Building meaningful connections can make your rewarding role as a member of the Air Force even better.
The report exposes, as Alan Pyke of Think Progress put it, “the intersection of hero culture and rape culture.”Here are just a few of the findings from Colorado Springs Gazette reporter Tom Roeder’s piece (emphasis mine):“‘The girls’ drink, or Captain Morgan with the blue lid, was only for girls to drink [at one party at the school],’ [Office of Special Investigations] confidential informant cadet Eric Thomas told investigators in a written statement obtained by The Gazette.
The blue-capped bottle, he explained, was laced with ‘roofies,’ a street term for flunitrazepam, a powerful sedative known as a date-rape drug.” “After academy leaders were told about the allegations of rape and drug use, OSI agents planned their own party, one with informants in the crowd and special agents nearby to bust bad actors.
But the first thing I thought after reading Roeder’s in-depth examination of just how bad things are at AFA was Title IX.
Namely, that Title IX — in all its weak imperfection — doesn’t protect cadets at AFA or any other service academy.
Civil servants hold no rank and are not considered military personnel.
News of the cadet’s limbo was reported May 10 by USA Today and again Thursday by The New York Times.A transgender Air Force Academy graduate is being withheld lieutenant’s bars because of what the academy calls a gap in Pentagon rules for transgender military recruits. As a result, a recent graduate has been barred from receiving a commission, Heritage confirmed, declining to name the cadet.Although the Defense Department began allowing military service by transgender people last year, the change applied to those who were active duty, not recruits, Air Force Academy spokesman Lt. Policies for recruits — or “accessions” in military jargon — were under review by the Pentagon and revised guidelines were expected by July 16, Herritage said.(The Air Force has conducted airstrikes against ISIS and the campus has become a target of the group.) But she might as well have been referring to her strategy for running the operation responsible for educating the next generation of Air Force officers who will be tasked with defending the United States against foreign threats.Although she’s only been at the helm for three years, they are years that span a tumultuous time for both higher education and the military broadly.Academy graduates agree to serve as a commissioned officer for at least eight years after graduation, five of which must be active duty, with more stringent requirements for pilots, according to the academy’s website.