Afghanistan, Iraq, Iraq War, Thomas Hauser, war Hypocrisy at West Point
April 07,2008 
By Thomas Hauser
Caleb Campbell (United States Military Academy, Class of 2008) is 23
years old and was captain of the 2007 Army football team. Less
admirably, he is a prime example of the hypocrisy that attends the war
currently being waged at the behest of his commander-in-chief.
Virtually all of Campbell’s classmates will be serving in Iraq or
Afghanistan by the end of this year. That’s in keeping with the
requirement that West Point cadets commit to five years of active
military duty in return for their education.
Students at the Naval and Air Force academies incur a similar
obligation. Roger Staubach spent four years in the Navy (including a
tour of duty in Vietnam) before beginning his Hall of Fame career with
the Dallas Cowboys. David Robinson also served on active naval duty
before achieving superstar status with the San Antonio Spurs. Air Force
Academy graduate Chad Hennings was on active duty in his branch of the
service before playing in the National Football League.
This obligation, shared by young men and women at the service
academies, is a bond that transcends the normal ties between
student-athletes. Cadets do more than play on the same team; they have
a common future. Seniors in the Army-Navy football game know that
they’re competing with and against each other for the last time before
serving in common cause.
However, in March 2005, the United States Military Academy adopted
an “alternative service option” for athletes. This program releases
cadets who have “unique talents and abilities” (i.e. are good enough to
play in a major professional sports league) from their commitment to
serve five years of active duty in the Army. In return, the cadet must,
for two years, “participate in activities with potential recruiting or
public affairs benefit to the Army” at the same time he’s pursuing his
pro sports career. He may then erase the remaining three years of his
active-duty commitment by serving in the Army Reserve.
In other words, if Caleb Campbell makes a National Football League
roster, rather than risk his life in Iraq or Afghanistan, he can speak
to young people and seek to recruit them to serve in his stead.
The purpose of the “Alternative Service Option” was to resurrect the
football program at West Point. In the five years prior to its
adoption, Army’s gridiron record was a pitiful 5 wins and 53 losses.
Coaches at West Point can now recruit elite high school athletes with
the sales pitch, “Come to West Point. If you’re good enough to play in
the NFL, you can avoid military combat.”
That’s a far cry from World War II and the Korean War, when the
United States asked great athletes like Ted Williams to serve in the
armed forces alongside everyone else.
The most disturbing aspect of all this is the light it sheds on our
priorities as a nation. The United States Military Academy is, in
effect, saying that it considers entertaining sports fans to be more
important than the war in Iraq. How else can one construe giving a
young man the choice of (a) living up to his commitment to serve his
country or (b) playing in the National Football League?
The situation calls to mind another young man of exceptional
promise. Pat Tillman graduated summa cum laude from Arizona State
University in 1998 and was drafted by the Arizona Cardinals of the
National Football League. He became the team’s starting safety and, in
his third year as a pro, broke the franchise record for tackles in a
single season.
One day after 9/11, Tillman told an interviewer, "At times like
this, you stop and think about just how good we have it, what kind of
system we live in and the freedoms we’re allowed. A lot of my family
has gone and fought in wars, and I really haven’t done a damn thing.”
Then Tillman did something extraordinary. He turned down a
$3,600,000 contract extension from the Cardinals, put his football
career on hold, and enlisted for a three-year term in the U.S. Army. He
served in Iraq and then in Afghanistan. On April 22, 2004, he was
killed in action.
Pat Tillman’s memory is dishonored by West Point’s alternative
service option. Perhaps the USMA should change its motto from “Duty,
Honor, Country,” to “Evade, Avoid, NFL.”
As for Caleb Campbell; if he accepts the forbidden fruit that the
Army is offering, one can imagine the recruiting pitch that he’ll make
to young men and women: “I wasn’t willing to risk my life in Iraq and
Afghanistan, but you should.”
Thomas Hauser can be reached by email at thauser@rcn.com
This article was initially published on secondsout.com
Caleb Campbell (United States Military Academy, Class of 2008) is 23
years old and was captain of the 2007 Army football team. Less
admirably, he is a prime example of the hypocrisy that attends the war
currently being waged at the behest of his commander-in-chief.
Virtually all of Campbell’s classmates will be serving in Iraq or
Afghanistan by the end of this year. That’s in keeping with the
requirement that West Point cadets commit to five years of active
military duty in return for their education.
Students at the Naval and Air Force academies incur a similar
obligation. Roger Staubach spent four years in the Navy (including a
tour of duty in Vietnam) before beginning his Hall of Fame career with
the Dallas Cowboys. David Robinson also served on active naval duty
before achieving superstar status with the San Antonio Spurs. Air Force
Academy graduate Chad Hennings was on active duty in his branch of the
service before playing in the National Football League.
This obligation, shared by young men and women at the service
academies, is a bond that transcends the normal ties between
student-athletes. Cadets do more than play on the same team; they have
a common future. Seniors in the Army-Navy football game know that
they’re competing with and against each other for the last time before
serving in common cause.
However, in March 2005, the United States Military Academy adopted
an “alternative service option” for athletes. This program releases
cadets who have “unique talents and abilities” (i.e. are good enough to
play in a major professional sports league) from their commitment to
serve five years of active duty in the Army. In return, the cadet must,
for two years, “participate in activities with potential recruiting or
public affairs benefit to the Army” at the same time he’s pursuing his
pro sports career. He may then erase the remaining three years of his
active-duty commitment by serving in the Army Reserve.
In other words, if Caleb Campbell makes a National Football League
roster, rather than risk his life in Iraq or Afghanistan, he can speak
to young people and seek to recruit them to serve in his stead.
The purpose of the “Alternative Service Option” was to resurrect the
football program at West Point. In the five years prior to its
adoption, Army’s gridiron record was a pitiful 5 wins and 53 losses.
Coaches at West Point can now recruit elite high school athletes with
the sales pitch, “Come to West Point. If you’re good enough to play in
the NFL, you can avoid military combat.”
That’s a far cry from World War II and the Korean War, when the
United States asked great athletes like Ted Williams to serve in the
armed forces alongside everyone else.
The most disturbing aspect of all this is the light it sheds on our
priorities as a nation. The United States Military Academy is, in
effect, saying that it considers entertaining sports fans to be more
important than the war in Iraq. How else can one construe giving a
young man the choice of (a) living up to his commitment to serve his
country or (b) playing in the National Football League?
The situation calls to mind another young man of exceptional
promise. Pat Tillman graduated summa cum laude from Arizona State
University in 1998 and was drafted by the Arizona Cardinals of the
National Football League. He became the team’s starting safety and, in
his third year as a pro, broke the franchise record for tackles in a
single season.
One day after 9/11, Tillman told an interviewer, "At times like
this, you stop and think about just how good we have it, what kind of
system we live in and the freedoms we’re allowed. A lot of my family
has gone and fought in wars, and I really haven’t done a damn thing.”
Then Tillman did something extraordinary. He turned down a
$3,600,000 contract extension from the Cardinals, put his football
career on hold, and enlisted for a three-year term in the U.S. Army. He
served in Iraq and then in Afghanistan. On April 22, 2004, he was
killed in action.
Pat Tillman’s memory is dishonored by West Point’s alternative
service option. Perhaps the USMA should change its motto from “Duty,
Honor, Country,” to “Evade, Avoid, NFL.”
As for Caleb Campbell; if he accepts the forbidden fruit that the
Army is offering, one can imagine the recruiting pitch that he’ll make
to young men and women: “I wasn’t willing to risk my life in Iraq and
Afghanistan, but you should.”
Thomas Hauser can be reached by email at thauser@rcn.com
This article was initially published on secondsout.com
Entertaining people is better than killing them.
I am a fan of the NFL and it occurred to me that one angle this article does not cover is the idea that taxpayers’ money allocated for use to educate and train military personnel is transformed into funding a training camp for the NFL. Other schools have scholarship programs for talented athletes, and if playing football is the student’s goal, those schools are where the student should focus his attention. It seems inherently wrong for the government to pay for these students to play football simply because the school’s football team has a poor win-loss record.