scoutpilot
10-Year Member
- Joined
- Apr 29, 2010
- Messages
- 4,479
Let's be honest with ourselves, people...
When cadets and midshipmen go to an academy, they do not transform into 45-year-old parents with 401(k)s and sensible shoes. They are not imbued with limitless maturity and a predisposition to be "Minnesota nice." They're kids. They're KIDS. They're college students. All that blather about "they're 18 and they're adults" aside, they are young kids who get amped up about good football games. This fact emcompasses ALL the academies. The misbehavior that occurred is something that happens at every single academy football showdown. We did rowdy and reprehensible stuff to the mids. They did it to us. The Air Force kids were no different.
Endlessly on this forum I see parents and adults demand some ownership of the cadet experience, as though these kids' sole purpose is to strut around as showpieces for the gentry--little toy soldiers for their parents to brag about at church socials. The fact is that it's not about the parents (you) or the grads (me, Mongo, etc.). It's about the KIDS and the long road to officership. That road is full of potholes and poor choices. It's how people learn. The SA experience is a four-year crucible of development. Part of that development is making mistakes and being punished for them.
When cadets/mids get together, they are hard on one another. They do rough and rowdy things to one another. It's not always laudible or right or fit for public consumption. But the rancor and hard knocks only exist because of the shared experience of being an academy cadet/mid. You don't see Air Force doing it TCU cheerleaders, or Army doing it to Temple frat boys, or Navy getting rowdy with Georgia Southern students, do you? No, you do not. Those people are of no consequence to academy kids other than as opposing fans. Academy kids are rough on one another because they are brethren in the profession of arms--a profession which by its nature resonates with type-A go-getters who don't back down from a fight.
Is it right or commendable? No, of course not. They'll be punished (or should be). It's one of the unfortunate but predictable side effects of training kids to be combat leaders, amping them up about a big rivalry, and then cramming them together in the heat of the moment.
But to say things like "consider me briefed on the ways of the Air Force Academy" is sad and myopic. Did they misbehave? Sure. Just don't go about fooling yourself that Navy and Army don't do the very same things.
When cadets and midshipmen go to an academy, they do not transform into 45-year-old parents with 401(k)s and sensible shoes. They are not imbued with limitless maturity and a predisposition to be "Minnesota nice." They're kids. They're KIDS. They're college students. All that blather about "they're 18 and they're adults" aside, they are young kids who get amped up about good football games. This fact emcompasses ALL the academies. The misbehavior that occurred is something that happens at every single academy football showdown. We did rowdy and reprehensible stuff to the mids. They did it to us. The Air Force kids were no different.
Endlessly on this forum I see parents and adults demand some ownership of the cadet experience, as though these kids' sole purpose is to strut around as showpieces for the gentry--little toy soldiers for their parents to brag about at church socials. The fact is that it's not about the parents (you) or the grads (me, Mongo, etc.). It's about the KIDS and the long road to officership. That road is full of potholes and poor choices. It's how people learn. The SA experience is a four-year crucible of development. Part of that development is making mistakes and being punished for them.
When cadets/mids get together, they are hard on one another. They do rough and rowdy things to one another. It's not always laudible or right or fit for public consumption. But the rancor and hard knocks only exist because of the shared experience of being an academy cadet/mid. You don't see Air Force doing it TCU cheerleaders, or Army doing it to Temple frat boys, or Navy getting rowdy with Georgia Southern students, do you? No, you do not. Those people are of no consequence to academy kids other than as opposing fans. Academy kids are rough on one another because they are brethren in the profession of arms--a profession which by its nature resonates with type-A go-getters who don't back down from a fight.
Is it right or commendable? No, of course not. They'll be punished (or should be). It's one of the unfortunate but predictable side effects of training kids to be combat leaders, amping them up about a big rivalry, and then cramming them together in the heat of the moment.
But to say things like "consider me briefed on the ways of the Air Force Academy" is sad and myopic. Did they misbehave? Sure. Just don't go about fooling yourself that Navy and Army don't do the very same things.