Current rumors

I heard this morning that our Midshipman is going back the Navy.  If this is true, it has something to do with the second part of yesterday’s events.  Apparently the people involved with the sugar incident are going to be helping him pack up all of his stuff.

The upsetting part is that because of my role in what happened, there are rumors about me now.  Essentially, if they were true, it would be that I framed him for something.  Let me be clear, I did what I did because my conscious would not allow me to let what I observed go.  I knew it happened and I did what I thought was right,  I took the issue to the First Sergeant.  That’s it.

Michael

Honor, Sugar, and one jacked up night at the Point

After our last extremely successful strike on Mr. McKavitt, our resident midshipman (sarcasm of course, see last post), one/a few of my classmates decided that another great idea would be to put sugar in his room.  As in, put sugar crystals in his bed, uniform, belongings, etc.

This was of course a horrible idea.  We received an email from our First Sergeant this afternoon that we had until 2000 hours for the culprit(s) to turn themselves in.  That time rolled around and we got an email from a plebe he had talked to who said that we had until 2030 hours.  At 2031, we received an email:

Plebes,

Who ever thought it was a good idea to pour sugar all over Midshipman McKavitt’s room, including his personal belongings and uniforms, has made a terrible decision for your class.  Until further notice the entire plebe class has all privileges, including walking privs, movies and music privs on the weekend, and pass privileges revoked. Additionally, all plebe rooms will be in open door AMI for the remainder of the week until COB each day and open door ESP each night until 2315 this week.  Finally, Rattay and Kinley, as laundry CiC and ACIC for this week you will pick up Mr. McKavitts bed linens and any other items that were ruined that he needs tonight and wash them.  You can thank your classmates for screwing you over.

I strongly suggest that you encourage your classmate or classmates who took this action to come forward and take ownership for their poor decision. I am extremely disappointed in your class for your lack of respect and poor decision making.  You are going to be LTs in 3 short years.  Start acting like it.

So, it would seem that my classmates can’t even own up for something that they do.  They would rather make the rest of us take the fall for them.  To me, it’s not the fact that the privileges are gone, or that I won’t be able to nap…at all.  It’s the fact that the people I’m supposed to trust the most won’t even do the right thing when they make a mistake.

Apparently, the individual did turn him or herself in, but it was after the deadline.  Took them several hours to find their balls I guess.

There is something else that happened that I am choosing to keep under wraps, but really thickens the plot.  It actually makes tonight quite insane.  1.5 more days until Vegas…I need a break…again.

Michael

Duties, Midshipmen, and Stupidity…

Another fabulous Sunday night at the Point.

As was put out by our 1SG last week, we will be having duties every Sunday after recall formation until all the plebes know their knowledge.  This is of course like saying that we will have them for the rest of the year, since there will always be people who don’t care enough to study the material that is sent out over and over again.  The usual occurred tonight, as the upperclassmen (the platoon sergeants and my beloved midshipman who I hate more than anything I have ever known) were displeased in the level of knowledge mastery.

Here at the academy, we have a period of MANDATED study time for the lower two classes on nights before class days.  It’s known as Evening Study Period (ESP).  It starts at 1930.  In general, ESP is perhaps the only thing that is sacred here.  Well, at 1930 tonight, we were still doing duties.  When one of our comrades went out to ensure that they realized this was the case, he was basically brushed aside and then eventually, they brought us all out of the wall to tell us that we should NEVER send a classmate out to tell them what time it was.

So, now we are in ESP, doing some push ups because we did that.  One of them said that ESP is dependent on whenever they release us and that let’s face it, we “wouldn’t be doing [our] homework anyway.”  Ok, now, whether that is true or not is beside the point.  For me, I have a lot of work tonight.  I’m just really angry now.  My honor has been challenged.  That is never a good thing with me.

And of course our favorite comrade from Navy was there, being himself, and he sent out his Navy word of the Week after.  Ridiculous.

I get to have first formation an hour earlier tomorrow so that we can have suicide prevention training after lunch.  Awesome.

Michael

Leadership, Learning, and Honor

Here at the Academy, plebes (the freshman year cadets) have various duties that they perform.  One of these is calling minutes for formations.  Basically, starting a certain number of minutes before any given formation, we stand against the wall and give a prescribed speech about the uniform and time until formation.  What we say goes like this:

Attention All Cadets! There are ___ minutes until assembly for _______ formation!  The uniform is ________. ______ minutes remaining!

We start with the 5 minute call 10 minutes before formation (why, I still don’t understand) and end with the 2 minute call, which looks a little different than the others:

Attention All Cadets! There are 2 minutes until assembly for _______ formation!  The uniform is ________.   This is the last minute to be called for this formation.  Do not forget your lights.  2 minutes remaining!

So, the last few weeks, we’ve had some problems with minutes.  Not having everyone calling (there are a certain number of plebes that must call for each formation, spread throughout the company area), calling at the wrong time, calling the wrong uniform, etc.  Our First Sergeant (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TldPQFRtgek) decided that the best solution was for 100% of plebes to call minutes, and for our team leaders to be forced to stand with us while we call.

Problem: a lot of team leaders don’t care, and haven’t been standing with their plebes.  So yesterday, 1SG walked through one portion of our area, saw all the missing team leaders, and called them out at the formation.  Since West Point preaches strict adherence to the honor code, and he already had a pretty good idea of who wasn’t with their plebes already, common sense and decency would dictate that when he told any team leader who wasn’t with their plebe for minutes this morning to meet him at the back of the formation, that they would do so, knowing that they had done the wrong thing.

Following a series of events that were not to the knowledge of the plebes at large, we received an email from 1SG, asking us to email him with whether our team leader had been on the wall with us that morning.  To say the least, I was appalled.  While I would certainly tell him the truth, regardless of my team leader’s actions, I did not believe it was the right answer to test our honor, and use it test the honor of our team leaders.

As I was in a foul mood after learning that my Chemistry lab had become corrupted, I responded to his request (as I was writing, I received an email from my team leader, explaining why she had not been on the wall that morning, as she normally is).  It went like this, and I apologize for my angry grammar and poor revision:

1SG King

First Sergeant

I do not understand why our honor must be used to test the honor of our team leaders?  I do not think that is fair to us as plebes, that if our team leader cannot be honorable, that we have to come clean for them.

CPL Barnhart was not on the wall with me this morning.  Instead, she was talking to the TAC.

Very Respectfully,

Cadet David Johnston

Company F-4, USCC

Scott 5352

GO FROGS!

S1/Secretary – USMA Amateur Radio Club, W2KGY

I received a response shortly thereafter.  A simple, “Noted.”

I like to think that he then thought about the abrasiveness of that response considering my e-mail’s tone, and replied again that if I would like to talk about it, he would happy to talk with me anytime yesterday, as a fellow cadet.

I did go and speak with him.  Suffice it to say, a certain team leader was the major issue.  Granted he was in a tough situation, but he admitted that his solution was probably not the best one.  He was also prior service, though he never made it out of the DLI (Defense Language Institute).  It was nice to sit down and discuss it with him at the same level, and it was interesting to see his perspective, especially since it wasn’t as high-and-mighty as I had previously thought.

Overall, I think I learned a lot of things from this, and I think some of the other parties involved did as well.

Michael