About three weeks ago, I read an article in the Chicago Tribune about Andrea Prosse, a former Air Force Acadamy cadet. It was this article that made me decide I wanted to blog, because I was so incensed at the state of affairs in our military academies.
\nMs. Prosse was in the upper third of her class, and had shown exceptional leadership skills when she was sanctioned by her fellow classmates and forced to leave school, 8 days before graduating.
\nWhile she was a student, she had dated a classmate at the Academy, and when she chose to break off the relationship, he stalked and harrassed her for more than a year. She finally asked upperclassmen, and her instructors, for assistance, and was told she had to resolve the issue on her own.
\nIn her last semester of school, she was working on an engineering project, and the stalker accused her of lying about where she got the design for the engine she was using in the project. She had borrowed the design <u>with permission<\/u>, but she was tried by her peers and and forced to leave the Academy. Lying is considered an offense punishable by dismissal.
\nThis woman was planning to become a fighter pilot, and then an astronaut, and now her plans will never see fruition. She doesn’t have her college degree, and since she can’t serve in the Air Force, the government is charging her for four years of education.
\nShe chose to come forward about all this, because even if the case is overturned, and she is reinstated, her male classmates feel she has broken the code by speaking out about a fellow classmate, and has dishonored the Academy in doing so. She will never be able to effectively lead as an officer with this in her background, so this web of lies has destroyed her life long plans.
\nI have a <b>HUGE<\/b> problem with an institution that encourages this type of behavior. My tax dollars are going to support a place that feels loyalty to the institution is more important than honesty. Furthermore, the male cadets closed ranks behind the male cadet despite the fact that his actions were clearly self-serving, and this points up the fact that the future leaders of our military place little value on gentlemanly behavior, and NO value on women in the service.
\nAll of this has come on the heels of of 47 women telling their Congressmen that they had been raped or assaulted while they were at the Air Force Acadamy. (Ms. Prass was assaulted by an upperclassman.) At least four of the top officers at the Academy have been asked to step down, but I don’t think changing officers at the top is sufficient. Women who elect to serve our county shouldn’t have to worry about defending themselves from OUR military personnel.
\nI don’t have the solution to this mess, but I want to see those in charge take the matter more seriously! What do YOU think? Is there a place for women in the services?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
About three weeks ago, I read an article in the Chicago Tribune about Andrea Prosse, a former Air Force Acadamy cadet. It was this article that made me decide I wanted to blog, because I was so incensed at the … Continue reading