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| Drug Scandal Grips Air Force Academy |
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Posted by FoM on March 22, 2002 at 14:35:04 PT By Robert Weller, Associated Press Source: Associated Press 
The U.S. Air Force Academy has stepped up drug testing and is putting more classroom emphasis on ethics amid the biggest drug scandal in the school's 47-year history. Thirty-eight cadets out of 4,300 have been implicated in the scandal that began in December 2000. In addition, six cadets have been charged or convicted of crimes such as larceny and sodomy, including the former president of the class of 2003, who is accused of stealing $9,000 from a class activity fund. Academy officials have no simple explanation for the rash of crime, which has extended into this month with the arrest of a student on charges of raping a female cadet. ''We rely on the American people to send us their best. Every now and then we don't get the right people,'' said Col. Mark Hyatt, director of the Academy Center for Character Development, a department at the school that concentrates on everything from dinner-party manners to battlefield ethics. The drug scandal involving mainly the use of Ecstasy and marijuana is the biggest problem for the academy since 105 cadets accused of cheating resigned in 1965. In the past 10 years, there had been only one other drug case at the academy, spokesman Lt. Col. Perry Nouis said, adding that officials believe the problem is now under control. Because of the scandal, the academy has made it clear that an admission of even one puff on a marijuana cigarette will result in expulsion and possibly imprisonment, Hyatt said. ''We have to do things right or people die. When I come out of Baghdad and I am out of the fuel, I am trusting that tanker pilot will be there,'' Hyatt said. ''Because of what happened, we are not going to look the other way.'' Also, academy officials increased random drug tests in which cadets are summoned to the clinic and told to urinate into a cup. The academy is also considering state-of-the-art DNA testing of hair follicles, which scientists say can detect some drugs up to 90 days after their use. In addition, the academy is working ethics lessons into courses across the curriculum even in chemistry class. Of the 38 cadets implicated, eight were court-martialed and seven of those went to prison; one of them got 3½ years at Leavenworth. Twenty-one others have left the academy; some of those are being forced to repay the government for their tuition, while others must serve in the Air Force in the enlisted ranks and not as officers. Nine others received punishments ranging from loss of privileges to fines. The investigation began after a cadet tested positive for drug use. The academy said all of the drug use occurred off-campus at parties. One cadet was accused of drug dealing; the rest were accused of using drugs or knowing about such use but keeping silent. ''Initially, a lot of people were shocked. Then people got angry. Then because of the trust issue they felt a little bit betrayed,'' cadet Theron Mink, who heads the cadet honor committee, which metes out punishment for honor code violations that fall short of a crime. The U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., has had three courts-martial in the past decade. A cadet was charged in a drug case last year and two were accused of stealing more than $40,000 in cadet store merchandise in 2000. In 1996, the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md., went through problems like the Air Force Academy's: Five midshipmen were court-martialed and jailed on drug charges, and 15 others were expelled. Other midshipmen and graduates were accused in civilian courts that year of sexual offenses, breaking into a house and running a stolen-car ring. But since then, only one midshipman has been court-martialed. That was for an ATM card theft. ''Starting about 10 years ago, character development, honor, dignity, respect and general civility has been a steady drumbeat throughout everything we do here,'' said Cmdr. Bill Spann, Naval Academy spokesman. ''We'd like to think it's working.'' Retired Lt. Gen. A.P. Clark, a former Air Force Academy superintendent, said crime is worse at traditional universities. Noting that he graduated from West Point, he said: ''We didn't have these problems then and society didn't, either.'' ''The kids that are coming out of these public high schools don't know what honor is,'' he said. ''They have quite an adjustment to make when they come to an academy that has such high standards of integrity and ethics.'' On the Net: http://www.usafa.af.mil/flash/ Newshawk: Nicholas Thimmesch II Related Articles: Drug Testing Under Fire In Air Academy Scandal Air Force Wages Weekend War on Drugs Air Force Probing Drug Use Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help |
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Comment #5 posted by freddybigbee on March 25, 2002 at 10:40:04 PT:
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| "Academy officials have no simple explanation for the rash of crime, which has extended into this month with the arrest of a student on charges of raping a female cadet." Could it be because our congress, courts, and executive have made a mockery of the constitution by creating a climate wherein massive white-collar crime goes largely unpunished while victimless "crimes" are brutally punished? [ Post Comment ] |
| Comment #4 posted by Lehder on March 23, 2002 at 08:40:40 PT |
| The students at the AF Academy graduate with technical and management degrees and go on to become the procurers of weapons. By the time they retire after twenty years, they've got all the right buddies in the private defense industry so that in addition to $30,000 retirements with heaps of benefits they also quickly land $80,000 - $120,000 jobs in private industry. A very few of these GUYS (exclusively) are very smart and very nice and can be decent friends. They see the opportunity for an easy life and take it. They're also extremely naive about cannabis; having lived in a closed system of repression all their lives, they actually believe the propaganda and think that cannabis destroys the soul or moral sense or whatever. But an awful lot of these guys are just thoroughly unsavory characters, types like Ken Lay and Richard Nixon. I know this because once upon a time, as a misplaced stargazer, I used to work for them as what these businessmen regard as a low level type who actually did the science. I quit for many good reasons. I have never encountered a bigger bunch of out-of-control alcoholics anywhere. I could tell you a thousand stories about faces ignited by flaming drinks, a side trip I was forced to take just to see my bosses' car tracks crossing and recrossing a freeway median strip from the previous night's uproarious drinking bout, the bottles of whiskey in desk drawers, the vending machines stocked with beer instead of pop, the childish way in which they handle their alcohol at conferences, missile silos and test sites stocked with booze. It's a a very funny joke to them. Corruption has a lot to do with why weapons never work as advertised, why they take years longer and hundreds of millions more than promised to finish. And booze has a lot to do with it too. I didn't mention the office file cabinets stuffed with pornography or these whore-hoppers' sicko attitudes toward sex and women, but that's another reason I choose not to associate with them. Because they have a little training in science they think they're too smart to have fun in Las Vegas. So at the conferences there they don't play the games much - instead they get drunk and go to the girlie shows. That's why the hotels raise the room rates for these groups. I'm not much surprised by the extensive academic cheating at the academy either. Despite the suits and ties ( no, not for me ) I saw unbelievable dishonorable behaviour, cheating, plagiarism and grasping and fighting over trivial achievements, petty infighting that's sickening - all for the money and a window office in the corner. I'm not a sociologist and I don't pretend to understand it, but somehow this system that purports to promote honor seems only to attract or encourage degeneracies. I'm not surprised that a guy like George Bush is their Commander in Chief. [ Post Comment ] |
| Comment #3 posted by freedom fighter on March 22, 2002 at 16:28:40 PT |
| thanks for the link.. I did'nt know they passed. ff [ Post Comment ] |
| Comment #2 posted by mayan on March 22, 2002 at 16:01:51 PT |
| Denver Bows Out Of 'Patriot Act' And 'War On Terror':
http://rense.com/general21/denverbowsout.htm [ Post Comment ] |
| Comment #1 posted by JR Bob Dobbs on March 22, 2002 at 15:36:44 PT |
| >>Because of the scandal, the academy has made it clear that an admission of even one puff on a marijuana cigarette will result in expulsion and possibly imprisonment, Hyatt said.<< Almost like the real world... if you get caught. But do they take away your federal aid? >>''We have to do things right or people die. When I come out of Baghdad and I am out of the fuel, I am trusting that tanker pilot will be there,'' Hyatt said. ''Because of what happened, we are not going to look the other way.''<< Not for Cannabis or MDMA... But what's the Air Force's policy on alcohol? I bet they don't even have to look away. I bet there's a lot of happy hours, perhaps not when active combat duty is approaching, but in the off hours, and nobody has to look away from anything. Except for the truth about cannabis... [ Post Comment ] |
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