The official USAFA Twitter feed was alerted to the presence of US Air Force Academy cadets from CS-38 parodying cadet life the song “Sexy and I Know It” on YouTube.  Their response was fairly strongly worded:

We’ve seen it, and we’ve notified their commanders. Their conduct is unbecoming of future Air Force officers.

If Public Affairs was reporting the official position that their “conduct is unbecoming,” that’s one thing.  But their statement that they’d only then notified their commanders indicated it was a personal judgment, not an official position.  Other surprised responses encouraged them to backpedal:

Granted, “conduct unbecoming” is a strong term, and we’re not looking to say USAFA is a no-fun zone …

Later:

Are Airmen going to respect Lt. Smith after they see him in boxers?

And finally:

A cadet generally wouldn’t face disenrollment for something like this. A Form 10? Possibly. Depends on the AOC.

In the final retreat, the tweets now appear to have been deleted.

In short, it seems PA got a little ahead of themselves.  Public Affairs doesn’t make such decisions or policies; they merely communicate them.  As other “viewers” pointed out, members of the military have been making mock videos for years, and the military has had a fairly hands-off or permissive attitude toward them.

Absent any obviously crossed lines or conduct that might bring discredit upon the military — which this cadet video did not appear to have — the videos have not only been allowed, they’ve sometimes become viral sensations.  The American public seems to have a fairly high tolerance for seeing members of the US military blowing off steam in a comedic video.

Beat You Gently is pretty decent, by the way.

Documentation: The cadets produced those videos…