{"id":6879,"date":"2010-09-01T00:25:37","date_gmt":"2010-09-01T06:25:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/?p=6879"},"modified":"2015-06-27T19:16:03","modified_gmt":"2015-06-27T22:16:03","slug":"cadets-faculty-criticize-usafa-general","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/2010\/09\/01\/cadets-faculty-criticize-usafa-general\/","title":{"rendered":"Cadets, Faculty Criticize USAFA General"},"content":{"rendered":"

Recently, the Colorado Springs Gazette<\/em> highlighted the “leaked” results of the USAFA climate survey<\/a>, which Academy superintendent Lt Gen Michael Gould had clearly said he was not going to release<\/a>.\u00a0 As expected (and as the Academy likely expected), much ado was made of numbers indicating cadets had been subject to “unwanted proselytizing” or had been “approached” about their faith.<\/p>\n

More disturbing, however, is the\u00a0internal reaction\u00a0and external response<\/a> that seems to\u00a0be becoming increasingly common:\u00a0 <\/p>\n

[Michael] Weinstein contacted The Gazette<\/em> on Tuesday after receiving an e-mailed letter from 50 cadets and staff members criticizing Gould\u2019s stance.<\/p>\n

The letter \u2014 which Weinstein supplied to the Gazette \u2014 said the leaked information “directly contradicts” Gould’s characterization of the campus survey.<\/p>\n

Withholding the data, the letter said, “makes our academy look terribly guilty of trying to hide the entire truth of the matter, whatever that may be.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

“Letter” is singular, which means 50 “cadets and staff” (which may include both civilian faculty and military officers) colluded to provide a communication to an advocacy organization — who provided it to the press — criticizing their commander.<\/p>\n

There are reasons and causes for which many may feel a desire<\/em>\u00a0to criticize their superiors.\u00a0 Indeed, there may even be moral imperatives that compel<\/em> even military members to make such statements.\u00a0 Each person must decide individually what those conditions are, and they must be willing to accept the consequences of their intentional conduct.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The ability of a military member to criticize his direct commander is extremely limited, for obvious reasons of military command and control.\u00a0 Doing so could\u00a0potentially be a violation of Article 89 of the UCMJ, Disrespect toward a superior commissioned officer<\/em>, among others.\u00a0 In this case, the group criticized their commander to a private organization, who supplied that information to the press.\u00a0\u00a0At first blush it does not seem\u00a0the communication would be authorized, but it is likely the group will be protected by their anonymity.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The incident would be serious enough if only one “group” had done it; it is extremely disheartening to think\u00a0officers and\/or civilian faculty members encouraged cadets<\/em> to participate in the criticism of their commander over the release of survey results, particulary since their “opinion” added little to the public discourse.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, it hardly seems the\u00a0decision over whether or not\u00a0to publicize survey data\u00a0rises to the level of moral imperative.\u00a0 For Weinstein, however, it provides an opportunity to gain publicity over criticism of the military’s handling of religious issues (though that was one of several), “legitimized” by a letter from the General’s subordinates.<\/p>\n

The outcry seems to have proven\u00a0the Academy right.\u00a0 As the Academy leadership implied, the intent of a climate survey is to provide a commander with the information he needs to properly execute the mission and command his unit.\u00a0 It is not a public relations prop, which is precisely what some have tried to make of the “leaked” results.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Recently, the Colorado Springs Gazette highlighted the “leaked” results of the USAFA climate survey, which Academy superintendent Lt Gen Michael Gould had clearly said he was not going to release.\u00a0 As expected (and as the Academy likely expected), much ado was made of numbers indicating cadets had been subject to “unwanted proselytizing” or had been “approached” about their faith. More […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[85,2,5218,7,99,65],"class_list":["post-6879","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-military-regulations","tag-mikey-weinstein","tag-military","tag-military-religious-freedom-foundation","tag-mrff","tag-ucmj","tag-usafa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6879","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6879"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6879\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6879"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6879"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6879"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}