Naval Academy Looking at Cruise Behavior

[USNA69]

The infamous forum:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=525081

some hilarious posts; good, bad, and ugly.
Just firing rumors.

Some posts from it (biased of course):

We were on that cruise & encountered the group of naval cadets. First let me say this was a party cruise filled mostly with spring breakers, families and young adults. There were very few seniors on the ship. We met the midshipmen our very first day. They were fun and flirty but not in an offensive way. There were only two in speedos, the one with the cowboy hat and boots was alot of fun. He posed for pictures with everyone, young and old. On our formal night everyone wanted their picture taken with him. The other one in the speedo with the shaved head told us he was no longer in the naval academy. We heard from other people that he was crude and obnoxious. I wonder if this is the individual the complaint is about. We sat near them and they behaved just like all the other 20 somethings. Now we did see some parties with the college kids on decks but it wasn't out of hand. There was an underaged girl who got drunk with alot of the spring breakers, and her parents were yelling at the 'villans' for getting their daughter drunk but she was no innocent. Everytime her parents weren't around she was with a different guy. It was our soap opera for all of us sitting on the lido deck. I wish the person who wrote this article had two sides to the story. From what our family saw these midshipmen were just having fun. As someone else posted previously, they were certainly nice to look at too. I hope they don't get in trouble for this.

Could I point out the above comment please: "they were certainly nice to look at too"?
And from the same poster:

Let's see, there were approximately 3,000 cruisers on the Glory. Let's say half of them were women. Why is there only one complaint? Don't forget the shaved head speedo guy told us he was kicked out of the academy. I wonder what this women's motivation was behind all this? These guys were just having the same fun everyone else was on the ship. I certainly never saw anyone look disgusted at them. If anything, everyone always had a good chuckle about them. This thing has blown way out of proportion.

There are so many cameras in the public areas on ships, why wasn't any of this caught on tape? Possibily, this occurred in a stateroom. Perhaps this explains there isn't more corobarting testimony other than this one person

I was a passenger on this famous trip. The first day at sea the "boys" came up to me and my daughters dressed in their Speedos and Cowboy hat. Obnoxious, but hardly any different from any other spring breaker-drunks. Offered to take a picture for us, made some comments about my girls being "hotties". I asked him if he got a deal on his bathing suit...maybe 1/2 off ? He didn't get it! My point is that they were definitely not the worst behaved 20 somethings on the cruise.

 

[USNA69]

This is the thread where philydude makes the comment that Olson quoted in the BS. Page 5 includes Olson's request, calling himself a Naval Academy reporter, for more dirt. What follows is a hilarious lambasting he receives for not having a life.

One poster even stated that the guys in the speedos were the gay ship's band. So maybe there was some mistaken indentity. From the women's posts, it sounds like the only pissed off passengers might be jealous husbands whose wives were ogling the eye candy.

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=519245

 

[USNA69]

From this morning's Washington Post:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/31/AR2007033100225.html

It look's as if, indeed, the Baltimore Sun screwed up again. This was the same guy who, after the Army-Navy game, quoted web forum sources as to Navy's marching abilities. Good responsible reporting.

No misconduct and no crimes. I would surmise that both unwanted physical advances toward the opposite sex and offering alcohol to minors would be considered a crime so both these charges by the BS were unfounded. If the Academy starts discharging mids for being immature, I suppose that given four years of close observation, there would be very few left to graduate.

Gotta go to the post office this morning. I think I will stick my head in Food Lion and look on their news stand to see if they are selling the Baltimore Sun immediately adjacent to the National Inquirer. They ought to fire this guy.

 

[Zaphod]

The preliminary review was based on statements from the midshipmen and other people on the cruise, the academy said. One woman on the cruise wrote an e-mail to the academy saying she and other women were groped.

"I was 'felt up' by one of the very drunk men and I was given the misfortune of watching them grab and disrespect every woman they could get close to as well as seeing them offer underage (15 and 17 year old) girls at our table alcohol," she wrote in the e-mail, which was obtained by The (Baltimore) Sun, which first reported the story Tuesday.

Maybe they should be filing charges of libel and slander against the twit who wrote the e-mail.

 

[USNA69]

Maybe they should be filing charges of libel and slander against the twit who wrote the e-mail.

How about them filing charges against the BS instead.

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/lo...utq01apr01,1,3417418.story?ctrack=3&cset=true

The Sun publishes a story based on an unsubtantiated email ten days after the fact corroborated with anonymous internet forum posts, all which turn out to be false and misleading. Then, to propel their standards to a low one could not even previously imagine, asks the public how these midshipmen should be punished. Now the Sun will select letters from that portion of the public who was so gullible as to believe their original drivel and, to continue the muckraking, post them. Absolutely amazing. I take back what I said about comparing them to the National Enquirer. They wouldn't stoop so low.


Olson's AIM address is usnareporter. USNA should also sue for defamation of character.

 

[Zaphod]

This is the thread where philydude makes the comment that Olson quoted in the BS.

You got a link which doesn't require us to register? Now you've got me worked up.

 

[USNA69]

You got a link which doesn't require us to register? Now you've got me worked up.

Apparently the entire thread has been deleted. Or moved to a restricted area. I registered and still cannot find it anymore.

I responded to the "punishment" request. Can't wait til Sunday to see if he includes my blast.

 

[USNA69]

I responded to the BS request for readers to submit what they considered fair punishment for the USNA cruise ship offenders. They just called. They are going to print it. This is my letter:

Your newspaper's standards have reached a new low. Bradley Olson has taken unsubstantiated rumors confirmed by anynomous website forum sources and, with no facts, has attempted to smear the Academy.

What is an even more ludicrous attempt at your paper to reach an even greater low, you have asked your readers, who have not been presented any facts at all, to determine "punishment" for these offenders. Just because you can write stories without facts does not give you the right to ask your readers to reach conclusions based on the same lack of facts.

You owe journalism, which I am not sure you even know anything about, an apology.

Somehow, I feel like I am being set up to be skewered.

 

[app ma]

Fighting the good fight is rarely easy. Don't give up the ship!