Visitor publish by Tony Lentini, West Level Graduate
2014 West Point Graduation and Commissioning by DVIDSHUB
Once I attended West Level within the late ‘60s and early ‘70s, cadets joked that we obtained a “$50,000 training, shoved up our a** a nickel at a time.” Instances have positive modified. As we speak, the price of an training on the nation’s service academies has risen to an estimated quarter of one million {dollars} per cadet or midshipman, all funded by our tax {dollars}.
Previously, such an funding was greater than worthwhile; West Level has produced luminaries resembling Presidents Grant and Eisenhower, World Warfare II Generals MacArthur, Patton, Arnold, and Bradley, and scores of different achieved navy, political, and enterprise leaders since its inception in 1802.
However in latest occasions, issues have modified. The taxpayer price of a West Level training has risen, and the Academy’s ethical {and professional} compass appears to have shifted.
The U.S. Navy Academy was the nation’s first engineering faculty, and rightly so, as a result of engineering is an important ability on the battlefield. Troopers should plan and construct fortifications, bridges, and different infrastructure and discover methods to destroy them.
Nonetheless, over the previous few a long time, the Academy has change into extra of a Liberal Arts School, providing battlefield-irrelevant course supplies in such areas as Variety, Fairness and Inclusion, Vital Race Principle, and Gender Research. West Level now presents a minor in Variety & Inclusion Research.
Though sexual fraternization has been an issue ever since girls had been first admitted to the Academy in 1976, amongst its numerous “Affinity Golf equipment,” West Level now sponsors a so-called “Spectrum Membership” for gay and transexual cadets based mostly solely on their sexual orientation. Presumably, such golf equipment for heterosexual men and women wouldn’t be tolerated.
The Cadet Honor Code was unequivocal: “A cadet is not going to lie, cheat or steal, or tolerate those that do.”
The penalty for violating the code was expulsion. Now, not a lot. The Honor Code continues to be “managed” by cadets, however punishment for violators is now solely the Superintendent’s purview.
Soccer gamers concerned in a latest dishonest scandal had been retained and permitted to play in public competitions, together with the Military-Navy and Military-Air Pressure video games, each of which they “received.”
An athlete-cadet watch thief caught on digicam on the Publish Trade was allowed to graduate. The Superintendent has characterised the Honor Code as “aspirational” fairly than absolute. The identical Superintendent not too long ago excised the college’s “Responsibility, Honor, Nation” motto from West Level’s mission assertion.
Every cadet firm now has cadet “Respect Officers” paying homage to Soviet Political Commissars to make sure that all bow to the Academy’s now-woke tradition. Admissions and development at the moment are ruled by race and gender over benefit.
The varsity’s Variety and Inclusion Division has been renamed (for political causes) however nonetheless exists. Not one of the audio system finally yr’s Workplace of Variety, Inclusion, and Equal Alternative Management Convention expressed any divergent views relating to DEI. Boxing, a warrior’s sport, if there ever was one, is not on the intramural schedule.
I used to be a cadet when the usPueblo and its crew had been seized in worldwide waters by North Korea. On the door to my barracks room, I rashly posted a map of Southeast Asia with a mushroom cloud changing that communist nation.
It was captioned, “Make South Korea an Island.” My tactical officer required me to take away my overtly political assertion and write an essay on the U.S. navy custom of troopers subservient to civilian management, because it was clear that the poster questioned Commander-in-Chief Lyndon Baines Johnson’s authority.
I realized a precious lesson from that. Now, nonetheless, issues are totally different. Overlaying every little thing at West Level at this time is politics–Leftist politics.
Upon commencement from West Level, all of us took an oath as commissioned officers to “…help and defend the Structure of the US in opposition to all enemies, international and home….”
Enshrined in that doc among the many very first of our unalienable rights is freedom of speech, but classmate e mail lists maintained by the Affiliation of Graduates routinely censor any dialogue crucial of the Academy’s and the navy’s path.
For instance, I not too long ago despatched an e mail to my complete class that shared the web site handle of The MacArthur Society of West Level Graduates (www.macarthursociety.org), which was fashioned to push again in opposition to woke insurance policies that many people consider are undermining our alma mater’s mission in addition to Military recruiting.
My class president censored the e-mail, stating, “I’ve reviewed the location and its (sic) data, and I discover it to be biased and extremely political; due to this fact, it isn’t acceptable to be shared with the Class.”
This similar class president emailed the category supporting the Superintendent’s choice to take away Responsibility, Honor, Nation from the mission assertion and frequently distributes coverage positions of present Air Pressure Secretary and classmate Frank Kendall. I’ve no drawback with such communications, however opposing viewpoints additionally needs to be shared.
West Level staffers now routinely violate federal regulation: The Freedom of Info Act requires citizen queries to be answered inside 20 working days, but the Academy’s FOIA workplace now willfully ignores the regulation. Judicial Watch needed to sue to pressure West Level to share course supplies selling Vital Race Principle, DEI and different woke topics. I and graduate mates of mine have unanswered FOIA requests going again one, two or extra years.
My very own FOIA—to find out the destiny of cadets who overdosed on fentanyl-laced cocaine on Spring Break two years in the past—was accomplished by West Level in June of this yr however now languishes within the “Preliminary Denial Authority” workplace at Ft. Belvoir, Virginia, 11 months after it was filed. The “Preliminary Denial Authority” refuses to reply to or acknowledge my emails and cellphone calls.
As a graduate and, extra necessary, as a taxpayer funding these $250,000 educations, I’ve a proper to know what punishment, if any, these drug-abusing cadets acquired. Did they graduate? Have been they expelled and compelled to repay their academic prices by serving as enlisted troopers? Are drug abusers now permitted to serve within the navy in any respect? I don’t know. We don’t know. And West Level and the Military refuse to enlighten us.
So, right here we’re: West Level’s officer management willfully ignores federal regulation. They usually’re getting away with it. The identical is true at our different service academies. This should change.
Tony Lentini is a 1971 West Level graduate. He served 5 years within the Military, attaining the rank of captain, after which had a profitable profession within the power trade, ultimately serving as vp of public and worldwide affairs at two impartial oil and fuel corporations. He’s a founding board member of The MacArthur Society of West Level Graduates.
Distributed by: The Stand Up America US Basis, www.standupamericaus.org
Actual Clear Protection, September 12, 2024