That picture tells me he checks all the boxes. We will learn one day that there is much more to his behavior..
What is the report on Fleming this month? What is he doing to stay productive?
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That picture tells me he checks all the boxes. We will learn one day that there is much more to his behavior..
What is the report on Fleming this month? What is he doing to stay productive?
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These kids get hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars invested in them to do a job that they volunteered to do. Choosing to get a free education and guaranteed job isn't some honorable choice deserving of thanks. The military is a job, and service academy graduates are compensated very well for doing that job.He sleeps under the blanket of freedom these kids provide and then questions the manner in which they provide it. I’m sure they’d rather he just said “thank you” and went on his way.
.It costs 4 times more to produce an officer at a service academy compared to through ROTC. It costs 8 times more to produce an officer through ROTC rather than OCS.
Taxpayers are not spending $400,000 dollars to send a kid to UVA. If that were true UVA would be costing tax payers nearly 7 billion dollars a year ($400000*16777 students = $6710800000). Find a stat that suggests this to be the case. There are hundreds, if not over a thousand, colleges in the United States. If every school cost $400,000 in tax payer dollars to produce one graduate, then more than the entire national budget would be going towards sending kids to school, and we still wouldn't' have enough money send everyone to school..It costs 4 times more to produce an officer at a service academy compared to through ROTC. It costs 8 times more to produce an officer through ROTC rather than OCS.
You are mixing fruit. Go look at the Accounting Books at UVA and any other comparable education. In terms of operating costs per student, the SAs are not any more expensive than these comparable public and private institutions. Tax payers, Institutional funding & investment accounts, and to smaller extent, tuition, keep all these places going.
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People on a service academy forum likely value those things far more than the average taxpayer. Most of the civilians I've talked to have never even heard of West Point, much less care about its continued existence.There are also the intangibles of a service academy. That cannot be valued monetarily. Foreign dignitaries, international goodwill, American pride, historical significance, ambassadors for our military. They are living, breathing museums of our history. I personally can’t imagine them ever doing away with the service academies.
Can't speak for USNA, but below is a quote from the USAFA website.So many variables... Does it really cost the taxpayer $400,000 for a USNA education, or is that estimated value? Should the monthly stipend be included? After all, it is compensation, not scholarship money. Medical costs---what's the estimated value vs the real dollar cost to taxpayers? What about taxpayer subsidies given to civilian colleges? Is that cost added to the value of an ROTC education in these reports? After all, that is still a real cost to the taxpayer. How many civilian colleges have a yard patrol?
If you want to judge officer by their military accomplishments, then service academy grads fall short of OCS and ROTC grads. Service academy grads have lower retention rates because they have more lucritive options in the civilian sector than their OCS and ROTC counterparts. There is also no evidence to suggest that service academy grads outperform their OCS and ROTC counterparts. ROTC and OCS officers are staying in longer and performing just as well as service academy grads.As far as the USMA notables listed in the Wikipedia page... Are we to judge 'notables' by their post-military accomplishments? The purpose of a SA is to produce top-notch officers, not famous people.
What is URL?How many SA grads go URL vs ROTC? Maybe it is the same. I do not know.
Your valuation of OCS is totally an apples to Antifreeze comparison. Some time ago when something like this ended up in print, the onion was peeled back a bit and the ack of comparability was astonishing. The Service Academy cost was the TOTAL PAYROLL FACILITY cost associated with USNA and the Naval Station since (of course), they were all there to support the Naval Academy. On the other hand, the OCS cost was just the cost of the actual OCS payroll and costs that could be shown to be OCS like King Hall itself. This leaves out lots of expenses that are not directly attributable to OCS such as Ney Hall (dining), the gym, pool, medical facilities, etc which are shared with the other activities in Newport. Admissions for USNA are included in the USNA cost while Admissions for OCS are part of Navy Recruiting Command and not easily connected. Of course, OCS is cheaper, it is twelve weeks as opposed to four years.Can't speak for USNA, but below is a quote from the USAFA website.So many variables... Does it really cost the taxpayer $400,000 for a USNA education, or is that estimated value? Should the monthly stipend be included? After all, it is compensation, not scholarship money. Medical costs---what's the estimated value vs the real dollar cost to taxpayers? What about taxpayer subsidies given to civilian colleges? Is that cost added to the value of an ROTC education in these reports? After all, that is still a real cost to the taxpayer. How many civilian colleges have a yard patrol?
https://www.academyadmissions.com/commitment/
"An Academy education is valued at more than $416,000, yet we offer it at no cost to our cadets. All that is required in return is your commitment to serve as an officer in the Air Force."
It doesn't matter how many variables there are if it is blatantly clear that the academies are far more expensive than OCS. Sure, the true cost of sending a person to the academy might be $416,000 +/- $100,000. It still doesn't matter. OCS is 32x cheaper, barely costing over $10,000 to produce one graduate. Unless you are arguing that the cost of producing a service academy graduate is $416,000 +/- $406,000, then there is no overlap between the costs of these two commissioning sources. OCS is cheaper every single time, and because that is the case, it does not matter if I cannot give you an exact true cost of sending someone to a service academy.
I find it somewhat shocking that a First Class Midshipman would not know what URL was.What is URL?
I was kinda wondering about that...I find it somewhat shocking that a First Class Midshipman would not know what URL was.What is URL?
I'm at USMA at that isn't a thing here.I find it somewhat shocking that a First Class Midshipman would not know what URL was.What is URL?
Your valuation of OCS is totally an apples to Antifreeze comparison. Some time ago when something like this ended up in print, the onion was peeled back a bit and the ack of comparability was astonishing. The Service Academy cost was the TOTAL PAYROLL FACILITY cost associated with USNA and the Naval Station since (of course), they were all there to support the Naval Academy. On the other hand, the OCS cost was just the cost of the actual OCS payroll and costs that could be shown to be OCS like King Hall itself. This leaves out lots of expenses that are not directly attributable to OCS such as Ney Hall (dining), the gym, pool, medical facilities, etc which are shared with the other activities in Newport. Admissions for USNA are included in the USNA cost while Admissions for OCS are part of Navy Recruiting Command and not easily connected. Of course, OCS is cheaper, it is twelve weeks as opposed to four years.Can't speak for USNA, but below is a quote from the USAFA website.So many variables... Does it really cost the taxpayer $400,000 for a USNA education, or is that estimated value? Should the monthly stipend be included? After all, it is compensation, not scholarship money. Medical costs---what's the estimated value vs the real dollar cost to taxpayers? What about taxpayer subsidies given to civilian colleges? Is that cost added to the value of an ROTC education in these reports? After all, that is still a real cost to the taxpayer. How many civilian colleges have a yard patrol?
https://www.academyadmissions.com/commitment/
"An Academy education is valued at more than $416,000, yet we offer it at no cost to our cadets. All that is required in return is your commitment to serve as an officer in the Air Force."
It doesn't matter how many variables there are if it is blatantly clear that the academies are far more expensive than OCS. Sure, the true cost of sending a person to the academy might be $416,000 +/- $100,000. It still doesn't matter. OCS is 32x cheaper, barely costing over $10,000 to produce one graduate. Unless you are arguing that the cost of producing a service academy graduate is $416,000 +/- $406,000, then there is no overlap between the costs of these two commissioning sources. OCS is cheaper every single time, and because that is the case, it does not matter if I cannot give you an exact true cost of sending someone to a service academy.
By the way, your comment that retention is lower is based on one sentence in an article with zero backup. I've seen many other analysis in the past that conflict with this which makes it appear that there is some cherry picked data. A fairly substantial number of officers are commissioned via the LDO program and they have very high retention rates - largely because they are much closer to retirement. Go ahead and give side by side specifics for OCS, ROTC and USNA and you'll see a different result. Also, in the vein of cherrypicking, there is a big difference between looking at 7 or 8 yrs after commissioning versus how many stay to 20 and beyond between USNA, OCS and ROTC.
Can't speak for USNA, but below is a quote from the USAFA website.
https://www.academyadmissions.com/commitment/
"An Academy education is valued at more than $416,000, yet we offer it at no cost to our cadets. All that is required in return is your commitment to serve as an officer in the Air Force."