The US Air Force Academy announced that Admiral Mike Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, will be the commencement speaker at the 2010 USAFA graduation.
The news release notes that this is the first time the CJCS has addressed the USAFA graduation, a position more often filled by the President, Vice President, Secretary of Defense, and Secretary of the Air Force.
The military academies reserve some of their admissions for enlisted members of the military, allowing them to go to college and become officers. This has led to a unique cadre of combat-experienced cadets at the Academies.
However, a US Army news release says that those at West Point are going unfilled, potentially because servicemembers don’t know about them. Enlisted members of any of the services are encouraged to research the programs at each of the Academies designed to place aspiring enlisted members on the path to officership through a military academy experience.
A local military paper documents the long-running US Air Force Academy tradition of “100s Night,” which marks 100 calendar days until the senior class (“Firsties”) graduate. While the Firsties are out at an official dinner and celebration, the freshman cadets (four degrees) transform their rooms into a variety of new creations. Some are simple, others complex; some are light-hearted, others are devilishly creative.
The article lists a variety of examples, including filling rooms with balloons (balloons filled with glitter, in one case), taking all the furniture out and setting up the room in another location (a stairwell), or filling a room with a cement pond (no word on Koi). Someone’s bed almost always ends up on the Terrazzo (the cadet common quad), and often one is placed in the middle of the cadet football field.
Military cadets are known to “count down” to major milestones, like the number of days to recognition for the fourth class cadets (even many lower class cadets know how many days they have until graduation). This is just one traditional way in which lower class cadets throw off their fetters and have fun at the expense of their upperclassmen. The Firsties? For the most part, they don’t mind. After all, they’ve only got 100 days left…
A lot of people don’t realize that some of the military academies’ displays of “spirit” aren’t entirely spontaneous or voluntary. While many enjoy going to their college’s football games, for example, the military academies are probably among the few institutions that require their student body to attend such games (and in uniform). Even the pushups that follow a touchdown in a service academy game are technically required (of the freshman class).
(When military members are essentially forced to participate in what seems to be a voluntary event, they refer to it as being “volun-told.”) Such displays are Read more
The Cadet Wing Commander at the US Air Force Academy is the top military ranking cadet over all cadets. The current semester’s commander, Cadet 1st Class Andrew Van Timmeren, has an article in the base paper that reveals an interesting history:
Cadet 1st Class Andrew Van Timmeren…almost didn’t stay past his second day of Basic Cadet Training.
Cadet Van Timmeren, then a basic cadet, was ready to pack it in and head home until a chaplain challenged him that if he left then, he would accomplish nothing.
He seems to say his style has Read more
As noted at AF.mil, the US military academies (Air Force, Navy, Army, Coast Guard, and Merchant Marine) were ranked in the “top 100” Best Value Colleges by the Princeton Review/USA Today (again, see 2009).
The military academies, which combine both military and academic training, are government-funded and built around their missions. As a result, they are no-cost, have low student/teacher ratios, and provide some of the best educational opportunities in the US.
As quoted in the Air Force article, The Princeton Review said
If you can make it through this four-year gauntlet, though, an Air Force diploma is an awesome credential. You will almost certainly leave here with a knack for leadership and a skill set that will impress your friends.
While “impressing your friends” is hardly a worthwhile credential, it is worth noting that the Review recognizes the value of a military academy diploma. They are challenging to earn, and are earned in limited numbers, making them a commodity even in the civilian sector. (Though the education is valuable, an Academy diploma does not necessarily have instrinsic value within the military.)
The 2010 Princeton Review can be accessed directly here.
An Associated Press article repeated at the local Gazette and other sources says of the US Air Force Academy:
Religious tolerance has improved dramatically since allegations five years ago that evangelical Christians harassed cadets who didn’t share their faith.
The article even quotes critic Michael Weinstein, who sued the Air Force for incidents at the Academy, agreeing with the assessment:
This is the first time we feel positive about things there.
While the initial complaints were that the Air Force was foisting Christianity on its cadets, the Air Force investigation instead determined that the situation was far simpler: cadets of minority faiths did not feel appropriately accommodated as was permissible under military regulations. Thus, the Air Force addressed Read more
As noted here at various times, Christians are far from the only ones to struggle with conflicts between their faith and military service, or to organize in order to support one another in it. They are also not the only ones who intertwine their spiritual beliefs with their patriotic ones.
For example, in 2005 a Jewish cadet at the US Military Academy at West Point told how he was “prepped” by an older friend for his time in basic training:
One of Bergman’s older friends told him to ask for permission to participate in prayer services on Friday nights during Beast. Read more