In terms of training, this is a message I received from Group Training Staff (I am in my Squadron Training Staff):
"The reason the Comm is having every squad sign the form about hazing is because the Vice Comm heard rumor of a training session that included bed drills where the training staff was not also doing bed drills. Additionally this went until 0715, meaning the 4-degrees did not have time to eat. If that did happen, that is hazing; The punishment is disenrollment. If someone is suspected of hazing, their AOC will be in the Comm's office in service dress. The AOC will then walk through the allegations with the Commandant. If they both still believe it was hazing, that person will be disenrolled. Please do not get caught hazing; TO's are the bastion between a professional military and a regular college. We need you to stay in your job and follow the rules. We are fighting for you to get more freedom; we cannot do that if we are constantly being accused of hazing violations."
While I understand that hazing is not ok, the stretch of the definition of hazing has become almost a joke at this point. Can anyone tell me any kind of military training that is not hazing? Because apparently bed drills (having C4Cs remake beds due to infractions) is hazing if the Training Staff are not also doing so. LOL!
This is not the only thing considered hazing. Consider this year's training ROEs, or at least some of my personal favorites:
- "Assigning remedial training to an entire group based on the deficiencies of an individual or a few individuals" - because nothing screams teamwork more than "if you mess up, i don't care because i won't be punished!"
- "Requiring all Four-Degrees in a squadron to indiscriminately move rooms by a set timeline" - I guess having flexibility isn't the key to airpower after all.
- "Cadet Military Training events will not be designed with the primary objective to reach physical conditioning goals." - obviously, USAF doesn't have a fitness problem. at all.
- "While conducting calisthenics... cadets shall not conduct more than 3 sets of each exercise. Each set shall not exceed 1 minute of work and shall be immediately followed by a period of rest equivalent to the period of work (1:1 ratio of work to rest)." - when you are in a war, you won't have to do physical activity longer than a minute.
- "If a low/high crawl event is incorporated [in training], all cadets (including upper class cadets) at the training event will conduct the low/high crawl, unless on a medical profile." - because it's clearly maltraining if you don't do it with them. Once a freshman, always a freshman. You just get to decide what the group does.
- "Cadets will not conduct the low or high crawl in snow or on wet, uneven, or rocky terrain." - after he escaped from a POW camp in Vietnam, Capt Lance P. Sijan only had to low crawl on a field flatter than Kansas. And when his captors tried to catch him, they had to low crawl too, because otherwise that wouldn't be fair!
- "At no time will the weight of the ruck exceed 20% of the individual's body weight." - when you are carrying survival equipment on a deployment, it'll never be heavier than (1/5)*[your body weight]. God takes care of the rest. Hope you can call in that 9-line, because you definitely won't have anything weighing more than a few books to help medically!
- "Lunges are not authorized indoors." - I can't find of a reason for this, not even a comical one unfortunately.
- "Squadrons are not authorized to require cadets to complete pushups/sit-ups upon entering/exiting the squadron area." - because we definitely don't have a fitness problem in USAF, and especially not at USAFA! How dare you suggest such a thing!
I have to finish a presentation for a class tomorrow, but my list could go on and on and on. Keep in mind that this doesn't include the unwritten rules that you can get in trouble for. Any physical training, bed drills, and supermans (rapid changing of uniforms due to infractions) must be done with the C4Cs.
Some squads are able to get away with doing real training, but it relies on a strong band of trust between upperclassmen and freshmen. If anyone spills, even unintentionally, it's GAME OVER for the training staff, the squad comm, and likely the AOC career-wise.
In short, USAFA leadership is asking Training staff to do their jobs with not one, but two hands tied behind their backs. And blindfolded too. It all reminds me of a story my Ac Advisor told me last year. When he was going through OTS, the MTIs were not allowed to yell at them because, for a very short while, yelling was deemed to be maltreatment. Doesn't that sound like a complete joke? That's what USAFA has turned into: a joke. Its remaining pillar left standing is academics, and sorry, but a lot of colleges besides USAFA do just as well or better in that field.
What's the purpose behind all of this? Well, we had some very *iconic* meetings with General Marks (who has only briefed us a total of 2 or 3 times... he's the least visible Commandant that I have witnessed so far) and many on Wing Staff were able to elicit that the main reason for so many C4C ROE changes was that "we aren't in Vietnam anymore, and we shouldn't be preparing freshmen to be in POW camps." Not kidding, that is word for word what one of my friends on Wing Staff told me. Because we totally aren't headed for near-peer conflict in the near future! Ah, yes, I remember... the US can't be in a near-peer conflict because we already had a War to end all Wars. So there isn't a risk of any POW camps, right? And we aren't ill-prepared for what a POW camp would look like, right?
I guess I am the spitting image of a fed-up, negative cadet... but I'm not the only one. Recent results from our DEOCS survey - the results of which were completely invalidated because we were coerced to take it by the Commandant by allowing those who took it to wear civvies to class on a few days - showed that morale across the wing had dropped some 30%. On top of that, several changes have been announced regarding future Training ROEs, a likely scrapping of Recognition altogether, and a new cadet pass system. All of these were wildly unpopular, but their impact could not be shown in the DEOCS because the survey deadline closed before the Commandant briefed us about them.
I simply refuse to accept that this is the way USAFA has been in the past. Sure, it may be a pendulum swing, but I highly doubt the pendulum has ever swung this far. This place is a shadow of a shell of what it used to be.