Posted on 03/22/2002 6:09:57 PM PST by ATOMIC_PUNK
Nation: Air Force Academy reckons with mounting drug charges
By ROBERT WELLER, Associated Press
AIR FORCE ACADEMY, Colo. (March 22, 2002 9:14 p.m. EST) - The U.S. Air Force Academy has stepped up drug testing and is further stressing ethics amid the biggest drug scandal in the school's 47-year history.
Thirty-eight cadets out of 4,300 have been implicated in the scandal that began in December 2000.
In addition, six cadets have been charged or convicted of crimes such as larceny and sodomy, including the former president of the class of 2003, who is accused of stealing $9,000 from a class activity fund.
Academy officials have no simple explanation for the rash of crime, which has extended into this month with the arrest of a student on charges of raping a female cadet.
"We rely on the American people to send us their best. Every now and then we don't get the right people," said Col. Mark Hyatt, director of the Academy Center for Character Development, a department at the school that concentrates on everything from dinner-party manners to battlefield ethics.
The drug scandal - involving mainly the use of Ecstasy and marijuana - is the biggest problem for the academy since 105 cadets accused of cheating resigned in 1965. In the past 10 years, there had been only one other drug case at the academy, spokesman Lt. Col. Perry Nouis said, adding that officials believe the problem is now under control.
Because of the scandal, the academy has made it clear that an admission of even one puff on a marijuana cigarette will result in expulsion and possibly imprisonment, Hyatt said.
"We have to do things right or people die. When I come out of Baghdad and I am out of the fuel, I am trusting that tanker pilot will be there," Hyatt said. "Because of what happened, we are not going to look the other way."
Also, academy officials increased random drug tests in which cadets are summoned to the clinic and told to urinate into a cup. The academy is also considering state-of-the-art DNA testing of hair follicles, which scientists say can detect some drugs up to 90 days after their use.
In addition, the academy is working ethics lessons into courses across the curriculum - even in chemistry class.
Of the 38 cadets implicated, eight were court-martialed and seven of those went to prison; one of them got 3 1/2 years at Leavenworth. Twenty-one others have left the academy; some of those are being forced to repay the government for their tuition, while others must serve in the Air Force in the enlisted ranks and not as officers.
Nine others received punishments ranging from loss of privileges to fines.
The investigation began after a cadet tested positive for drug use. The academy said all of the drug use occurred off-campus at parties. One cadet was accused of drug dealing; the rest were accused of using drugs or knowing about such use but keeping silent.
"Initially, a lot of people were shocked. Then people got angry. Then because of the trust issue they felt a little bit betrayed," cadet Theron Mink, who heads the cadet honor committee, which metes out punishment for honor code violations that fall short of a crime.
The U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., has had three courts-martial in the past decade. A cadet was charged in a drug case last year and two were accused of stealing more than $40,000 in cadet store merchandise in 2000.
In 1996, the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md., went through problems like the Air Force Academy's: Five midshipmen were court-martialed and jailed on drug charges, and 15 others were expelled. Other midshipmen and graduates were accused in civilian courts that year of sexual offenses, breaking into a house and running a stolen-car ring.
But since then, only one midshipman has been court-martialed. That was for an ATM card theft.
"Starting about 10 years ago, character development, honor, dignity, respect and general civility has been a steady drumbeat throughout everything we do here," said Cmdr. Bill Spann, Naval Academy spokesman. "We'd like to think it's working."
Retired Lt. Gen. A.P. Clark, a former Air Force Academy superintendent, said crime is worse at traditional universities. Noting that he graduated from West Point, he said: "We didn't have these problems then and society didn't, either."
"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."
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.
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.
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?
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.
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
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
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."
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.
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.
Yes, it is a failure of our modern society.
Well, at best, I was half right ... good info on your part. Thanks.
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.
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.
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