It Must be the Altitude in Colorado Springs

The drop-flop-and-foam at the USAFA has finally broken above my USAFAdontgiveadamn ambient noise threshold. Sure, I just shook my head in shame for years as they knuckled under to the anti-Christian jihad being waged by Weinstein and his ilk, but the two events below have finally led me to say; "Good googly moogly people; who's in charge of this clown car?!?"

First the most serious;

Facing pressure to combat drug use and sexual assault at the Air Force Academy, the Air Force has created a secret system of cadet informants to hunt for misconduct among students.

Cadets who attend the publicly-funded academy near Colorado Springs must pledge never to lie. But the program pushes some to do just that: Informants are told to deceive classmates, professors and commanders while snapping photos, wearing recording devices and filing secret reports.

Yea. Let that soak in.

Where do we start? Let me keep this simple; there are few lower kinds of human beings than informants, snitches, stool pigeons or whatever you want to call them. Especially when you attack the seed corn of the officer corps for your snitch population - regardless of your good intentions - that is beyond the pale. 

Snitches are not the same as witnesses - they are people who intentionally become an agent of whatever petty-Stasi they sell their soul to. They prey on their friends, families, and Shipmates under a false flag for profit, fun, or worse - to save their own skin. What a low form of scum.

Not only does it debase the snitch, it creates a climate where you absolutely do not trust anyone. It creates an Orwelian fascist atmosphere that has no place in the military of a representative republic. No excuses, and this will not do;

Gen. Mark Welsh, the Chief of Staff of the Air Force, the service’s top officer and only commander with authority over both the academy and OSI, said he was unfamiliar with the cadet informant system.

“I don’t know a thing about it,” he said in an interview in October.

Members of the academy’s civilian oversight board, which includes members of Congress, also said they had not heard of the program.

OK. Full stop. Who has been fired, or when is the press conference call that is going to announce firing and resignations? This is way over the line. If USAF senior leadership does not act sooner more than later, then they are just validating everything other services have said over the years about their culture.

There is no justification for this Stasi like program. Read the whole article and tell me you do not feel ashamed for your nation and your Air Force.

Then in 2001, the academy was rocked by high profile cases of drug use that resulted in Congressional investigations. That year an OSI officer named Keith Givens, who is now vice commander of OSI, wrote in the Air Force’s official legal journal, The Reporter, that the Air Force should use “a web of undercover agents and informants to detect drug abuse.” In 2003 the academy was hit by more scandals over drugs and sexual assaults that resulted in the removal of top brass. By 2004, court documents show, OSI was recruiting cadets as informants. Documents show that at least some academy leaders have knowledge of the program, but it is not clear if they know who is involved and what they do.

There is your starting point on inviting people to seek employment elsewhere. It is 12-yrs overdue. Taking Cadets and making them informants? Is that what we want to train young leaders to think is normal and right?

Another reason I recommend ROTC and OCS. Universities and ROTC may have their issues - but at least you can conduct your daily plans with the mind of a free citizen. 

No quarter. No question. This should not stand without heads on pikes. If it does - then a pox on the USAF. Give them back to the Army.

Now let's shift fire .... you know how much I LOVE how academy athletic boosters are focused on mission! Now, don't be silly. We aren't talking about building leaders for tomorrows military - heavens no - we are talking about making sure we have teams that help insecure adults with self-esteem issues to plaster over the gaping holes in their lives with games played by others. Everything else is second to being able to say, "Yea, my team won!" Those people would sell their daughters in to bondage for a bowl win.

Yep - soak in it.

Air Force football coach Troy Calhoun has expressed frustration this season about the competitive disadvantage of not being allowed to have cadets play a fifth year. The Falcons are 2-9 and winless in Mountain West play. Their season finale is Saturday at Colorado State.

Speaking about selling your soul cheaply - check out the spin.

Discussions are being held within the Air Force Academy that could lead to expanding the basic four-year classroom program for graduation to a five-year program for some cadets in order to enhance academic achievements. Such a plan, if adopted, could have a huge effect on the athletic program, thereby allowing an extra year of competition.
...
"At most universities, the average years to graduate is something over five years. For the service academies to hang tough on four years, it may be time to seriously discuss other options. "

Mueh pointed out that a program exists that potentially could add a ninth semester to a cadet's time at the academy, but it is rarely used. The additional semester is usually granted to make up for time lost for illness or injury.

"If there's a way we can help our students reach their academic potential and become leaders in the Air Force and that means talking about a five-year program, I'm all for it," Mueh said. "We won't change our academic requirements, the physical fitness requirements, or the active duty commitment after graduation. The one we might adjust is the time they spend here at the academy.

Who here really thinks this is about academic excellence? If you do - we should play poker some time. Making it so that Cadets can take a 10 to 12 hour semester load is not doing the right thing. 

Or could something else be in the mix too?

"It's going to take some doing. This basically always will be a four-year institution, but we bring in students from a widely diversified population and it may be time to expand our program in order to meet the different needs."

As this is not Thursday, I'm just going to leave that sitting there for you to ponder.

For those who believe in the American service academy model, you need to push back hard. If you allow them to continue to drift towards being a playpen for jack-booted government thugs, football-uber-alles fanatics, and cultural marxists, then you are creating the conditions for a series of scandals that will rock the institutions to their foundation. Just imagine the effects on par with what Penn State just went through. That is where this leads. Not perhaps to pederasty, but scandal that comes from entitlement and arrogance and misplaced priorities - yes.

Just be lucky the usual suspects don't line up the pictures from the first story linked above - or for that matter the last dozen people kicked out of Annapolis for sexual assault. If they notice superficial (d)iversity in color guards, they're seeing it there. Again, as this is not Thursday - I won't go there any further.

When people who do not have the best interests of an institution at heart; and the Ameri-Stasi, sports addicts, and grievance industry don't - but instead are only focused on their personal agendas, then they will tear your institutions apart in pursuit of their primary goal. 

The dirty little secret is that the service academies could disappear tomorrow, and the Republic will survive just fine - but that would be a sad loss for the nation, and a pathetic failure of moral courage on the part of those in uniform who are focused on the real mission; building leaders.