The Military Academy's athletics scam.

Up until recently, I've been a huge supporter of the Academies.  As a former officer (Regular Army/Distinguished Military Graduate ROTC UW '81) who served as an enlisted man/NCO as well, I had years of exposure to West Pointers (Or graduates of the United States Community College on the Hudson River; or WooPoo, or any number of other names like that) and found them to be uniformly well educated and professional.

A woman I served with (from the first class of women) on the general staff of the 8th Infantry Division was tossed out for sexual indiscretion (actually something of an  orgy... with other (one officer and four enlisted as I recall... pictures were taken which proved to be both her and the female captain commanding the Bad Kreuznach Personnel Services Company at Rose Barracks undoing, so to speak) women... that resulted in her subsequent dismissal from the Army... along with the captain as well.

My Recon Platoon Leaders were evenly split between WP and ROTC, but they were all Rangers and all excellent officers.

And then I saw this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0BUMi1wKExw a video of two of our Nation's Finest at Annapolis.

These two women were not kicked out (as they inarguably should have been... besides the point that they never should have been allowed in to begin with) and are now serving officers as I understand it.

Then we have West Point, dis-inviting a 3 star general because of his views concerning our war on terror:

He is also a Christian evangelist who speaks at churches nationwide. As a private citizen retired from the Army, General Boykin was invited to speak at a prayer breakfast at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. He seems like an ideal choice, as someone who has served as the tip of the spear at the highest ranks, who is also a man of profoundly deep faith.

But the Far Left exploded.

Boykin has cast America’s war against radical Islamic terrorists as fighting Satan. So his religious language has made strange bedfellows of various Islamic groups joining with atheists to call on West Point to disinvite this American hero who risked and achieved so much for this country.

Evidently, it’s not politically correct to suggest that blowing up children is the devil’s work.

After heavy pressure, General Boykin chose to withdraw. This soldier fears no foe, but the situation evolved in a direction where his message of faith and courage would be overshadowed by controversy to the possible detriment of the West Point cadets.

There's more idiocy... but this is the final straw:

Tuesday, April 09, 2013

NAPS - as it is

It is a good thing when someone outside the circle of confidence gets a peek behind what is well painted over.

 Joe Nocera at NYT has see what has happened to the Naval Academy Preparatory School, and he is not impressed.

Think of all those hard charging 3rd and 2nd Class Petty Officers who you wish could get just a little boost to help them get over their mal-education in guv'munt schools to make it at Annapolis ... then in the zero-sum game that is admissions to NAPS and ... behold.

Nearly 80 percent of the 52-member Navy lacrosse team came through the Naval Academy Prep School; for returning football lettermen, the percentage is around two-thirds.
 ...
 The second scam involves the nonprofit foundations that exist to give financial support to the service academies. Among other things, the foundations offer scholarships to athletes to go to certain prep schools that stress certain sports — with the proviso, of course, that they then attend whichever service academy the boosters are supporting. (In 2010, when a Naval Academy athlete who had gotten in via the foundation route tried to withdraw, saying “this isn’t the place for me,” the foundation demanded the return of his prep school “scholarship” money.)

 Although Ed Wallace, a retired Navy captain who runs the Naval Academy foundation’s “athletic and scholarship programs,” denied that it directed athletes to certain schools — or that it singled out recruited athletes for financial support — a document outlining this contractual obligation is on the Naval Academy Foundation’s Web site. Or rather, it was. It was removed in 2012, when the N.C.A.A. began an investigation into the practices of the prep schools and the foundations. (Despite some pretty obvious violations of its rules, the N.C.A.A. dropped the investigation last year.)

He's just scratching the surface of what remains a great stain on a great institution - and a disservice to the 312 million Americans who pay for it.

It's this kind of crap that resulted in Southern Methodist getting the so-called "death penalty."

This dishonorable garbage is not what we should be teaching our future officers.

MacArthur, Nimitz, Arnold, Eisenhower... they'd be appalled.  And so am I