This is truly disappointing to me...
jaspardog,
Our son had 5 dozen homemade chocolate chip oatmeal cookies made by his best male and female friend kept by his CTO after acceptance day, never to be seen again...and other treats were going through... I'm hoping the boodle boxes our State Parents Association put together went thru. I think I would've heard about it from the co Prez if they hadn't.
KP2013dramamama:
I'm putting on my over proud alumni hat as I write this as when I put my parent hat on I'll rant about it even more. I have no doubt things like this occur in today's regiment at Kings Point. IMO, it's symptomatic of two issues: 1) the fact that too much emphasis is put "on the regiment" by some members of the current upper-class; and 2) the reorganization of the regiment to REDUCE the number of Midshipman Officer billets so that more mature, moderate, and truly worthy individuals are the only ones who should and will get those assignments is long overdue.
Why do I say these two things. I base my opinion/conclusion relative to #1 on a couple of things - a) the number of folks going "active duty" has steadily increased over the past few years for a variety of reasons and this has led some folks, including that group of Midshipmen in the current regiment, to feel that KP is more a "military academy" then a maritime or service academy. As such they feel obtaining boards their first class year is going to be a help to their future military careers, etc. As such. they IMO therefore seek them for the wrong reasons and use them improperly. b) Over the prior ten years the number of Midshipmen Officer Billets was increased as was the involvement of the third and second class (post-indoctrination) in the administration and conduct of the regimental training program, one of just three key aspects of Midshipmen Life at the Academy. This has resulted in increased opportunities for those some usually improperly motivated and often immature subgroup of First Classmen to be placed in those positions of authority. My prime example of this occurred last year - I obtained a forwarded copy of an email from a CTO to their Company's Plebes that was basically supposed to be a directive, an order, it was laced with four letter words, it demeaned and deprecated their efforts through that point (this was during the Second Trimester) and it threatened them. Basically, it read like it came from an illiterate gang member. To be sure Capt. Arnold my Plebe English professor and a West Pointer himself wouldn't have been the least bit amused or any less displeased than I, that someone could have gotten through 3+ years as what i) looked like a functional illiterate, and even more disturbingly ii) was a belief that leading through both demotivation and intimidation, as well as trying to "mail in" that leadership electronically. What happened to this first rotation CTO? Were they counseled or coached as it's my understanding they regularly sent such directives, etc and everyone including the CO knew it? Not at all, the next rotation they became the CC of a different company. Truly a sad comment on the way the regiment was being run and how big a job Capt Fell and RADM Worley have to turn things around and ensure they are running a program that trains leaders and not caricatures of USMC Drill Instructors ala Hollywood.
These actions you describe which IMO are the current First Class or at least those in regimental leadership positions taking themselves way too seriously and taking Class Rates way too far and for too long, are truly symptoms of the above problems in this year's incarnations. I can say it's truly disappointing for me to see, when I know the First Classmen in the Class of 1979, especially those like RADM Mark Buzby USN - current CO of MSC, never acted nor considered acting this way to my Class - 1982, let alone the Class of 1981 or 1980 or any of their peers, when we were Plebes. I think one of the biggest problems/missing parts of the whole thing is that since this problem has grown over time, no one from the Class of 2007 was probably the person whose name the current Class of 2010 can and does insert in the blank when they ask themselves "What would ___________ do in this situation?" and even worse from what I see there are few if any of the current of the staff of Commissioned Officers they feel thinking that way about.
I continue to hope and believe that the path Capt. Fell is driving down will rectify this over time, but frankly don't see it having a real affect until at least another year or two have passed. From what I've seen and heard so far I believe that Capt. Fell was and is a great choice as permanent Commandant of Midshipmen and is really properly motivated, almost surprisingly so for an Annapolis grad