From: Aaron Thrush Amthrush@aol.com

Subject: Meeting With Dean of Faculty on June 6

Date: Fri 5/31/2002 8:49 AM

Hi Ace:

In case you and Louise are interested in driving over to FWB, I wanted to let you know that the current USAFA Dean of Faculty, B/G Wagie (Class of ' 72), will be providing a USAFA update and answering questions on Thursday, June 6, from 5:30 P.M. TO 7:00 P.M. at the Eglin O'Club in the Sandbar (right side of bldg. as you face it). Spouses are welcome, dress is casual; and "free" finger food and beer plus soft drinks will be provided. A bowl at the entrance will also be provided to allow all to throw in a few buck to pay for the $175 "free" refreshments. Sorry for the late notice, but USAFA only recently told us. The Dean and 5 (four grads, 1 nongrad) Professors and Heads of Depts are visiting Eglin and Hurlburt to reacquaint themselves with the "real" Air Force in order to turn out graduates better able to meet Air Force needs. They asked us via e-mail if local grads (400 plus?) would like to have an update complete with a Q and A session. We accepted and are now trying to avoid embarrassment by having more than 5 to 10 grads turn out to grill the Dean.

In case you haven't heard any (or all) of the recent controversies surrounding our esteemed alma mater, I'm including a e-mail from our classmate, Bill Carnegie, who let me know some of the background. Please pass the word to anyone else within driving distance that you know and have them e-mail me by Tuesday, June 4, at midnight if they are reasonably sure that they will attend. If we have over 50 who plan to attend we'll need to order more calamari and clams (j/k about the menu). Both Frank Gorham and Don Stevens plan to attend. Tony Jones will not be coming and I haven't heard from Karl Jones. By the way, do check out our local AOG Chapter website at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NWF_AOG The promised e-mail follows:


Aaron:

These are my own comments of course. At earlier luncheons Tony had discussed the honor code and Carns report then in progress. This last meeting was fueled by the Colorado Springs non grad Colonel sending George Fries several articles from the Colorado Springs Gazette.

As is typical with the media, an event happens and they pile on all the current or old crap to make the story bigger and more salable hence we end up discussing: drugs, embezzlement, entry standards, the honor code, and rapes. Now, except for sending cadets to jail this has all happened periodically.

Embezzlement: A cadet took several thousand dollars from a squadron fund. I was a little surprised to hear that this is not new. Anyway, it is a specific thing that can be taken care of with proper controls which should have been done before as a preventive measure.

Rapes: This particular thing happened when a woman cadet told a friend in C. Springs something and the friend went to a local doctor and asked questions. The local doctor was an academy doctor moonlighting and the information got back to the administration. I really don't know the particulars, but this seems to be one of these things that will be happening every now and then no matter what you do, although it would be nice to know that it is being addressed.

Drugs: Their was a ring selling ecstasy and this was taken care of with cadets going to jail. However, of course this carried over into the honor code due to the toleration clause.

Entry standards: This unfortunately is a separate issue, not new, that is taking place at the same time as these others. A training command study was done and the results were leaked to the press before the study was presented to the academy. This fact in itself has outraged Mike Loh and the rest of us since it shows internal dirty tricks in the AF. To me this seems like something that needs to be addressed, and we should get some communication about it. I, myself, knew athletes got privileges but thought they worked harder than the rest of us (if that was possible) and it did not bother me at all. However this study seems to show a trend of volume in the wrong direction which should be addressed as well as the fact that evidently the current feeling among cadets is that there is a two tier social class, athletes and others and that athletes are being favored too much. This is a bad situation. This also brought up that the academy in trying to get squadron loyalty has had it backfire and lower academy loyalty by replacing it with the squadron loyalty. This would be bad and would need addressing as well.

Honor Code: It was interesting for me to sit and watch Tony who is passionate about cadets and the honor code, and Mike Loh who sits slouched in his chair until coming out with a curt specific recommendation which of course was not the accepted solution. Tony and Mike feel that the honor code should go back completely to the cadets in order to get the lawyers out of the loop (Mikes term: Kill the lawyers, a literal phrase of course). Tony would rather see them go back to the UCMJ for four years and then go back to the honor code so as to clear the current cadets and their thinking out of the system.

What I learned from Al Rogers is that there seems to be some snickering from West Point and that other place at USAFA and our current problems. He mentioned that they both had had to have a four star come in and clean up. There was some talk about 'reflection of society' meaning the current administration is too soft. As to me reflection of society must be taken into account. I have followed history in sort of 10 year gaps since my grandfather came to Detroit in 1889 and left a diary. There has been great gradual change and to not discuss changes in attitude over the years would be missing a major point, and being inflexible would now work either.

Specifically our meeting really was a request for more communications so that we could be informed in a balanced manner, and a real statement by The generals and a couple of others as to why have a Carns report if the advice is not going to be taken. Al said of course there were differences of opinion and that the problems were being addressed. We will have to see.

The stated goal of the meeting was that Al was going to communicate with us about the goings on. That did not happen much; it was more of a brainstorming session. So, we will be waiting for more communications; hopefully more meat in Checkpoints, etc.


Here are Al's comments to the AOG.


Mark & Jim,

I spent two hours yesterday at a class '60 lunch at the invitation of Tony Burshnick. About twenty grads present, including Mike Loh, Tony, Leon Goodson, Bill Goodyear, and others. I presented a brief overview of Jim's AOG brief but their real interest was in the true health of USAFA and the cadet wing. Tony had passed out five or six articles from the Colorado Springs Gazette about cadets and drugs; embezzlement; entry standards; honor code; rapes etc. Thus a very thoughtful discussion ensued about what is really going on at USAFA. They were an extremely interested, passionate and knowledgeable group as they meet like this four or five times a year.

Below are some of there comments and observations about USAFA and the AOG:

The past 6-9 months there has been so much bad press about USAFA, what is really going on there? Is USAFA at a cross roads like USMA and USNA were when they had to bring in a retired four star to right the ship?

What happened to the Carns Report? Mike Loh served on a senior review group that reviewed the Carns Report and strongly endorsed the recommendations including the full return of the honor system to the cadets. He said that there were wholesale changes recommended, thoughtful good changes, and the impression that he and others are getting is that USAFA leadership is maintaining status quo, "Ho hum". He read from "Checkpoints" at the table that all that was being done was that the report was briefed to the wing, briefed to etc., briefed to etc.

The use of the reference to USAFA being a "reflection of society" caused great concern. Many felt that USAFA cadets are a better selection than society and that USAFA should lead society and not reflect it.

Many said that they do not have the real facts and story as to what is going on and what are the real changes that are being implemented to respond to and fix the problems around drugs, honor, rape, etc. They do not know how to respond to their friends, family, students etc. They do not have any feel for the benchmark data relative to USMA and USNA, is USAFA better, worse or the same?

Given their understanding of the problems, why did not any cadet expose the problem? Why did it take so long to discover these problems? Some think that there is an informal code at USAFA running in parallel with the published honor code.

USAFA is not responding to the problems correctly internally and is getting beat in the local and sometimes national press. What is the crisis media response game plan?

The AOG should be the most interested in group in what is really going on? The AOG should be a "Power" to be reckoned with and the AOG should push and demand explanations? AOG should be viewed as "advocating for the grads" and this would greatly help AOG credibility with the grads.

In sum, they felt that the fundamental problem was how USAFA leadership is dealing or not dealing with the problems.

On reflection, my recommendations are as follows:

Make these cadet issues above (drugs, rape, honor, embezzlement, media etc.) a major topic at the May BOD meeting.

Invite the Superintendent to address the topics to the BOD. What are the real facts?; what are the real specific actions being taken?; how does USAFA compare to the other academies on these issues?; what is the plan for the Carns Report recommendations?; what is the media game plan?

Discuss the best way for the AOG and BOD to be involved in major policy issues such as these for the future and how the AOG should keep the membership informed of the major issues and USAFA actions........on going policy and communication strategy

These thoughts are offered in the spirit of making both USAFA and AOG stronger.

best regards, al

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