules" notion you suggest. I know that when I went to USNA the honor concept (not code) was very simple and it addressed lying, cheating or stealing -- and it did not (and I believe it still does not) include the "nor tolerate those who do" part and the "equally guilty for knowledge" part.

But things change and its been a long time since I was there . . . but USNA's honor code - which gave you alternatives ranging from doing nothing to talking to the individual in violation to reporting the violation to the honor committee - was much more aligned with real life, IMHO.

[BigStick]

Part 1: "As an Academy grad, would you speak to the question of ignored violations of the honor code. It seems to me that if these many were guilty of drug, and related charges..then a great many more had to know about it. This type of activity doesn't exist in a vacuum. And the honor code, as I understand it, specifically requires that this activity and those who indulge be reported. So doesn't that make the failure more widespread."

Technically, you are correct. However, this sort of policy also becomes a trap of sorts in result of which innocent awareness of something places a cadet in a very awkward situation. Only an ideal system can avoid this conundrum. This is not an ideal world and service academies and all who make up their identity are, in reality, not ideal things but political things. In result, shit happens and it can get stuck on innocent people making their lives something of a nightmare with no closure.

Part 2: To your question of how the honor code (or honor concept if you're at USNA) applies -- as I said in a post just above, I'm not clear on how it does. If you know your neighbor is smoking pot (and I strongly agree that that stuff doesn't exist in a vacuum), your neighbor isn't lying, cheating or stealing. So, to me the only way the honor code can get you is if you're asked if you know anything about your neighbor smoking and you lie about it.

Not necessarily true. The honor code can be manipulated in very unusual ways. That's sad, but true. I know how these things can occur from experience. Having numerous relatives who are academy graduates including two sons, I have seen some pretty strange and troubling situations to include cases where innocent cadets have been purposely targeted under highly suspicious circumstances. Some didn't survive, some luckily did. These episodes aren't common necessarily but most of them are well known to all who would have been around at the time. In short, in these particular instances the honor code failed the innocent and benefitted the truly guilty. Again, sad but true. It would not be unfair to compare this sort of "political dynamic" to what happens in other societal institutions such as business and academia. If people believe it can't happen they are simply deluded. If you are somehow different or even ethically superior, you can be singled out by certain elements for "specialized attention." Fortunately, in most cases, the greater weight of group probity and rectitude eventually steps in to sort things out properly. But not always.

Of course, at USAFA if you know your neighbor cheated (lied or stole) and you don't report him, you're just as guilty as the cheater.

That's true, but note my tempering remark above.

At USNA the honor concept wouldn't make you just as guilty and subject to the same penalties as the cheater.

I'm not that familiar with honor policy at Annapolis but this would seem somewhat more fair considering that cadets feel very uncomfortable having to snitch on their fellow cadets. This owes, I think, to some feeling of esprit de corps at the cadet level hinging on respect for their peers as brothers in arms. Even the worst cadets deserve a shred of that consideration in the eyes of their compatriots. It's a tough deal to work out sometimes, but that is how things are generally viewed. Just as with a football team, it's a team consciousness and even the jerks on the team share the bond the team develops. And who knows, the jerk may still one day become something quite other than what he is now. After all, we are all fallible but potentially corrigible humans, are we not?

[Kevin Curry]

Ah, the wretched masses yearning to toke free.

[X-USAF]

All are products of the Clinton era.

[BluH2o]

I visit Colorado Springs frequently so I'm attuned to some of the stuff that's going on at the Academy. Going back several years I attended an Academy graduates wedding at the Academy chapel ... during the fall I've gone to many of the their football games. However, it seems the Academy has had more than its share of scandals in recent years ... last year (or, at least recently) you may recall a AF Academy cadet (female) from Texas, who was found guilty of murder. Her boyfriend who was attending one of the other military academies was also charged in the same murder.

[TheLion]

Don't know about the rules for Coast Guard Academy. The other service institutions still require competive scores on college boards and strenous physical requirements. Just getting a nomination doesn't get you there. Many of the nominees fall by the wayside before entry. I do think the Clinton type morality has to rub off on the general population. This isn't good news.

[RightOnline]

Leni, it ain't that simple.

The entrance requirements are incredibly tough; VERY competitive. They look at grades (including the usual SAT and/or ACT), athletics, leadership, community involvement, etc., etc. (aka "The Whole Man" concept). The overwhelming majority are great kids; the type you'd be proud to see wearing a uniform and a pair of wings. Do bad apples slip in? Of course. Sure, they undergo numerous interviews as well..........but it isn't hard to "fake it". I'd be willing to bet that a fair number of these "bad" ones were varsity jocks that were recruited for particular sports (especially football), but I don't know for sure.

These kids definitely reflect the society around them and the households that raised them. We need to clean house..........all OVER this country, not just the Academies.

RightOnline, USAFA Class of '77

[MinuteGal]

Your comments are right on line. I'm not knocking any of our armed services academies. I'm so proud of our military schools!

It's a shame that some bad apples reflect on these schools. But in this particular case, the apples were pretty wide-spread, and I hope it's not a portent of more such things to come.

Rot is setting in in so many of our institutions, including the justice system, politicians, the churches, the media and entertainment world, you name it. We have to be eternally vigilant. We know every case of young people gone astray can't be blamed on parents.

To me, it's also the influences of political correctness, godlessness, creeping socialism and of course, Klintonism.

Leni

[xJones]

...you may recall a AF Academy cadet (female) from Texas, who was found guilty of murder. Her boyfriend who was attending one of the other military academies was also charged in the same murder.

That was Diane Zamora who was arrested while attending Annapolis and her fiance, David Graham, who had just entered the USAFA. Weird murder, sort of like a reverse Romeo and Juliet. Zamora's roommates whom she had told of the murder, turned her in to the Academy Chaplain due to the honor system (and the fact that they were scared of her). click

Excerpt from link: "The case of David Graham and Diane Zamora inspired NBC's TV movie, "Love's Deadly Triangle: The Texas Cadet Murder," which KXAS-TV (NBC's affiliate in Dallas-Fort Worth) refused to broadcast when it aired in February 1997."

[Don Myers]

""The kids that are coming out of these public high schools don't know what honor is," he said. "They have quite an adjustment to make when they come to an academy that has such high standards of integrity and ethics.""

Yeah, tell us about it. These kids have been ruined, and expecting to make a silk purse out of a pig's ear is very hard.

[Don Myers]

"It is up to the Academy to make the selections ... if the process is busted, they need to fix it (and fix the blame on themselves)."

That is nonsense, and you should know it. They are being forced to pick the best from a crop of losers. Should they pick no one? Well, maybe that would be best, but then their seats would be empty. They are between a rock and a hard place.

[Don Myers]

"THIRTY-EIGHT misfits are a long term, institutional failure! "

Yes, it is a failure of our modern society.

[BluH2o]

That was Diane Zamora who was arrested while attending Annapolis and her fiance, David Graham, who had just entered the USAFA.

Well, at best, I was half right ... good info on your part. Thanks.

[cynicom]

Sort of makes me feel like my four years as enlisted swine was of no value. However I did make up for it in later life.

Years later while employeed in the aviation business, I was able to place several ex military pilots with airlines. One a Lt. Col, one a major, the rest lower ranks. When they sat in front of me, I ALWAYS let them know I was former enlisted, it was worth it to see them squirm, they always knew exactly where I was coming from.

[Steel and Fire and Stone]

Yes, it is a failure of our modern society.

No doubt, modern society has its defects. However, it's hard to pin responsibility on something as vague as "modern society". I've heard Senior Military Officers state that the U.S. Military includes a cross section of society, and that moral problems in the military (re: drugs, etc.) reflect that society. While it is true that modern societal failings influence new cadets, and that does present a challenge, it does not absolve the officers and officials responsible for failing to properly screen new cadets, using traditional moral and ethical standards.

The moral weaknesses of "Modern Society" may be a status-quo condition, but individual responsibility and accountability should be an absolute. The officers and officials in chain of command for the USAF Academy (as well as Annapolis, and West Point) should be held accountable and responsible. While it is good that they've taken corrective disciplinary action, if they fail to correct the screening process to remove the "PC", and return to traditional evaluation standards, they will not fix the real problem.