On my first day at West Point, over 1400 of us New Cadets were
brought into the Eisenhower Hall auditorium. The only thing I remember
from that speech was, “Look to your left. Look to your right. One of
the three of you won’t be here 4 years from now.”
An attrition rate of 1/3 was expected. Almost 4 years later, just over
1000 of us graduated. Graduating over 70%, we beat the estimate. Our 47 months at West Point was considered to be a winnowing process. Sure, a couple bad eggs made it through, but overall, it was a good idea.
Some time between then and now, though, what some of us call “Harvard
Syndrome” took over at West Point. Rather than weeding out those who
shouldn’t be officers, the view became “if they’re good enough to get
into West Point, they’re good enough to graduate.”
Standards dropped. Honor violations no longer necessarily merited
expulsion, they merited “discretion” and another chance. In so many
cases, cadets got another chance. And another. Cadets weren’t kicked
out, they were “helped” or “rehabilitated”. The
justification for such changes ranged from money (it costs so much to
train cadets, only to boot them after a year or more) to moral (everyone
deserves a second chance) to racial (you can imagine).
In such an environment, this is the kind of person who’s allowed to graduate.
http://amp.dailycaller.com/2017/09/27/communist-west-point-graduate-called-mattis-an-evil-vile-f/
What a disgrace.
The rot settled into the service academies back in the 90s -- diversity rather than competence became important in future Army officers.
ReplyDeletehilarious hijinks such as the moron with "Communism will win" inside his cap: how in the world did taxpayers foot the bill for that guy when he clearly doesn't uphold the Constitution?
Even more of a disgrace if UCMJ is not applied to the fullest extent.
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