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“It’s paid for by your tax dollars and is run by the government, as are the Merchant Marine Academy, Air Force Academy and Naval Academy.”

Don’t forget the US Coast Guard Academy at New London, CT.

Bruce Fleming pops out with a “Let’s abolish the federal service academies” article every five years or so. His conscience must be bothering him.

Not sure what kind of “academic freedom” he thinks cadets & middies are being denied, but the range of political and philosophical opinion to be found at such schools is surprisingly broad. USNA has the reputation of being the most heterodox of all; faculty members are tolerated even when their antics go beyond what’s considered “polite” in DoD circles. And all of it can be rough and tumble, compared to the dreary doses of PC dogma shoved up the noses of students at civilian institutions.

And some cadets/midshippersons have (after extensive thought and study) declared their moral misgivings about the military establishment and sought conscientious objector status; some even receive it. The academies have let them graduate anyway; nor have repayment of education costs always been sought.

Whatever the origins, and political machinations involved in the ongoing mission (or the lack of one) at the academies, they remain among the few institutions in the United States where wealth doesn’t matter, and origins don’t matter. These are, of course, ideals; they are approached to varying degrees at any given moment, and execution is rarely perfect. Bruce’s complaints notwithstanding, cadets and middies are taught more discipline and self-reliance than they will receive at any other undergraduate institution in the nation. Honorable behavior is an expected norm - a least common denominator. Flubs do happen, but guilty parties are removed. Breaches of honor barely get noticed at civilian schools.

Against Bruce’s personal disappointments, we ought to set the continued ranking of USAFA among the top three or five undergraduate engineering schools year after year, the number of Rhodes Scholars coming from the ranks of grads, and similar measures of merit.

Bruce may indeed have met SEAL or Marine wannabes who chafe at the program, but the forum ought to recall that we’re talking about very young folks who at the best of times can be stunningly immature. It’s typical to find “hard chargers” who have trouble summoning the patience to deal with stuff they cannot accept as relevant. Academy grads are supposed to be able (in theory at least) to deal with everything the military does or might do; they produce officers equal to the long haul, not just platoon, section, or flight commanders who lead small groups of enlisted types. Take the fretting of such not-quite-officers with less seriousness than Bruce thinks it deserves.

A final illustration of the atmosphere at West Point might rattle Bruce’s sympathizers into a more sensible orbit: several years ago, students in a Psychology of Leadership class (or some such; I forget the precise title) decided they wanted to hear an opposing viewpoint to the “approved” curriculum Bruce damns so energetically as one-sided. So, they invited noted radical Left anti-military peace activist Noam Chomsky to be a guest lecturer. The faculty took the cadets at their word, honored their choice, backed them up, and made it all happen. The presentation was aired on C-SPAN; not one catcall nor boo was heard. When the camera swept over the multitude of young folks wearing gray uniforms who had packed the lecture hall, not one single cadet appeared annoyed nor disapproving.

Now, just try imagining students at Harvard, or Yale or Berkley, inviting CJCS to speak on the morality of peace or war. And if you can manage that, imagine a student audience at those institutions behaving respectfully. Or merely maintaining silence.