FWDAD

From all of the posts over the last several days it seems to me that reasonable people can differ on the ASO directive itself. There appears to be a case that having the ASO directive as a procedure by way of which an exceptional individual can be used to help "market" the armed services has some value, although there may be a disagreement on exactly what that value is. On the other hand, a credible argument has been made that the directive may not be in the best interest of the armed services or fair to other cadets and midshipmen. I will confess that I have feelings both ways.

To bring this thread full circle, I have exchanged emails with others and I don't know anyone that thinks that the original post by Thomas Hauser was accurate or fair to West Point or the Corps of Cadets. As far as I can tell, we are in agreement that:

1. The directive referred to as the ASO is not a policy enacted or adopted by West Point. It is a directive from the Department of Defense that may or may not be utilized by the Army. Hauser's original post takes great liberties with the actual facts upon which the premise of his argument is based. He either failed to conduct an adequate investigation of the facts or has a careless indifference to the truth.

2. Hauser's statement that "Perhaps the USMA should change its motto from 'Duty, Honor, Country,' to 'Evade, Avoid, NFL'" is an unjustified insult to every cadet that has ever marched on the Plain at West Point. It is an uncalled for bastardization of a motto that has a special meaning to the Corps of Cadets that should not be hijacked by a third party to further his misguided hypothesis.

3. Hauser's statement that by way of the AOG "The United States Military Academy is, in effect, saying that it considers entertaining sports fans to be more important than the war in Iraq" is a perversion of the facts to reach an unrealistic and unjustifiable conclusion. As previously noted, it is not West Point's directive and that is certainly not a message that West Point would send.

4. If someone doesn't like the ASO directive, the best place to voice your concern is with someone that may actually be able to change the policy: your senator or member of Congress.

5. It is a cheap shot to attack Caleb Campbell over a policy that he did not ask for and which may never apply to him. The cadets that I have spoken to about him consider him to be an honest stand up guy that is proud to be a member of the Corps of Cadets.

An earlier post on the Service Parents portion of this website about the unity of purpose between Cadets and Midshipmen comes to mind about where this thread should go. That post relayed the observation that after the hard fought battle on the football field at the Army Navy game, the football teams march hand in hand to both sidelines and sing the two academies alma maters; the seniors knowing that they will be joining together on another field of battle in a short period of time. The ultimate in mutual respect in college athletics, regardless of which team wins the game. Let's follow the example of the Cadets and Midshipmen and not attack the other Service Academies. At the end of the day, we are all on the same team, maybe even with Thomas Hauser.