If one were to poll the fleet several years ago for the one single trait that defined most USNA grads, ‘Arrogance’ would probably lead the list. Admiral Fowler recognized this and, when he checked on board, commenced a push for “confidence with humility”, the term I think he used. Where does this attitude come from and why does it appear to be worse at USNA than the other two S As? I don’t think the training one receives contributes to it. However, first off, I feel that location plays a role. Annapolis is a fish bowl. USNA is it’s prime tourist attraction. Midshipmen are paraded to the nation’s tourist as something special. Some eighteen year olds cannot handle this. Being special goes to their head.
Now to the comment on this thread. They have just completed six weeks of training. Six weeks that no one in reasonable physical shape with a modicum of drive could not complete. Six weeks that is different, but no more difficult, than hundreds of thousands of young men and women accomplish every year at each of the military service’s basic training. Six weeks that begin a journey, not end it.
I feel that parents, from hometown news releases to plebe summer care packages to kowtowing to their every desire contributes to this feeling of their thinking they are something special. For the parents who have offspring in both a SA and StateU, how many of the SA ones are ‘jealous’ , for lack of a better word, of the attention that their StateU sibling receives? Vice versa?
The ultimate outcome of this is, of course, their peers, once they get into the fleet, thinking they are arrogant. Also, one of the issues that Admiral Fowler was facing was that sense of entitlement which caused midshipmen, among many other things, to, wearing nothing but Speedos and cowboy boots, think that it was perfectly acceptable to harass female passengers on a spring break Caribbean cruise.
Just my opinion and something to keep in mind when you have flown 3000 miles to feel that you are obligated only to watch your offspring drool on a pillow.