The Navy Times has more on the USNA football player who received a reprieve after having popped positive for THC:
People with knowledge of the situation also said Curry already had three honor code violations before failing his drug test.
“This kid should’ve been kicked out a long time ago by anyone’s standards — and now he gets away with a failed drug test? It’s ridiculous,” one person told Navy Times.
Private correspondence with a mentor of mine illuminated a revealing mindset at Navy these days, to go along with the laser-like focus on “diversity” as the institution’s number one mission:
(Talked) to a guy today very much in the know who said that in his opinion, the Academy has evolved into an organization that values competence over character; e.g USNA values football competence in this case and will gloss over the MIDNs lousy character to keep those Alumni $$$$ flowing.
He’s pretty disgusted at the boneheaded things going on at USNA these days… apparently this is just one example of many.
His take on the a new USNA motto?
“We take the best of America’s youth and transform them from good to not so great”
He goes on:
Lots of folks out there who really do love the Navy (Army, Air Force, Marine Corps) who are concerned that we are in danger of losing our bearings, and failing to appreciate that those who serve are willing to lay it on the line to preserve fundamental liberties and fundamental values that have nothing to do with political affiliation and everything to do with the responsibilities required to live as citizens of a republic. This nation remains an experiment, not a given. It requires sacrifice …
As he writes, it comes down to a very simple question: “What do we value most? Competence or character? I’ve known lots of folks with competence and no character, but no one with character who was not also competent .”
Just so.
Academy spokesmen claim to believe on the flimsiest basis that the midshipman involved was handed a cigar laced with marijuana, a so-called “blunt” and smoked it unknowingly.
But even I – who have never smoked pot – know what it smells like. And even I know that athletes in training do not inhale deeply on a cigar and hold the breath to allow the tobacco smoke to more fully permeate the lung tissue.
As midshipmen we were taught to do the right thing, regardless of consequences. Today’s midshipmen are no doubt taught the same thing by an administration that refuses to do so when faced with unequivocal evidence of a crime.
Three honor violations (and, I’ve been privately informed, hundreds of conduct demerits), a failed drug test and an addled leadership make a toxic brew. Midshipman Curry ought to redeem his honor and that of the Naval Academy by resigning. He might save a fine institution from further degrading itself, and I’m sure there are any number of colleges or universities that would be happy to provide him a full-ride scholarship. But he doesn’t belong there, it’s not right for him nor is he right for us.
Not in my Navy, as we used to say.
Failing that, the alumni should vote with their pocketbooks and stay at home come football season.
Because if the administration can’t do the right thing when it is staring them in the face, then it isn’t our school, any more.
Not bloody likely, Lex. One colleague, one of your fellows, who could care less about football, was quite puffed up for most of the fall. Me? Once I realized that I saw bigger, faster kids who were better coached, playing Texas 5A HS football, than I did at my alma mammy, I became much calmer. Was at that depressing place on the Hudson one gorgeous fall day for a small ‘tiff between the beloved institution and “those people”. The good guys led much of the game, until the home team snatched victory in the final seconds. One of the gracious hosts complemented me on the quality of the game, and how proud I should be. I told him “I accepted long ago that my opinion of the value of my diploma had nothing to do with the won-loss record of our football team.” Until you fellows of Bancroft Hall come to the same serenity, then conflicts like this will constantly arise.
Stop giving your money, and tell ‘em why. That is really all they understand, and all you can do.
PS — one of the players that day for the good guys, has gone on to a pretty important job. He obviously comes from some outstanding breeding stock, with both siblings overcoming the dubious career choice of their father.
Scott, thanks for bringing back some fond memories. I had the pleasure being in the same Air Wing with his dad Roy when he flew F-4s in VF-33. IIRC, I was in the Whale that gave Roy a much needed drink after he shot down a Mig. It doesn’t surprise me at all to see the kids turned out so well. Roy was one heck of a good guy and fighter pilot.
I also had the pleasure of having another somewhat famous Citadel alum by the name of Bill Luti in my squadron when I was XO.
That would be my classmate and groomsman #2 in my mulligan wedding.
Wow! You get a mulligan on weddings? My understanding is that if you take a mulligan, you live with it. You don’t get to choose which is best. Anyway, if you still have contact with “Biluti” give him my best and tell him that the Undertoad is still after him. Boss.
This is just a LeDOTHO (pronounced Lee-Doth-O)
Leadership Deficit Of The Highest Order.
Whatthehell does competence as a football player have to do with competence as a Naval officer? Nelson was a little guy; Spruance was a nerd.
P.s. Not to say that all sports at the Naval Academy are bad. I believe Robert Heinlein and a certain person of Irish extraction, both of whom I have fond feelings for, were on the fencing team at that school.
And, if they graduate this guy, he’ll be put in a position of leadership. That is the scariest part of the whole thing – not only the damage he might cause to lives or property if he takes up his THC “thing” again while on duty, but the lousy example he’s going to be setting for anyone who might fall under his control.
And, if Academy leadership thinks his reputation from the Academy isn’t going to follow him into the Fleet, they really don’t understand anything at all.
His MySpace page is like reading something from a gangbanger. I was astounded when I read it, knowing that one day I might meet this pitiful excuse for a future ensign. Unfortunately, he took the hint to take it down. There are cached pages of it though out there in Google world.
Here’s the Cached Page I found.
Yeah, I’m impressed. By what? Not sure. But there’s no warm and fuzzy behind it.
Never. Ever. post to blog before first cup. {sigh}
Apparently none of his friends can spell, use proper grammar, or puntuate. Figures…
“Apparently none of his friends can spell, use proper grammar, or puntuate. Figures…”
Pot, meet kettle…
At the risk of sounding like the young football player, I will blame the “puntuate” on the bad typing skills vice the ability to spell “punctuate”
The Lord knows, Maj., that I try very hard to keep my pots from my kettles.
How on earth did he even get into an Academy? Never mind, I know, he plays football. It’s a sad situation.
If I recall correctly only his superiors can offer a vote of no confidence and ask him to resign or force him out. His fellow mids, on the other hand, are pretty much stuck playing ball for the team and the members of his division will have the same limited choice.
Is there a way for peers or underlings to offer a vote of no confidence in a military structure? The only thing coming to mind right now is if his team-mates quit football to devote more time to their studies or something, and I’m sure there’s a price to pay for leaving the team if grades aren’t a problem.
Hanging him out to dry, missing blocks and failing to assist and so on, likewise is going to reflect badly upon you and your team. While you might secretly enjoy watching him take the business end of the opposing team, invariably it hurts the team and that’s not the Navy way.
If the leadership cannot set an example, what choice do his peers have?
– Max
This is what happens when USNA succumbs to the madness which is college football. I thought this was widely known, 80 or 90 years ago. It used to be understood that serious schools did not engage in that kind of crazyness, and resigned themselves to have football teams which always lost against big State Universities who recruited large mouth-breathing shambling illiterate bruisers for their feet-ball teams.
Owhell, the rot set in with Roger Staubach. (who got a sweet safe billet in Viet-Nam)
M’self, I prefer baseball. It’s a thinking man’s game, it’s more authentically American, and it’s athletic without being brutal and stupid.
A slap in the face to those who went before and followed the rules and those who, for whatever reason, really wanted to go there but were judged to not be “Naval Academy material.” This guy is better officer material than my daughter? Not bloody likely. Dumb A*s.
So disappointing I almost don’t know what to say. Far from the conduct and values instilled, reinforced and expected (demanded?) on 7-3 many years ago.
I saw the Academy was awarded a Meritorious Unit Citation recently. The citation may shed further light on how the institution’s leadership is being assessed:
“The award.. specifically cited the Academy’s leadership development and alignment with the fleet, record low plebe summer attrition, highest graduation rate of any service academy, academic and athletic achievements, diversity outreach efforts, and serving as an institution of national prominence, including hosting the 2007 Annapolis Middle East Peace Conference.”
I can tell you that most of the Brigade now considers this MUC a joke… In fact, many are not even wearing them after commissioning…
http://blog.usni.org/2010/01/29/a-concept-of-honor/
I am almost too shocked to be ashamed. We know what that place means to us. Those that do not understand never will. Honor violations and “he didn’t know what was in it”? Want to block for this guy next season? How about serve with him? Follow him across the beach or into the fire? Put his ass in the fleet (weather watch in Somalia?) and let some worthy enlisted person take his place on the Severn.
I believe “competence vs. character” is a false choice. We must demand both out of our officers. Critical thinking and decision-making in a military leadership context can not happen without both traits.
I can eventually teach someone competence. But a man’s character is wholly his own. I can only tell him the standards.
Amen, brother.
Is moral development not the same as character development? It’s 1/3 of the mission of all our main commissioning sources.
USNA Mission:
“The mission of the United States Naval Academy is to develop midshipmen morally , mentally, and physically……”
Officer Training Command Mission:
“To develop civilians, enlisted, and newly commissioned personnel morally , mentally, and physically…”
NROTC Mission:
“The NROTC Program was established to develop midshipmen mentally, morally and physically”
He’s just following on the example of Kyle Eckle, another NA running back.
At the risk of stepping on toes, I think that it’s high time (pardon the pun) that the Navy shut down the academy and sent everyone there to sea. Do the same with the Diversity Command.
Spend the next two years completely revamping the academy, and start over.
As a former sailor, I am beyond sad at this continued slippage of Academy standards. As a taxpayer, I beyond angry. They are ALL getting paid on OUR dime and there’s few enough of those left these days, thanks to a full year of “Hope & Change”.
respects,
Command aren’t doing the young man any favors.
Every time a certain type of guy gets a pass for a minor transgression, he ups the ante. I’d say if he already has honor code violations and stacks of demerits, he’s both that type of guy and has been given a pass or two outside the lines. He is either learning how to rug dance like a Houdini or learning that strong words lead to no consequences.
One day, in the Navy or post-Navy, he’ll transgress past the point of political squeamishness and wind up staring at the blunt end of judge’s gavel. I hope he doesn’t do too much damage before that.
Funny how being distracted from the USNA’s true mission, and thereby failing to provide loyalty to their superiors, also distracts folks from the downward loyalty they should be providing and teaching.
But, what do I know, I’m just a civilian, but I did go to a ex-Big Ten school that abandoned football scholarships (and for awhile all football) when it was seen to be incompatible with education.
Let’s just make him skipper of the Cowpens while we’re at it.
Lex and friends …I have the highest respect for the gentlefolk-warriors turned out by our military academies, but, as I’ve said before, the whole country is tainted by this politically correct/multicultural rubbish which skews everything from politics to interfamilial to intramural relationships into something we old folks no longer recognize as the America we love and grew up with.
Some things are always wrong, and some always right and worth dying for. Same with cultures. All cultures are not the same, and it’s pure laziness to think so. Some are simply toxic, some are so-so with room for improvement, and some are simply great, like ours has always been until recently.
As I see it, our military organizations have always been great guardians and instillers of morals and ethics in youngsters who may have not had home influences which did this. Having the military organizations fall afoul of false standards, as they seem to be today, is hugely distressing. Who can we turn to for help now?
Marianne
“All cultures are not the same.” What are you, some kinda racist? Snork!
There has been a huge amount of this kind of thing in the ordinary universities; it’s sad to see it happening at the Naval Academy as well.
“I’ve known lots of folks with competence and no character, but no one with character who was not also competent”…I had to think about this for a minute…obviously, having a strong character does not automatically guarantee high intelligence or high skills in any particular field. But what probably *does* happen is that people of strong character will not go into & stay in a field in which they are not fully competent. If they are marginal at short-field landings, they will probably not become naval aviators. If their investments tend to work out poorly, they will probably not become fund managers. Whereas people of weak character often go into fields they’re not really so good at, and manipulate people/systems in order to stay there.
College athletics, particularly Division 1, has had a deleterious effect on every university. Much of the football teams are little more than thugs. Even at small institutions, like Tennessee Tech, where I went to Engineering School, has serious problems because of it (I had several members of the football squad just down the hall from me in the dorms and they were constant trouble).
I’ve never believed the claim that college athletics paid its own way. University of Tenn, Knoxville, gets an annual allocation from the state for its athletic program just as the regional universities do. Concessions often help the clubs at the schools, but that’s a drop in the bucket, and does not make up for the overall damage done to the rest of the school. However, the athletic program is about all the alumni have any say in, and the student body has none at all. They just get too pay for through the nose and treated like they mean nothing, because in most cases they do mean little.
The service academies used to live above that nonsense. They need to go back to it. Play each other, and any other military college, such as VMI, and Citadel, but ignore the rest. The chances of that happening are nil.
From what I read in history, no civilization that has reached the point we are at has ever pulled back from the brink. I am reminded of Psalms 11:3, “If the foundations are destroyed, What can the righteous do?” The foundations may not be destroyed yet, but there are those who are trying, and some, who should know better, who are willing to give into some things in hopes of solving other problems (Cdr. Salamander is one of those alas, on both women in combat units and “don’t ask don’t tell”). Civilizations are like ecosystems, pull at one part, and you affect the rest.
Washington and Lee has a football team, but as far as I know, they don’t recruit from high schools, and give no football “scholarships.” It’s sorta like the Caltech football team; The coach comes around to the entering freshmen and says, “Hey, anybody wanna play football? There’s no money in it, in fact you might have to pay some money; we’re just doing this for fun!”
Yes and the W&L Generals are quite competetive in football, basketball and lacross under the no athletic scholorships system. My dentist was a little All America linebacker for them.
QM,
You don’t quite have my opinions correctly. I didn’t “give in” anywhere. For me it is all about your ability to do the job with objective, performance based criteria. I won’t waste Lex’s space on it – but things aren’t binary.
Lex, Sir.
Come, I will hide nothing from you. You are among friends. It’s okay to call your mentor your “sea Daddy”.
But otherwise, your take on this is unimpeachable. As a Chief, I first saw an aspect of this problem with the Academy 6 years ago. My then (first-tour) divo was a football inductee; he wasn’t Sponsored by his Senator or Congressman, but through the football coach, purely for his ability on the gridiron. He was literally a “Seaman in Khaki”, as if nothing the Academy taught even caught with the young man, and our efforts with him (as is a Chief’s duty) were for small reward. He just didn’t (or wouldn’t) get it. Football scholarships should stop, they are degrading the caliber of young officers by ignoring the other qualities necessary for leadership in order to attain short-term glory, that ends before they are really tested as men and women.
Amen.
P.s. Why should the Service Academies give a hopping diddly-doo about how it’s done in the arguably hopelessly-silly excuses for universities we have these days?
The point of athletics, I thought, was to build both the body and the character. The former seems more encouraged than the latter, these days.
P.p.s. Sorry about so many comments, here, I’d rather make smart remarks on the buggery thread, but dammit, I do hate, loathe, and despise football; but if yer gonna play football, do it right, and do it as a fun sport, not a corrupt business!
Amen, Chief, Amen to that.
USNA values football competence in this case and will gloss over the MIDNs lousy character to keep those Alumni $$$$ flowing
And you hit in the nail on the head in your second to last sentence. If the rest of the USNA alumni are as unhappy about the state of the Academy and it’s focus on competency over character, they should have started voting with their dollars and their voices which this issue first popped up on the radar.
As I remember it, it was a video we were required to watch. Right about the time I was classing up in “A” School at TI. Admiral Watkins, then CNO came on and for 20 minutes or so, discussed a very serious problem and a real threat to the Navy, drug abuse. He outlined his “Get Tough” Policy, and it was that video that I first heard the term “zero tolerance”. What ensued over the next 20 years of my career was a rapidly diminishing culture of drugs in the Navy, to the point where a positive urinalysis was a rarity. Losing good people to the mistakes of a puff on a joint were minute in overall percentages of quality people excelling and making the Navy the pre-eminant example for corporate America to follow. And follow they did. All large corporations have some form of drug testing now.
A thirty year climb to ridding our military and professional culture of the weed will come crashing down in one quick fall if this is the new attitude of the leadership in our Navy.
Welcome to the 21st century, and pass the bong.
The more I think of this the more it just is but a symptom of our cultural slide where ever standard seems subject to “reinterpretation” There are no absolutes. No “thou shall not” or else, and we goddamn well mean it.
As far as college athletics, I graduated from Virginia Tech in the late 70′s, football was sorta a joke in that, we went to games more to drink and have fun then to expect to win. All the students got in “free” admission being considered part of the activity fees, etc. Now the football program is a consistent top 25 even as it strives for its first “national championship”, a position that itself is the product of a convoluted, at best, process. But the University enjoys national recognition where, prior to the football ascension, few heard of it other than prospective engineering students who couldn’t get into Ga Tech, being not even on the radar screen of the MIT recruits.
But now it is all big business. Students can’t even go lest they literally win a lottery. And the NCAA keeps pushing the money machine in all sports. They are thinking of expanding March Madness to 96 teams, which will make the finals of March Madness mimic the World Series October Classic by being played in the month after its namesake.
So bit time college athletics is a sort of sham. It’s the farm teams for the pros where a lot of kids will never go beyond single A but their enablers will still cash the checks. That this has infected the USNA probably is not all that surprising. Al Davis never made much sense except when he said, “Just Win, Baby”. Consequences of that thinking in other venues: Compromise in institutional values. After all they’re just so 20th century….
My mind says its irreversible but my heart holds hope for a sweeping revival that will recapture our collective soul. Standards used to mean something – wish they still did.
I think I recall reading bitchings about college football very similar to what you have just written here, first printed in, oh, Idunno, 1920-something, or thenabouts.
Though we engage in contraventile micturition, there’s a chance (pray for it!) that the wind will yet change and our enemies will get peed upon.
Oh, and dammit? Football, like Jessica Rabbit, is not necessarily bad.
It’s just done that way.
I am tired of football. Let’s all go back over to the other comment thread, and those of us who are neither sailors nor homos (well, latent, if not blatant) can make jokes about sailors and homos.
I pity the Chiefs and Enlisted who will be subjected to having this turd in the commode.
Disagree wholeheartedly with shutting down USNA for any period of time. There’s nothing needs reworking with Navy’s standards. They just need to be adhered to…by all concerned, and that includes leadership.
I believe it’s time, instead, to turn to, conduct a good sweep down fore and aft, take out the trash, and then carry out the plan of the day.
I pretty much concur, and lets ‘specially de-emphasize football. Football as it is done in college is pretty damn’ corrupt, and so is basketball. I think the “minor” sports are still pretty honest, there being no money in them.
Baseball now seems a minor sport. It used to be the National Game. Again, God help us.
I could agree with a certain amount of de-emphasis on any sport in the Academies. Nevertheless, I have a hard time believing this guy is tolerated throughout the entire year without receiving some sort of ‘mentoring’ by his classmates. He’s got to be having an adverse affect on those around him, and peer ‘tutelage’ is often a great way to get someone to straighten up and fly right.
Rhetorical question: How does one ‘educate’ a Plebe?
I concur. And being the love-the-Navy-the-Navy-can-do-no-wrong kind of person that I am, I think there should be no football scholarships to the Academy – football and all sports are far down the priority tree to creating Naval Officers. Makes my job easier. But I’m not an alumnus, just the Chief who has to grow his Divo and his Sailors in the fleet.
The Navy-Army game is the only game that matters anyway, and not so much after commission. Why are we so interested in wining that every year?
This makes total sense to me.
I have it on VERY GOOD authority that it is impossible to mistake a regular cigar for a “blunt.”
A “blunt” is a cigar that has been completely cut open, hollowed out, filled with pot and then re-rolled smaller and lumpy. According to my source, blunts are made from cheap flavored cigars typically sold at the 7-11. The smell of pot is very obvious as a blunt is mostly pot with a tobacco wrapper used as a substitute to rolling papers.
Unless Youngster Curry was passed out drunk it is extremely hard to believe that he could not tell the diff.
The Sup should have demanded to see a regular cigar and a blunt side by side. Youngster Curry would have been out the door…
But that’s not the point, is it? USNA now has at least three different standards; sports recruits, females and the shlub that applies through a ridiculous selection process because he wants to serve his country. This system cannot stand for long. It is too unstable.
I’d be willing to bet good money that this dumbass could have lit a joint and smoked in the Sup’s office and he’d STILL be a mid.
The football hero is not the problem. The problem is with the highest levels at USNA who refused to take appropriate action.
The question for Fowler is:
Why do you care more about winning football games than winning the next war?
The question for his superiors, i.e.- CNO, SECNAV and SECDEF is: How can you continue to have confidence in the judgment of this officer? Why have you not relieved him yet?
Not in my Navy!
I weep for the future of naval leadership. . .
(Bruce Fleming is gonna have a cow over this)
I’ve commented a bit about this but let me forward this:
We bounced a Chief (my friend and shipmate) for this very same infraction just last year. Why are we letting a Midshipman stay on for the very same thing?
Straight up, standards are standards. 20 years or no years, zero tolerance. Not in my Navy.
Or practically:
What the f**k am I going to tell my Sailors?
Chief,
Concur, and as an LPO, how was I supposed to tell the 28 guys in my division that one of their own was being admin’d out, but this guy was going to get a commission after doing the same thing?
This nonsense can’t be hidden anymore. The blueshirts are well up on what goes on in the fleet, thanks to all the tech we have available. When asterix’ get put beside rules and regulations to let folks know that exceptions will be made for “special” people, then that has a terribly corrosive effect upon the rank & file.
The guys with the crows will now be wondering about other officers, folks in their own leadership chain, and wondering how THEY got their commissions too. It’s a natural thing, and this rot will creep throughout the fleet unless it’s dealt with right away.
If you don’t take care of the people first, making certain that everyone plays by the same rules, then there’s no sense even worrying about maintenance of the fleet. The manpower will be gone before the rust becomes a problem.
When asterix’ get put beside rules and regulations to let folks know that exceptions will be made for “special” people, then that has a terribly corrosive effect upon the rank & file.
It breeds a level of enmity and disrespect second to none, and pretty soon the Chiefs and LPO’s are the only ones left with any leadership capability. We saw this 30 years ago, and it cost us dearly to get things set aright again.
Geez, did I say that? 30 years ago? I don’t even want to think what that means… Really beginning to pity the fossilized ones…Oh. Hi, Virgil! No. No. That wasn’t about, um, er…uh, you.
@Tim: Crud control, my man. Crud control.
Mongo–Considering my intake levels of Barbancourt perhaps “preserved” would be a better description.
I stopped giving my alma mater any $$$$ effective last year when they installed special accommodations for Muslim student (special attention to prayer times, “abuse or disrepect to Islam”, feet washing facilities, ….)
CAIR at work.
Don’t know if it made a difference, though it only will if the money stoppage becomes meaningful.
Where is Roughhead, the world wonders.
Amen!
As our host’s private correspondent wrote:
‘it comes down to a very simple question: “What do we value most? Competence or character? I’ve known lots of folks with competence and no character, but no one with character who was not also competent .”
And our host commented: ‘Just so.’
Amen.
This resonates with a line I read from Os Hillman: ‘G-d doesn’t call the qualified, He qualifies the called.’ Moses showed he wasn’t ready for leadership by his intemperate killing of the Egyptian slave-master, so he had to be further trained by a period in the desert as a shepherd. Even though his brother was better at negotiations, G-d chose to work through Moses. Character is primary.
As well, failure of leadership is a very very destructive force. Some commentator here some time ago sent me to a long report online on a B-52 crash that reverberated very deeply, and echoes again. From an outsider’s vantage point, I would think all this public exposure would motivate a superior command to get involved. Relieving the Naval Academy commander would certainly restore some credibility to the institution, it would seem. Perhaps I’m naive to imagine such action.
Best regards, Peter Warner.
The focus and priorities of the Naval Academy are not, I suspect, set in a vacuum by the Commandant. The rot goes deeper and higher. I expect the ship will be allowed to sink until (at least) there is a complete housecleaning of the entire chain of command.
USNA leadership lab? Lesson 1. How to spin a color guard problem. 2. How to interpret regs? 3. How to “after mids” that speak out on Facebook? 4. 5… the list grows.
Perhaps we should send the leadership of the USNA for remedial education at the USNA’s very own Stockdale Center for Ethical Leadership.
There they can read VADM Stockdale’s own words: “All considerations fall before that of personal integrity. It is the core value expected of an American military officer. If it does not come naturally to you, be honest with yourself and choose some other line of work.”
And,they can acquaint themselves with their institutions core mission:
“As an institution, we strive to reinforce midshipmen’s ability to discern between right and wrong and to reason through right vs. right decisions, while stressing the obligations they have as leaders to develop the moral courage to do what is right even at great personal risk. These goals are embedded in the commissioned officer’s role as a Leader of Character, trained and educated to serve as Warrior, Servant of the Nation, and a Standard Bearer of the Naval Profession.”
As others have pointed out …. it is not the institution that has failed here; it very much appears that the current leadership has failed the insititution.
I pity the Class of 2010 … every Blue Jacket out there is going to exercise his/her own version of zero tolerance when these new Ensigns hit the Fleet.
I will say that after my initial shock, followed by anger, that I had not considered the blue jackets’ response to this. (can only attribute that to my still ignorance of modern day social media…while I use it, I don’t take it for granted that everyone else does as well) That being said, I shudder to think what in the hell I will tell my Sailors on Monday when I walk into work and someone asks me about this. Gonna be really hard not share my opinion and blurt out that I think the leadership at my beloved school is a bunch of clowns. Any suggestions?
“Remain steadfast. Nothing changes about who we are or what we do. The Plan of the Day still remains in effect, we still follow the command structure, and this will get resolved.”
Recommend starting there and letting your training and leadership guide you. It probably won’t be so difficult as you think.
Shame used to be a very powerful instrument of societal control. I’d be very surprised if VADM Fowler’s peers aren’t sharing their contempt for his actions with him right now.
Honor, Courage, Commitment. Core values of the rest of the navy just not at the Naval Academy. Perhaps it’s time a Marine Lieutenant General was named Superintendent. Marines still know the meaning of words.
Curtis, at this point, would one even take the job?
Gen. Mattis would probably love to have the job as a sunset tour. He’d be the person to clean the stables.
Bring back Allen… First and only Marine ‘Dant. Now a LtGen. Its time. He’ll definitely “Right the Ship”
I can just picture him as a division officer on a ship.Everybody lay to the shaft alley to smoke a joint.
Kick his &%# OUT.
Only he’s the joint that gets smoked…
In house tune-up.
Just sayin’
Some of you get it, some of you don’t. The midshipman is merely a symbol of the rot that is destroying the very framework of the academy, and it starts at the top.
Should the midn be $hitcanned? In a heartbeat. How can anyone in Navy leadership say “zero tolerance” with a straight face? What part of ZERO isn’t clear? And how can anyone in a leadership position in the Navy look his enlisted in the face and claim that the rules apply to everyone, and that honor and integrity are still important in the Navy?
From the reports I have read it appears that the Dant told the midn that “the only way you can get out of this is if you didn’t know what it was, and someone else was to blame.” When exactly did the chain of command take on the job of being a lying defense lawyer? Does it astonish anyone that after hearing the Dant’s “suggestion” that a letter suddenly appeared to provide an alibi? And if the “I didn’t know it was dope” line works here, does that mean we have to go back and review all of those “it was poppy seed bagels” cases?
What the academy really needs is a clean sweep of the leadership and reliefs that understand that honor and integrity are paramount. At the moment leadership by example is an oxymoron on the Severn.
So far I’ve held back from commenting because the USNA deal is a Navy thing, and in that regard I’m an outsider. But the same principles that have been expressed here hold true for the other branches as well. And the other branches are infected with the same “diversity” disease as is the Navy. I’ve been taken to task on left-wing/femminist blogs for calling this general condition cancerous. And that was BEFORE these latest revelations about the USNA. Is there ANY doubt now??
The CNO (the former Commandant) is complicit in the priorities of the Academy. The current Commandant is therefore secure.
At the top, I suspect they are likely to perceive this is a public relations problem, nothing more.
It would take a natural force of the magnitude of John Lehman to clean this now, and that isn’t even conceivable until 2013 earliest. I do not think it will be fixed from within. I hope I am wrong.
Class of ’83 and retired 2 years ago this April.
As I have told several classmates – once you begin to degrade standards, allow and/or retain anyone for the sake of diversity, then you have effectively eliminated the characteristics that make the place, any place, special. At that point…WHAT’S THE POINT? I nearly chocked last summer when I read an article that revealed that the incoming Plebe class was issued comic books to help them deal with the rigors of Plebe Summer!!! COMIC BOOKS!!! Not making it up. This was not long after the revelation of the tenured professor assailing the admissions process and the double-standards for minority applicants, that was followed almost immediately by the Sup’s assertion that “Diversity is our #1 priority”. A classmate’s wife is a tenured prof in the PoliSci Dept. She tells me that her worst students…hands down…are African-American females…almost without exception. They cannot write, cannot express themselves, cannot discuss/argue topics, sleep through class, etc…and she is under relentless pressure to ensure they “pass” her classes.
Again I ask – what is the point of having a Naval Academy if it ceases to be a special institution? Send everyone who wishes to be a naval officer to NROTC or OCS/AOCS. H*ll….they’re already receive reserve commissions anyway!
As far as a “John Lehman” type savior – do not expect anything from the current SecNav. I am on the Navy Staff and the Honorable Ray Mabus is not the man to force a change of culture.
Well this did make the Wa Post so I expect the brooms are working overtime to sweep this further under the rug. I’m sure they will get a lot of help doing so from the current administration as this doesn’t fit the narrative….
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