OFFICERS AND GENTLEMEN

I meant to make note of this long ago, and perhaps it’s so late and obvious as to be a waste of a posting.

But I was struck that it’s the U.S. Air Force Academy being investigated for proselytizing and harassing its non-Christian students, charges just recently brought to public attention but detailed in a July 2004 report covering at least the previous two and a half years. That means the academy’s intense focus on religion would overlap at least some of the 150 allegations of sexual assault detailed in an investigation the year before.

Some may also remember the academy for its 1993 Tailhook convention, the first in its sex scandals. The drunken groping and assault resulted in 140 investigations of misconduct, disciplinary action against about 70 officers and a $5.2 million settlement for the woman who sparked the investigation with a lawsuit.

I’d love to sum up this hypocrisy with a quip or self-righteous flourish of rhetoric, but, frankly, words fail me.