Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
Colorado Springs Gazette
June 27, 2008
Pg. 1
Rule No. 1: At first, conformity is king
By Tom Roeder, The Gazette
The most important rule for newcomers to the Air Force Academy was demonstrated with excruciating clarity Thursday.
Don’t stick out.
The more than 1,300 cadets who arrived Thursday to fill out the academy’s class of 2012 will have plenty of chances to show off their individual prowess later.
But in the basic training world of enforced total conformity that greeted the freshmen, anyone who stuck out was hammered down like an errant nail.
“Is that a flight jacket you’re wearing?” shouted senior cadet Darshan Subramanian as he confronted one of the freshmen on the bus ride through the academy that starts newcomers on their four-year journey. “Do you think you’re a pilot?”
The freshman, Robert Raskey of Orlando, Fla., shuddered in silence as the shouts flew his direction throughout the brief ride. Wearing a piece of surplus uniform garb is not the right way to start your Air Force career, he learned.
Raskey wasn’t alone. Others got it for the worst offense of all — smirking at the misfortune of others.
It’s nothing personal, said Subramanian.
“For many of them, this is their first instruction to military life,” he said after the newcomers, called doolies, had moved on to the next stage of their indoctrination. “They’re going to have to be tough.
“I don’t feel sorry for them.”
By noon, all but 10 of the academy’s bumper crop of 1,373 cadets had arrived. The class includes a record 295 women who will enter the officer training school famed for its engineering program.
None of the doolies exercised the right to reconsider and walk away on the first day.
“I must not be mean enough,” one of the cadets responsible for training the doolies joked.
Since the 1950s, basic training at the academy has served two purposes: It teaches newcomers to instantly comply with orders, and it beefs up their physical strength and mental toughness.
It also teaches older cadets, who must bring the doolies up to the school’s high standards, how to lead, a skill they’ll need when they enter the service as lieutenants after graduation.
“Basic cadet training is as much for the cadre as it is for the basic cadets,” said the school’s commandant, Brig. Gen. Susan Desjardins as she watched the newcomers being ushered through their hectic first day. Newcomers get everything from inoculations and hair cuts to uniforms and e-mail addresses on the first day.
The junior and senior cadets who oversee the training spent weeks learning how to get their charges through the first days of academy life.
The older cadets have to balance harshness with a guidance that helps the newcomers along.
“There’s always a balance,” senior cadet Adam Hillier said. “You want to be tough, but you want to be effective, too.”
The new cadets will get six weeks of training on the campus and at an encampment in Jack’s Valley on the academy’s north side.
The group will then face the academic rigors of the academy when classes start in August.
Desjardins said the newest class is bright enough to handle the book work. The class had an average high school grade point average of 3.85, and its members scored an average of 1,290 on the Scholastic Aptitude Test, a college entrance exam.
The new cadets, before they met their shouting trainers, were optimistic about whether they’ll make it through the basic training.
“I’m excited,” freshman Carlee Koutnik said.
About the AFA class of 2012
1,078 are men
295 are women
17 percent served as high school class presidents or vice presidents
62 percent were in an academic honor society
95 percent won athletic letter awards
30 percent played in band or orchestra
28 percent joined Boy Scouts or Girl Scouts
13 percent were in Junior ROTC
June 27, 2008
Pg. 1
Rule No. 1: At first, conformity is king
By Tom Roeder, The Gazette
The most important rule for newcomers to the Air Force Academy was demonstrated with excruciating clarity Thursday.
Don’t stick out.
The more than 1,300 cadets who arrived Thursday to fill out the academy’s class of 2012 will have plenty of chances to show off their individual prowess later.
But in the basic training world of enforced total conformity that greeted the freshmen, anyone who stuck out was hammered down like an errant nail.
“Is that a flight jacket you’re wearing?” shouted senior cadet Darshan Subramanian as he confronted one of the freshmen on the bus ride through the academy that starts newcomers on their four-year journey. “Do you think you’re a pilot?”
The freshman, Robert Raskey of Orlando, Fla., shuddered in silence as the shouts flew his direction throughout the brief ride. Wearing a piece of surplus uniform garb is not the right way to start your Air Force career, he learned.
Raskey wasn’t alone. Others got it for the worst offense of all — smirking at the misfortune of others.
It’s nothing personal, said Subramanian.
“For many of them, this is their first instruction to military life,” he said after the newcomers, called doolies, had moved on to the next stage of their indoctrination. “They’re going to have to be tough.
“I don’t feel sorry for them.”
By noon, all but 10 of the academy’s bumper crop of 1,373 cadets had arrived. The class includes a record 295 women who will enter the officer training school famed for its engineering program.
None of the doolies exercised the right to reconsider and walk away on the first day.
“I must not be mean enough,” one of the cadets responsible for training the doolies joked.
Since the 1950s, basic training at the academy has served two purposes: It teaches newcomers to instantly comply with orders, and it beefs up their physical strength and mental toughness.
It also teaches older cadets, who must bring the doolies up to the school’s high standards, how to lead, a skill they’ll need when they enter the service as lieutenants after graduation.
“Basic cadet training is as much for the cadre as it is for the basic cadets,” said the school’s commandant, Brig. Gen. Susan Desjardins as she watched the newcomers being ushered through their hectic first day. Newcomers get everything from inoculations and hair cuts to uniforms and e-mail addresses on the first day.
The junior and senior cadets who oversee the training spent weeks learning how to get their charges through the first days of academy life.
The older cadets have to balance harshness with a guidance that helps the newcomers along.
“There’s always a balance,” senior cadet Adam Hillier said. “You want to be tough, but you want to be effective, too.”
The new cadets will get six weeks of training on the campus and at an encampment in Jack’s Valley on the academy’s north side.
The group will then face the academic rigors of the academy when classes start in August.
Desjardins said the newest class is bright enough to handle the book work. The class had an average high school grade point average of 3.85, and its members scored an average of 1,290 on the Scholastic Aptitude Test, a college entrance exam.
The new cadets, before they met their shouting trainers, were optimistic about whether they’ll make it through the basic training.
“I’m excited,” freshman Carlee Koutnik said.
About the AFA class of 2012
1,078 are men
295 are women
17 percent served as high school class presidents or vice presidents
62 percent were in an academic honor society
95 percent won athletic letter awards
30 percent played in band or orchestra
28 percent joined Boy Scouts or Girl Scouts
13 percent were in Junior ROTC