"Joey Bishop" wrote:

"Jim Baker" wrote


Using this kind of logic, we must have brought in new Majors, and Colonels
right off the street, rather than promote the dregs of the late 70's, early 80's.
My argument is, that the dregs of the anti-military years, became the Generals
that destroyed the Academies high standards.

How many general officers are assigned to the Academy at one time?
Would you believe two--the Superintendent (a 3-star) and the
Commandant of Cadets (1-star). Would you like to name some names of
these "dregs" that destroyed the high standards? Maybe we could look
more profitably at the Academy Board of Visitors--those
Congresspersons and their appointees who were supposedly the
over-sight for the institution.

There's long been a philosophy of the military "eating their
young"--holding a wing commander responsible for aircraft accidents or
discipline breaches. It is reasonable to an extent. A commander should
be in control of his/her organization. But, it often becomes
unreasonable when the commander is punished for actions or results of
which they could have had no warning or which occurred in direct
violation of their orders.

Fortunately, the response of General Jumper and Secretary Roche have
been predominantly reasonable and proper. The initial corrective
policies being established by Sup't Rosa and Commandant Weida seem
equally appropriate.

I would also disagree that the service academies are run like a "typical"
public university. Have you ever been to one during the school year?

The number of cadets off campus is astounding. It's almost like they spend
most of their time away from the Academy. I go to Colorado a lot.

Do you really? Where did you see this "astounding" number? Was it
maybe "Parent's Weekend" over Labor Day? I LIVE in Colorado Springs,
about three miles from the Academy main gate. I frequent the Academy
for retiree services. I'm astounded by how seldom I see cadets in
uniform off the facility. With nearly 4000 cadets in training, it
would seem reasonable to see a lot more. I see plenty of GI's--after
all, we've got Peterson AFB, Schriever AFB, Cheyenne Mt AFS, Fort
Carson and AFA all in Colorado Springs. Could you be mis-identifying
military members for cadets?

Finally, your last statement shows you to be woefully stupid. God help your
organization with thinking like that. Actually, since the students are
Americans, you probably wouldn't want to hire any Americans. I mean to say,
the few taints the many in your argument, therefore no kid can be trusted if
a few kids screw up. Brilliant thinking.

I value a college degree, but above that, I value the institution that handed-out
the degree. If I think the institution is just a whore house, or a den of thieves,
then I could care less what paper you are trying to hand me. I'd rather hire
non-Americans if it comes to that. I want to work with people who value
the community. Right now I don't value the institution of the AF Academy,
and whoever shows up with paper from it, can kiss my ass. It's just a
whore house at the tax payers expense.

Joey

The won't show up with a "paper from it" until they've graduated and
served their country for several years. In that time, they will have
possibly graduated from pilot training, flown multi-million dollar
systems for severals years and maybe been in combat. They probably
have earned an advanced degree and they undoubtedly have supervised
more people, larger budgets, bigger projects with more responsibility
than their civilian counterparts. They are the ones that met the
standard, graduated and succeeded.

The ones who are getting the bad press, are the ones who will be
weededd out. They are in the decidedly small minority.

But, you manage your business the way you think best.



Ed Rasimus
Fighter Pilot (ret)
***"When Thunder Rolled:
*** An F-105 Pilot Over N. Vietnam"
*** from Smithsonian Books
ISBN: 1588341038