Football. Academies. Sexual Assault. - Stir

What is it with the Sea Service academies now days? First from the Navy team;

Lamar Owens, quarterback of Navy's 2005 football squad, has been charged with raping a female midshipmen last month in her dormitory room, the academy announced Wednesday,

And then our quasi-civilian friends at the Coast Guard Academy,

A senior class cadet at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy has been charged with sexually assaulting six female cadets in the campus barracks.

Webster M. Smith of Houston, a member of the academy's football team, was separated from the rest of student population after the first complaint was filed with administrators Dec. 4, the academy said.

Come on people! This is just stupid....however....in my college days, we had a great redshirt QB sent to jail for rape. After awhile, the real cocky they think everyone wants to sleep with them - because they pretty much have the run of the show. A lot of women do want to sleep with them. They aren't used to being told no.

But....this isn't Phibian's Land Grant University. These are Midshipmen who think that they can get away with doing this to a shipmate. A symptom that our academies are becoming too non-military. Trying too hard to be like the civilian institutions. I not going to get into the "women" issue. This is a symptom of something else.

For example, in a letter sent out from the USNA to one of my spies on MIDN Owens, why say this:

Last Friday night, we celebrated a great football season at our annual football banquet. Actually, our third great winning season: 4-0 versus Army, 3-0 versus Air Force, three Commander-in-Chief trophies, three bowl games (including a 51-30 win over Colorado State last December in the San Diego). By any measure, the Navy football program has performed beyond expectations on the athletic field.

What! Priorities, people. Why in Sam Hill did this paragraph make the chop? As a matter of fact, the whole letter is FODish drivel, but I'll save you the head-ache and keep it to myself. Glad I am not the N1 on that staff. Nuff said on that, if you know what I mean.

Sorry I have to bring up the below. I really am; but I am not going to ignore the obvious, or self-censor.

Another thing in the background of both stories. I only mention this because race is always an issue at the Academy. No picture of MIDN Smith that I can find, and you can find MIDN Owens at the link above (hint: they ain't of Scotch-Irish bloodlines) - but here is some from Smith's CV,

According to the 2001 school yearbook, Smith was a player on the Strake Jesuit football team; a member of the Black Student Union, a member of the Chorus, and a member of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes.

Smith also worked on the Strake Jesuit newspaper and yearbook staffs. He played basketball during his freshman and sophomore years and he was a member of the track and field team during his junior and senior years.

The Black Student Union at Strake is a service organization that coordinates the annual February celebration of Black History Month at Strake and nearby St. Agnes Academy.

The wrong person gets hold of these two guys, and all sorts of nasty politics could start bubbling up. If I was the JAG in the academy in either place, I would be breaking out the similar cases by race for the last decade and how they were resolved to help my boss defend the attack that will be coming ....but.... that is usually already done. Depending on what the numbers are like, I can smell a Congressional. Oh, the anti-PC Schadenfreude must be wonderful. Maybe we will get lucky this time and not have to wade through the mud. Hope.

I'm not smiling though. Over half the Congressionals I have seen up close have to do with someone in a pinch throwing the race card. It isn't pretty, it isn't fair - but it is reality. I don't think race means beans here. But, in many of the "race" issues we have seen, it didn't matter there - except when someone decided they wanted to make it one. Ungh. I can't stand racism pimps.

Throw in "special" treatment for athletes in what should be institutions making officers - and you have a nice "60 Minutes" story. Academies - Race - Sex(ual assault) - special treatment. All the usual suspects are there.

Oh, I forgot one of my rules. If you are going to bitch, you have to offer a solution. My solution? Remilitarize the Academies. If you have to ask, educate yourself. Step one. No Commissioned Officers allowed on golf carts unless they have chit from the doc. Just a start.