VMI Cadet. April 15, 2011

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INDEPENDENTLY RUN BY CADETS SINCE 1907
The Cadet, student newspaper of the Virginia Military Institute, was estab­lished in the Fall of 1907 and has been continued since that time. Our news­paper is published every Friday after­noon during the academic year, except during Corps trips, holidays and exam periods. The Cadet offices are located in the Third Barracks Concourse .
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Postal Number: USP654-880
The Cadet is published week­ly by The News Gazette, 20 W Nelson, Lexington, VA, 24450.
SECTIONS
News.................... 1
Opinion................ 3
Sports.................. 4
Entertainment....... 5
VOLUME 104
ISSUE 22
FRIDAY, APRIL 15TH, 2011
$2.00
ONE OF THE
OLDEST COLLEGE NEWSPAPERS
2011
1907
Week in
Review
Entertainment
Sports
Features
“Wearing ducks?ducks..ducks..ducks..trousers with Grey Blouse since 1907“
See a preview of the first picks of the NFL Draft on page 4
Find out just how bad “Fri­day” can be on page 5Bro out with Cory Hend­ley in Morro­co on page 2
HONOR REGAINED
Part 2 of 3
By Sean McCauley ‘13
Cadet Guest Writer
By Christian Gore ‘13
Cadet News Writer
Continued on
Page 3
CADETS PARTICIPATE IN CORPS FTX
VMI’s most recent FTX week­end, which took place from April 1st to April 5th, represent­ed a large array of activities.
Army ROTC cadets spent their in the woods doing day and night land navigation, team building exercises, and a helicopter ride, among other things. According to Third Class­man, Chris Ralli, the helicopter ride was the main attraction. Ralli also described the classes on nine-line medical evacuation and claymores as “pretty cool.” The Army cadets did plenty of marching and took part in an hour long obstacle course, which Ralli said was “very hard, but also very cool.” Ralli’s favorite ad­jective, “very cool,” also described his experience with thermal imaging class on the third day of Army FTX.
On the opposite side of the spec­trum, the Naval ROTC midship­men spent time at sea in Norfolk, Va. They too got some “hands on” experience while testing flight, ship, and submarine simulators. Another third classman, David Eberhardt, noted that his favorite part, was tak­ing a tour of the ships in port. Eb­erhardt was less enthused about having to sit through NCIS briefs.
Back on post, Air Force cadets had their fair share of briefings as well. When asked about the briefings, Third Classman Justin Smith was appreciative of the non-commis­sioned officers who devoted their time to conducting the briefings. Smith commented that although the briefings on improvised explosive devices (IEDs) were interesting, it was a bit of information overload. Air Force cadets weren’t confined to the briefings in Mallory Hall, but were given the opportunity to try on the suits worn by non-commis­sioned explosive ordinance dispos­al (EOD) officers. Smith was grate­ful for the chance to wear the suit, as well as the fresh air. Day two of Air Force FTX was a real life ap­plication of the acquired information from the previous day. The cadets were guided through the woods by the EOD non-commissioned offi­cers and experienced, what Smith claimed to be, a “taste of what they [EOD] go through on a daily basis over seas.” As someone who par­ticipated in Air Force FTX week­end, I can agree with Smith that even though the briefings were a bit extensive, learning about the IEDs was very interesting, as was the opportunity to be taught by real EOD non- commissioned officers.
Meanwhile, cadets not affiliated with an ROTC department helped out with Special Olympics, the SPCA, cleaned up around post, and helped load boxes for tsuna­mi victims. One of the leaders of the Corps FTX weekend, Second Classman Richard Luck, described some of the on-post events as “un­needed” but he was very pleased with the positive attitudes of many of the cadets throughout the process.
According to Luck, helping out with the Special Olympics was the pe­rennial “fan favorite” amongst the cadets, and Luck was especially pleased with the cadets, who had previously not held leadership roles, that “stepped up to the plate.”
The Corps FTX involved a number of different service projects con­tributing to the Lexington Commu­nity as a whole. Cadets were sent to the Lime Kiln Theatre to help with management of the property.
Additionally, similar work was done at the local botanical garden. Ca­dets also worked closely with Habitat for Humanity and Project Horizon.
The portion of the Chessie Trail stretching from Route 11 to McK­ethan Park was thoroughly cleaned as well during Corps FTX. The fishing club played an integral role in Corps FTX cleaning a portion of river in Allegheny County and recovering dozens of tires and many bits of furniture and appli­cances from the local trout stream.
The transportation for the Corps FTX was handled by First Class­men Quinn Wicks, who oversaw the transportation of all non commis­sioning cadets to their respective projects. “It was an undertaking but we got it done,” he commented.
Overall, despite the convolution of activities throughout the week­end all those who participated seemed to find one or more ways to enjoy their FTX experiences.
The corruption of the Honor Sys­tem was not isolated to one group of cadets. It spread throughout the cadet chain-of-command. Both the Class System and the Regimental System had people of considerable influence in them who, according to Blue, were “dirty as hell.” Not even the Honor System was spared; on multiple occasions, various mem­bers of the Court had be asked to recues themselves from trials be­cause “We knew members of the Honor Court were part of the ‘good’ or ‘all-right’ clubs. Having them sit would have put the whole trial at risk if one of their buddies were on tri­al,” said Blue. [a]Because the cor­ruption spread from top to bottom even to those who were elected to defend the system, it began feeding upon itself and cadets began to vi­olate the code because others had sanctioned violations of the code by violating the code themselves.
The corps no longer embraced the Honor Code, rather they saw it as an adversarial force and, to para­phrase a quote that Blue provided for a 1994 Cadet article by Dean Case, a “them and us” mentality developed, which only increased the toleration of offenses. “I think Honor Court supporters were seen as ‘toolish.’ It felt like us against everyone else,” Blue said.[b] The feelings of cadets about the Honor Code at the time were described by one unnamed cadet in a Wash­ington Post article by Peter Baker written in May of 1994: “Most ca­dets don’t believe the honor sys­tem is practical for 1994. […] Not lying, cheating or stealing doesn’t seem to get you anywhere in this day and age… . I wish the ad­ministration would wake up and realize that the Corps of Cadets for the most part think the hon­or system is a bunch of crap.”
In the same Baker article, a VMI spokesman is quoted providing a counter to that assertion: “I think 99 percent [of cadets] and higher would say that the system works and that the single-sanction pen­alty is the only way.” Unfortunately, the VMI spokesman was mistaken. Investigations by the VMI Honor System Task Force, which was ap­pointed to investigate the problem, concluded that up to 70% of the corps was either directly involved with or had knowledge of the cheating rings and all-right clubs.
After many months of inquiry by the Honor System Task Force, it was determined that there were several reasons for the departure from the Honor Code. The Task Force concluded that relative to other factors contributing to the departure from the Code, lowered admission standards played a smaller role than was commonly believed. However, there is specu­lation that by allowing people in who weren’t up to par when looking at the all-around person that the citizen-soldier model requires, the kind of person who would be will­ing to place Honor to the wayside.
The initial cheating rings emerged in various athletic teams. “The ad­missions department was not look­ing at the whole man,” Blue said. “I believe you are a VMI man be­fore you enter the gates, or at least exhibit those qualities. If a guy is recruited to come play a sport and has no interest in the Honor Sys­tem, with no sense of honor, then a ‘certified statement’ wouldn’t matter.” That was coupled with the fact that at this time athletes were almost entirely separated from the corps, which exempted them from many aspects of “regular” cadet life and ratline activities, to include education about the Honor Code, which led to a growing resentment between the two groups. With this isolation from the corps in place, they were willing to ignore the vari­ous violations of the Blue Book and class system among themselves. From there, it was only a short pe­riod of time before they took the leap into tolerating violations of the Honor Code. “Toleration,” Blue said, “is the most detrimental thing when it comes to the survival and enforcement of the code, but it’s also the hardest charge to prove.”
The dyke system also led to the collapse of the Honor Code. Rats, many of whom look up to and emu­late their dykes, were taught how to violate the code by their dykes. It was ingrained in those rats in their first weeks at the Institute that lying, cheating, and stealing was not only tolerated, but encouraged. One of the aspects to the dyke system, loyalty to one’s dyke, fed that tol­eration, as was later witnessed in a 1998 case wherein four rats and four firsts were dismissed for lying when questioned about an unauthorized dyke-room punishment system.
So, the cheating and toleration spread like a virus. From the ath­John
Manning ‘11, First Class President, (above) was told to hold a shovel and stand aside during FTX. He just smiled. Meanwhile, the real work was done by other cadets who helped to clean up a stretch of Chessie Trail from Route 11 to McKethan Park (below).
Photos Courtesy of Heather Schmidt.