Tag Archives: cheat

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.

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Military Cheating, or Cooperate and Graduate

In reaction to the “cheating scandals” being reported in the US Air Force and Navy, Dr. Martin Cook, Admiral Stockdale chair of professional military ethics at the US Naval War College, became the first to cite the well-known military culture of “cooperate and graduate.”

In Navy pilot school, for example, it’s well known that the “ambient culture” is “cooperate to graduate,” Cook says. “If we all share our answers and ‘cooperate to graduate,’ then that’s what most people are going to do. So you shouldn’t expect most individuals to deviate from that.”

Unfortunately, he leaves the impression that means cheating. “Cooperate and graduate” — at its core — is a reference to teamwork. That hasn’t stopped Read more

Sub Skipper Fired Over Cheating Scandal

According to the Navy Times, Capt Charles Maher of the attack submarine Memphis was relieved of his command over allegations of a 10-person cheating ring under his watch.  There was no evidence Maher was directly involved in the cheating.

Unlike several prior instances of cheating in all of the military services (Navy, Marines, Army), this appears to be the first time the commanding officer has been relieved over ethical failures in testing by subordinates.

Senior Enlisted Chiefs Forced Out Over Cheating

Not long after talking about the discharge of the cheating Marines, Stars and Stripes noted that two Navy Chiefs are being “forced to retire” after helping a Sailor cheat on a military advancement exam.

During a rare court-martial at sea, chief petty officers Reynaldo M. Bernardo and Ferdinand P. Quinto were found guilty May 24 of failing to obey a lawful order, said the aircraft carrier’s spokesman, LtCmdr Bill Urban…

It appears the cheating, which occurred on the USS George Washington, was fairly obvious: 

During the exam, Bernardo and Quinto moved a sailor to a different table and then instructed the sailor to cheat off another sailor’s test, Read more

Cheating Officer: Everybody Does It

Former US Marine 2nd Lieutenant Adam Ballard has given his excuse for his lapse in integrity, in which he cheated on a land navigation test:  everybody’s doing it, and it was the school’s fault:

Ballard admits his actions were wrong but said they were facilitated by “inordinately lax procedures at [the basic officer school]…”

Over half of the three hundred Marines in our company possessed the same information that I had and that those numbers were comparable, if not more, in all the other training companies past and present…

As noted here often, neither a “culture” that seems to encourage cheating, nor a tangible disadvantage for not cheating are excuses for making the “easier” wrong choice.

Navy Sailors Punished for Academic Cheating

The Navy Times reports that the US Navy has disciplined 13 sailors for cheating during a written nuclear propulsion test on board the carrier USS Harry S Truman.  The reports do not explain what the sailors did, except to say they were using notes; it is possible that the notes were test gouge, especially since the Navy subsequently made all the sailors re-take the test.

Retired Capt. Jim Colgary, a former submarine commander, said:

Trust is the fundamental bedrock of going to sea on these ships.  If an individual is dishonest enough to cheat on an exam, you can’t trust them to stand watch or take logs on systems associated with nuclear reactors.

Colgary’s analysis applies well beyond the nuke test.  The trust bestowed upon the US military by the American public is a sacred one, Read more

Army Battles Culture of Cheating

An Army Times article notes the US Army’s struggle to end a near-tradition of cheating on military promotion tests.  It appears many of the exams are long-running, meaning that gouge of one sort or another is readily available and frequently used.

The Army is far from the only service to experience such scandals.  The Navy has had its fair share of cheating, as has the Air Force, and cheating scandals at all of the military academies have made headlines at one time or another.

Hunts for online “help” for military courses is so common that one of the frequent searches that leads people to this very site is “pme,” “sos,” or “acsc” “gouge.”  Those who land here will instead find Read more