It had been a long time since I had visited my alma mater, the U.S. Air Force Academy, so I decided to bite the bullet and travel to my 30th reunion last October. I must admit, I did so with trepidation. I have a love/hate relationship with the place. Although I received a fantastic education and met some lifelong friends, it’s a nice place to visit, if you know what I mean.
I will say that I received top-notch military training and discipline when I went through three decades ago. In fact, the discipline that was drilled into me has served me well my entire life, giving me a leg up on my competition: once I start something, I just don’t quit, no matter the odds or barriers put in front of me. I credit USAFA for helping me to develop this ability. It is a learned skill acquired from four years of handling the academics and the professional military and athletic training.
During the Vietnam War, many prisoners of war shot down over North Vietnam credited their fourth class year at the Air Force Academy with giving them the fortitude to make it through years of confinement and torture. After all, isn’t that the basic skill of a warrior, to win against all odds?
Unfortunately, these skills are no longer being taught at USAFA. I’ve seen it with my own eyes, and so have my classmates.
I realized something was horribly wrong when I arrived at the bottom of the ramp to the cadet area, which used to say “Bring Me Men” above the tunnel entrance. It was an iconic quote, and we were taught at the time that “men” meant the human race, not necessarily only the male sex of such. “I’ll meet you at the bottom of the ‘Bring Me Men’ ramp” was a routine line to girlfriends, boyfriends, parents, et cetera who came to visit their cadet at the academy. I never heard any animosity against this quote during the four years of my stay at the Blue Zoo.
Imagine my shock when I saw the quote had been changed to some PC gibberish about “Integrity First. Service Before Self. Excellence in All We Do.” Ten words! At first, I laughed at the thought of some cadet telling his civilian girlfriend to meet him at the bottom of the “Integrity First. Service Before Self. Excellence in All We Do” ramp. But after a quick laugh, I felt sadness at the loss of tradition and loss of the basic masculinity of warfare being taught at the academy. It was then I knew it was gone. I also felt alarm—if they changed this, what else have they changed? This can’t be good for the training of future Air Force warriors.
My next stop, and next horror, was walking around the cadet area with my fellow classmates from the Class of ‘86 and a few others. The place looked about the same. A monument or static aircraft display was changed here or there, and there was a strange-looking obelisk sticking out of the terrazzo near Arnold Hall, but overall, the place was the same. But there was something very, very wrong.
I couldn’t place it, but then it hit me. It was October. The fourth class cadets should not have been “recognized” yet. That meant being accepted in the ranks of the upper class and the associated privileges that come with it. This entailed walking at attention, squaring corners, greeting upperclassmen, and other general military training.
None of this was happening. They were walking at rest, not greeting anyone. Actually, they were ignoring the upperclassmen walking by. I stopped one of them and asked him, “Cadet, are you recognized yet?”
“No, we are not,” was his response. He kept walking. There was no “sir” in his response. He obviously knew I was an alumnus and former military officer. The problem was that he simply didn’t care. He didn’t care because he had been taught not to care. Military bearing was absent. Completely gone. Removed.
And then, the shock continued.
As the time started to get close to the Noon Meal Formation, where the cadets form up and march into Mitchell Hall for lunch, I again realized nothing was happening. Cadets were nonchalantly walking to the huge cafeteria where they are served all at once during the school week for lunch. I subsequently found out the formation had been cancelled due to high winds. I laughed to myself. There wasn’t even a breeze. Wow, things really have changed.
Inside the noon meal, all former military decorum and training at the lunch table had been vaporized. There was nothing. The freshman cadets didn’t even have the civilian decency to serve their alumni guests first, not to mention any military bearing. They just took the food and ignored everyone else at the table.
It gets worse: after lunch, my colleagues walked into the academic building. Before my eyes, where there used to be formal lecture halls, was a Dunkin’ Donuts. My jaw hit the floor and I actually took a picture– I was that amazed. This was no longer a military academy; it was UCLA in uniforms.
We then visited the dorm rooms. We nonchalantly walked into one cadet’s room who had the door open, which was the custom. We asked them a few questions. They didn’t get up. They didn’t greet us formally. They just sat there. These were fourth classmen. I guarantee you that in the past, if an alum had walked into a fourth class room, the residents would be at attention within seconds and the “sirs” would be flying like birds on a high wire.
Finally, before the football game and other class-specific events, we headed to Arnold Hall to listen to a briefing from the Superintendent on what was going on at the academy. Literally, one of the first things we heard was, “Things are not as tough as they used to be.”
Really? Ya think? was my immediate reaction.
We were presented with an hour-long briefing about how cadets were being trained to be able to “function” within the bureaucracy of the regular Air Force. We heard all about the statistics of the institution—how many awards it had won, where it stood in the rankings against other colleges, how well the sports teams had done, et cetera, et cetera.
Not once did I hear the word warrior. In a flash, I got it. The academy was no longer training cadets to be Air Force warriors. They were no longer training to fight for our country and win wars. They were being trained to function in the bureaucracy. The academy was all about competing with civilian institutions in a variety of ways.
We heard about the new facilities that had been built. We heard all about the new honor chamber to discuss ethics. That happened to be the strange object poking out of the terrazzo.
When the briefing was over, I raised my hand. I had to ask the question. I simply said, “The discipline here no longer exists. Not once did I hear the word ‘warrior’ in your briefing. It seems the mission has changed. Were we no longer about ‘Fly, Fight, and Win?’”
The response I got was laced with derision at my wrong-headed thinking. “We are not here to haze people. They go to the lunch meal to eat, not get trained,” said the Superintendent, who was, by the way, in the first class of females to graduate from the academy. “We have theme rooms to talk about war,” said the commandant of cadets. Yes, he really said that. “We have mock funerals to talk about war.”
Excuse me, but what right do these new leaders of the institution have to throw away decades of training that had worked so splendidly to create warriors like Medal of Honor winner Lance Sijan, who crawled through a rock-filled landscape after being shot down in Vietnam for 46 days with compound fractures throughout his broken body until his bones protruded through his skin, only to escape twice before being killed by the enemy, all the while never giving up any classified information under torture? Do you think he learned that from a theme room? No, he learned that from a full year of military training and discipline, learning attention to detail, how not to quit, how to perform under pressure, day after day after day. That’s where he learned that.
It is obvious the Air Force Academy is no longer training warriors to lead men, or women, into battle. They are no longer into the type of training that created the greatest air force ever known to man. In fact, they are more interested in a military version of safe spaces and trigger warnings, so it seems.
As far as the other academies are concerned, I can’t speak for them. However, I have seen evidence of the same with pictures of black female cadets giving the black power salute, images of female cadets on their cell phone while marching, et cetera, et cetera.
President Obama did a very good job of weakening the institutions that made our military and country great. Military academies are not made to “compete” with other civilian universities. They have a special purpose. I very much hope President-Elect Trump and his appointees can reverse this pathetic trend. Our children’s future depends on it.
L. Todd Wood is an OpsLens contributor, a graduate of the U.S. Air Force Academy, flew special operations helicopters supporting SEAL Team 6, Delta Force and others. After leaving the military, he pursued his other passion, finance, spending 18 years on Wall Street trading emerging market debt, and later, writing. The first of his many thrillers is “Currency.” Todd is a national security columnist for The Washington Times and has contributed to Fox Business, Newsmax TV, Moscow Times, the New York Post, the National Review, Zero Hedge, The Jerusalem Post, and others. For more information about L. Todd Wood, visit LToddWood.com.
http://opslens.com/2017/01/17/usafa-training-pc-culture-obama-administration/
He is obviously a die hard military guy thinking this military is something more than a murdering force around the world. I get the part about respect and all. When was the last time this guy could even name 1 “war” that was legit? Basically the guy is a doof, military to wall st, come on.
Again, the point about training and discipline I completely get was the point of the article, just looking beyond the surface to the more pertinent point.
Katie, So true! These old military guards are brainwashed zombies who had their brains sucked out of their heads by the Zionists and their gentile lackeys who formulated the education system we grew up in, it was inundated with propaganda and falsehoods. All of the teachers and politicians had shit for brains. They all lived in and promoted the lying matrix they created.
Agreed, Katie.
Besides, we don’t want “warriors” in today’s US military. We want sissies, especially in the ground forces. After all, it’s the standing army that poses the principal threat to our freedom, just as the Founders warned.
True national defense is based on weapons like ICBMs and submarines, anyway. It doesn’t take any toughness to operate those systems.
The armed citizen who seeks to defend the Bill of Rights — THAT is who needs to be a warrior. He needs to be in the best possible physical condition, extremely skilled with weapons, and above all, unafraid to fight against impossible odds.
“Besides, we don’t want “warriors” in today’s US military. We want sissies, especially in the ground forces. After all, it’s the standing army that poses the principal threat to our freedom, just as the Founders warned.”
Perfectly said, BMF, and exactly what I was thinking. The weaker the better.
In Trump’s Inagual Parade the Air Force unit didn’t have bolts in their rifles. Everyone elds did, Not them. That struck me as ODD.
When a Piliot Ejects and has to beat feet to get back to his own lines he is going to be fighting on the ground. when an airfield gets attacked Airmen are expected to pick up a dang rifle and repel borders.
On my most recent AF deployment to Afghanistan in 2014, our group inbrief was addressed by the AF Commander, an O-5. He was a fighter pilot by trade. His OCP Patrol cap was faded, a touch grimey, and shaped by hands that projected he meant business. He talked about killing our enemies. Several days later my roommate and I caught up to him cooling down from a P/T run as were we and we introduced ourselves. Referencing our inbriefing, we commented to him that it was nice to hear a Warrior speak about killing our enemies versus shaping their minds. There is certainly a place for that, but working on the intended impact area for the enemies rockets and mortars is not that place. I hope that man made it through the Obama years and is still a Leader in the AF.
*** Referencing our inbriefing, we commented to him that it was nice to hear a Warrior speak about killing our enemies versus shaping their minds. ***
I’m a US citizen living in America. How are any of the Afghan people my enemy?
Is the Taliban raping the Bill of Rights? Are they imprisoning millions of your fellow Americans for victimless crimes? Are they imposing gun control in places like NYC and CA? Are they spending billions of dollars to warrantlessly spy on Americans?
No, they are not. Yet that government you serve is doing all these things and more. If anyone is fighting to protect and defend the US Constitution (remember that oath you guys took?), it’s the AFGHANS. They’ve been resisting the US federal government — the REAL enemy of the Constitution, as described above — by causing it to expend massive funds and resources. Ironic, huh?
Going further, about how many Americans do the Taliban kill each year outside of Afghanistan? The only Americans the Afghans want to kill are those who are occupying their country. They have every right to feel that way, and I’d be doing the same thing if I were in their shoes.
Is your moral compass so broken or nonexistent that you believe someone is your enemy just because your “superiors,” or politicians, or the media told you so?
As for your O-5, he is not a “warrior,” but only a bloodthirsty thug. Since when does a “warrior” launch airstrikes in a faraway country against people who have no air defenses?
I’m not saying war needs to be fair to be ethical. If America were invaded by a weaker force, anything we did to repel the invasion would be justified. However, SEEKING OUT and initiating a fight on foreign soil, with a much weaker opponent who poses no military threat, is not honorable and is not the conduct of a real warrior. It’s cowardice. And “just following orders” is no excuse.
People who are willing to kill others solely on the order of kings, dictators, and puppet politicians have been the cause of enormous suffering in this world since the dawn of humanity. I hope you sleep well at night.
Bravo!!
My nephew attended and graduated from the AFA. When he told me they had Walid Shoebat as a guest lecturer AND were impressed by him I knew what that place was all about.
“Open up wide, you gotta a heapin’ spoonful of Vietnam were gonna jam down your throats” is what I heard growing up. For God, country, and all the businesses reaping billions off the big lie. “Honest Businessman”? There’s no such thing when it comes to government work.
“We’re just robbing our grandchildren’s future” cause we can and will, be it our nature. Those 23 strands of DNA apparently forgot the self-preservation gene and doubled down on the mass extinction, world ending, bang to end all bangs, gene. Hey, we do gene-splicing now, are we God? We must think so stirring the soup as such.
There has never been any warriors in the military, they are SOLDIERS, contracted, paid and equipment by government. Warriors are simply professional fighters, they pick and choose their loyalty day by day because they are not contracted.