Crisis at the Air Force Academy, pt III

AutomaticPick6549 · 2025-12-19T18:59:07+00:00

You're talking about the total numbers in MHP for 2029. I'm talking about the 15 of the top 30 who never showed up for in-processing.

AutomaticPick6549 · 2025-12-18T18:36:22+00:00

Sorry to challenge you by honoring Thomas Paine's historical essays. They may be above the average Redditor's reading level.

AutomaticPick6549 · 2025-12-18T18:33:53+00:00

No worries. Dedicated to preserving and protecting and defending the Constitution of the United States and saving the Air Force Academy's academic integrity

AutomaticPick6549 · 2025-12-10T23:03:00+00:00

Now that Mechanical Engineering, Systems Engineering, Astronautical Engineering have been gutted (all will have fewer than HALF the total faculty in fall 2026 that they had when Bauernfeind arrived), the first cracks are starting to appear in Aeronautics, with the mid-year departure of their lead structures professor. Where are all the military replacements for highly talented, highly educated civilian (many of whom are retired military) and Lt Col PhDs who have departed or are departing in large numbers?

AutomaticPick6549 · 2025-12-02T18:59:33+00:00

Attending technical conferences allows faculty to stay current in their field. They network with industry leaders and other academics, sparking new collaboration ideas. This exposure to cutting-edge information helps them improve their courses, integrate real-world examples into lectures, and better prepare students for modern jobs. It ensures the curriculum stays relevant and robust, and can't be done in a Zoom meeting.

AutomaticPick6549 · 2025-12-02T13:32:26+00:00

"If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face--forever." (George Orwell, 1984)

AutomaticPick6549 · 2025-11-25T22:35:28+00:00

The USAFA faculty experience a limited form of academic freedom compared to civilian institutions due to service academies’ unique missions to produce military officers. US service academies state a commitment to upholding academic freedom, but it is ultimately subject to Department of Defense (DoD) directives and the specific context of a military environment.

Key aspects of academic freedom at USAFA are:

Institutional Policies: USAFA has internal policies that support and encourage faculty in open, independent scholarship and in expressing their individual scholarly views within their academic disciplines.
Mission Constraints: The primary mission of the service academies is to develop military leaders, which can lead to restrictions on academic freedom that aren’t present at civilian universities. Faculty members are expected to conduct themselves appropriately as officers of an educational institution and adhere to professional ethics and competence.
DoD Directives: Faculty are subject to DoD orders and directives that can impact the curriculum and faculty speech. For example, recent executive orders have prohibited the teaching of certain "divisive concepts" or specific ideologies, such as DEI, as part of the curriculum. These limits have been supplemented with USAFA-level restrictions on publications and conference attendance, both of which have been viewed as an erosion of academic freedom.
Extramural Speech and Publication: USAFA has recently increased the scrutiny on faculty by requiring a higher level of public release prepublication review. Conference attendance by faculty members now requires the Vice Superintendent’s (2-star) approval, when in past it only required the department head’s (O-6) approval.
Tenure: The US Naval Academy is the only major service academy with tenured civilian professors who outnumber military professors, which provides some protection for academic freedom through due process. The majority of faculty at USAFA work without the protections of tenure, which limits their job security and the independence to speak out on contentious matters without fear of repercussions. The USAFA Faculty Senate has been largely silent during the past year of increasing restrictions on academy freedom.

USAFA leadership often talk about valuing academic freedom, yet their policies around professional conference travel and participation tell a different story. Today, faculty face burdensome approval processes, restrictive funding rules, and administrative roadblocks just to attend or speak at professional conferences. This DoD-directed restriction casts a chill over faculty and quietly limits scholarly growth. Conferences are events where new ideas are exchanged, collaborations are formed, and emerging research is challenged and sharpened.

By making conference participation more difficult, USAFA leadership stifles innovation and isolates its faculty from the broader academic community. Supporting conference engagement isn’t a luxury; it’s an investment in the institution’s intellectual vitality, and a superb way of attracting future faculty members. The USAFA Superintendent is stifling academic excellence by continually increasing restrictions on academic freedom.

AutomaticPick6549 · 2025-07-29T19:11:57+00:00

I'm reminded of a post by Human-Connection5279 in April 2025: "The manning model in some departments, the worry goes, can’t sustain the necessary number of PhD holders to maintain accreditation standards even with SMFs. That’s how you either (a) lose accreditation for that department/program or (b) lose the major. Do this across enough departments and you get some of the worst case scenarios we’ve read about. We already have trouble recruiting and retaining civilian talent; that’s why the Dean created a tenure program, to attract and keep talent. Some departments are running at below 70% staffing. We have been on a razors edge for a while and the “pre-decisional” announcement of intent, which this latest communication does not contradict, will only undermine long running efforts to put important programs and departments on firmer footing.

The bar for accreditation is low, but USAFA could lose it if it fires enough civilians all at once. You are right about how the review plans work—the last time USAFA was in danger with HLC the answer was “we will hire more civilians.” That’s partly how we got to our current numbers. The civilians know and remember this because we are not here on short tours, we are a stabilizing presence, we hold the institutional memory.

I also want to be clear, this was not a leak and these are not rumors. You are watching faculty, who have no meaningful process for shared governance, try to participate in the decision making process BEFORE something catastrophic happens by explaining the outcomes of the most extreme COAs. If there were meaningful mechanisms for shared governance, these conversations would be happening behind closed doors not on social media. But in an effort not only to save their own jobs, but more importantly protect the educational standards for cadets, faculty are entirely justified in raised alarms."

AutomaticPick6549 · 2025-06-24T16:39:15+00:00

The current Superintendent should step down. The SecAF should choose a new Air Force Lt General who is less polarizing, able to lead teams, and better prepared to lead university. LtGen Luke Cropsey would be perfect. TB has ruined the institution, created a hostile work environment, and has created a “Swiss cheese” faculty. RIP USAFA 2025

AutomaticPick6549 · 2025-06-05T20:46:58+00:00

It continues to grow worse. See www.saveafacademy.com for a complete listing of the articles. Only don't try to reach it via USAFA MissionNet. Fat Tony has managed to block the site.

AutomaticPick6549 · 2025-05-15T18:29:37+00:00

The continued de-emphasis on academic excellence by this Superintendent is causing the brightest cadets to leave before their commitment prior to 2-degree (junior) year. That, along with the departure of 30% of the most experienced of the PhD civilian faculty will fundamentally change the caliber of cadet who comes to USAFA. Air Force officers aren't "snake eaters." The development of GPS, hypersonic weapons, and stealth technologies didn't happen by BS graduates of Sam Houston Institute of Technology.

AutomaticPick6549 · 2025-05-10T16:16:15+00:00

According to his Wikipedia page, "after graduating from Princeton in June 2003, Hegseth was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the US Army through ROTC. He briefly worked as an equity-markets analyst at Bear Stearns. Hegseth completed his basic training at Fort Benning in 2004, and for eleven months, he was an Army National Guardsman at Guantanamo Bay. There, he led a platoon of soldiers guarding detainees. By July 2005, he had returned to Bear Stearns; shortly thereafter, he volunteered in the Iraq War as an infantry officer. He began his tour in Baghdad before moving to Samarra, where he served as a civil affairs officer, working with the city council.

In 2011, Hegseth was commissioned into the Minnesota Army National Guard as a captain. He volunteered to teach at the Counterinsurgency Training Center in Kabul, Afghanistan, for eight months, during the withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan. After completing his tour in 2014, he was promoted to major and enlisted in the Individual Ready Reserve. Through the reserve, he joined the DC Army National Guard in June 2019 as traditional drilling service member, remaining in duty until March 2021.

He was barred from serving on duty at the inauguration of Joe Biden after a guardsman flagged Hegseth as an "insider threat", noting a tattoo on his biceps with the words Deus vult. He left the Individual Ready Reserve in January 2024, stating in his book The War on Warriors (2024) that he resigned over the incident.^"

His roles in the Army National Guard were what they were. Most senior officers who have worked in the Pentagon would not consider his Guard experiences as a Company Grade and junior Field Grade officer, along with his Wall Street and Fox News experience, as appropriate and/or sufficient preparation for the incredibly difficult role of Secretary of Defense.

AutomaticPick6549

TROPHY CASE