[OldDeckHand]

"That ain't "drunk."

I'm not going to disagree with you. It has always been my experience that the service academies won't punish public drunkenness in civilian areas unless that behavior rises to a criminal charge (or arrest causing the cadet to miss time). I don't believe that happened here.

Instead, somehow a blood alcohol test was administered and the results of that test was provided to the Academy. How that happened has yet to be publicly explained. It's odd. And, I agree about the ridiculous policy about the BDUs (or as the Navy and Marines call them, cammies). They're fine for garrison, but outside of garrison, you should be wearing your service uniform. In this regard, the Marines have always had a much more (I think) respectable policy of NOT allowing Marines to wear cammies off base, except when in the course of an official duty that prescribed cammies.

[The Pack Knight]

It depends, actually. When I was a plebe at West Point, I was awarded some 60 hours of fatigue tours (some of which were suspended) for drinking one beer off post and in private. Now, part of it was that I was underage, but it was clear that the actual offense I was punished for was for drinking while a plebe or yearling within a certain geographical limitation and that the punishment would have been similar had I been a 21-year-old plebe.

Also, to illustrate how serious (read "crazy") the academies (or at least West Point) have gotten about alcohol: There is a very old tradition where visiting heads of state pardon cadets who are serving disciplinary tours. This tradition is recognized in USMA regulations, with one exception: the pardons are not effective for punishments for alcohol-related offenses.

[The Pack Knight]

As a postscript, quite a few of my fatigue tour hours involved cleaning Crandall Pool in bathing suits along with one of the cheerleaders, so I wasn’t complaining too much.