Wednesday, September 27, 2017

Another Black Mark Against My Alma Mater

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.

2 comments:

  1. The rot settled into the service academies back in the 90s -- diversity rather than competence became important in future Army officers.
    hilarious 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?

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  2. Even more of a disgrace if UCMJ is not applied to the fullest extent.

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