Category Archives: Military Academy

USAFA: Cadet Pilot Volunteers also UAV Volunteers

The Air Force Academy published a release saying they have “typically” filled their pilot slots, but they had trouble filling non-pilot rated career fields — CSOs, ABMs, and UAVs. The issue is that all rated career fields are volunteer only. Many cadets would volunteer only for a pilot slot, and the others were going unfilled.

USAFA’s solution? If you volunteer for a pilot slot, you’re volunteering for any rated field — including UAVs:

“They cannot volunteer for just one. By volunteering Read more

USAFA Investigating Mass Cheating Allegation

The US Air Force Academy announced it was investigating a mass cheating incident involving 40 cadets (of 500 in the course):

The Air Force’s Academy identified approximately 40 of its 500 fourth class cadets (freshmen) enrolled in Chemistry 100 (a core freshman course) for suspected Honor Code violations. Portions of a lab report assignment were allegedly copied and not documented either from previous semester reports or current student reports; this assignment is worth 50 of 3000 points.

The timing of the potential scandal is poor, given the spate of other ethical failures occurring in the active duty military right now.  It will certainly give rise to some interesting discussions in the coming days, however.

(Earlier reports implicated 11 cadets.)

Also at the Colorado Springs Gazette and Air Force Times.

ADVERTISEMENT

USAFA Chapel Makes World Top 10

As noted at the local Colorado Springs Gazette (via the Stars and Stripes), the US Air Force Academy Cadet Chapel has been named

one of the top 10 most spectacular modern churches by Emporis, a Germany-based compiler of real estate information.

The wing chaplain, Chaplain (Col) Robert Bruno, said

“For a building now 50 years old, I think this is utterly amazing that the Cadet Chapel is in the top-10 listing of the world’s most spectacular churches,” said Col. Robert Bruno, the academy’s chief chaplain.

Given that some of its competition was centuries old, 50 years isn’t too bad.

The chapel is reportedly the most popular man-made attraction in the state of Colorado and has been the source of both pride and controversy.

ADVERTISEMENT

Air Force IG to Investigate USAFA OSI Program

The Inspector General of the Air Force is reportedly investigating the Air Force Office of Special Investigation’s (OSI) use of cadets as informants at the US Air Force Academy. USAFA Superintendent LtGen Michelle Johnson had previously declared she would “personally oversee” any such program in the future. Further,

Johnson said she will review the academy’s disenrollment process and that she intends to “eliminate the need for cadet confidential informants in the cadet wing…”  Read more

USAFA Seniors Learn their Fates

Cadets in the US Air Force Academy Class of 2014 were notified of their career fields on Wednesday.

Most notably, of the 1,011 cadets, 456 were selected to become pilots. (That’s 45% for those who grimace at math in public, which is slightly less than 2011.)  41 will become “cyberspace operators,” and 9 will go on to RPAs (and 4 will become “special agents” for OSI). From the official release, the rest of the list follows:  Read more

USAFA Defends, Gets Oversight of OSI Cadet Informant Program

The US Air Force Academy unapologetically defended its use of cadet confidential informants earlier this week:

The Air Force Academy stood by its use of confidential student informants Tuesday, noting that it’s a practice used across the Air Force that provides what it calls “vital information about criminal activities.”

A couple of days later, USAFA announced the Superintendent would begin having oversight of the program:

Air Force Academy Superintendent Lt. Gen. Michelle Johnson will now exercise oversight of the confidential informant program at the academy…

She will be aware of the operations, but the Office of Special Investigations will still have command and control of the program, an academy spokesman said.

Also at the Air Force Times and the Stars and Stripes, with more here.

ADVERTISEMENT

USAFA Cadets Lied, Broke Rules as OSI Informants

A fascinating article by the Colorado Springs Gazette accuses the Air Force Office of Special Investigations (OSI) of encouraging misconduct while using cadets to inform on their peers — and then disavowing them when they were no longer useful.

Eric Thomas, 24, was a confidential informant…OSI ordered Thomas to infiltrate academy cliques, wearing recorders, setting up drug buys, tailing suspected rapists and feeding information back to OSI. In pursuit of cases, he was regularly directed by agents to break academy rules…

Through it all, he thought OSI would have his back. But when an operation went wrong, he said, his handlers cut communication and disavowed knowledge of his actions, and watched as he was kicked out of the academy.

The Gazette claims to have obtained documents validating the cadets’ claims.

A lengthy article, but interesting.

Repeated at the Stars and Stripes.

ADVERTISEMENT

1 2 3 4 5 6 … 17