What President Obama Won’t See At West Point
EmailWEST POINT, NY — President Obama will deliver his address on the new way forward in Afghanistan and Pakistan at the US Military Academy at West Point this evening. He's scheduled to arrive at the school at 7:15 pm ET, speak at 8 pm, and depart back for Washington, DC, at 9:15 pm.
In that short time, the president is unlikely to see the sub-standard provisions given the next generation of American fighting men and women that were allowed to degrade over the previous decade.
That's the judgment, at any rate, of the independent board charged with supervising West Point, the Board of Visitors, who wrote in a 2008 report that "64% of cadet barracks and academic facilities are below Army standards, and may fall below accreditation standards."
West Point, the report stated, "currently holds a 10-12 year backlog of deferred maintenance."
The Academy also ran "a deficit in the Cadet Ration Fund" for the 14 months leading up to the 2008 report — meaning substandard food for cadets, one alumnus told ABC News.
"The anecdotal reports from cadets, midshipmen and families confirm the Board of Visitors" report, said defense consultant John Wheeler a former Air Force official during the administration of President Bush, and a member of the West Point class of 1966. Wheeler said he ate a meal with cadets at West Point last Spring and "was embarrassed for our Country, for our Administration. An awful hot dog with some lettuce." The cadets, he said, "ate peanut butter. This is not an exaggeration in any manner."
Wheeler described the infrastructure at US military academies as being in desperate need of repair. "Crumbling stairs. Failed roofs. Shifted foundations. Spoiling stone."
Wheeler acknowledges that this deterioration largely took place during the presidency of George W. Bush; he puts the blame on Pentagon officials for not abiding the intent of a 2007 Memorandum of Agreement that West Point would receive $153 million per year.
Says the Board of Visitors report, "This figure was originally designed as a 'floor.' Unfortunately in some ways this figure has settled in as a ceiling."
Neither West Point nor the Pentagon had any comment. The Board of Visitors 2009 report is not yet available, though sources said little had changed in the previous year.
"For the sake of the cadets and the young faculty, can the bigwigs get their act together and keep their promises?" Wheeler asked. "When a head of State visits West Point, the tradition is, the Head of State can pardon cadets of minor offenses. The cadets always cheer. Maybe this evening President Obama can announce that he will restore the dilapidated barracks and the ration funding."
On the positive side, West Point was recently named the number one public university in the nation by Forbes Magazine.
– jpt
Can Mitt Romney Win Conservatives Back? 
Possible Contraception Compromise in D.C.
What we WILL see is military personel FORCED to applaud a commander in Chief that they have NO confidence in, and one that actually dispises the military..Obama shows only weakness
Posted by: nothing more than a photo-op | December 1, 2009, 4:24 pm 4:24 pm
Thank you ‘W’, for selling out the troops in yet another way…support the troops indeed.
Wheeler acknowledges that this deterioration largely took place during the presidency of George W. Bush;
‘the president is unlikely to see the sub-standard provisions given the next generation of American fighting men and women that were allowed to degrade over the previous decade.’
“64% of cadet barracks and academic facilities are below Army standards, and may fall below accreditation standards.”
Posted by: Oh Yeah | December 1, 2009, 4:42 pm 4:42 pm
Obama shows only weakness
Posted by: nothing more than a photo-op
well then how come yer boys Bush & Cheney let Bin Laden escape and didn’t win the war with all the might of the US of A…..
the answer is easy….. they are frauds only looking to win elections, drape themselves in the flag and get other peoples kids killed…
think about there buddy, with all the resources available to the United States with a republican congress and white house, Bush couldn’t get the job done during 8 years.. but he sure declared ‘victory’ enough times while troops were still dying….
historians will look back and note that the most incompetent and corrupt criminal administration ever was ‘W’s’
Posted by: Oh Yeah | December 1, 2009, 4:49 pm 4:49 pm
Obama and Reid and Pelosi::: WE SURRENDER
Posted by: nothing more than a photo-op | December 1, 2009, 4:56 pm 4:56 pm
Posted by: nothing more than a photo-op
I see you haven’t refuted anything I posted….. confirmation by you I am correct…..you folks are sooooo weak….. ’nuff said
Posted by: Oh Yeah | December 1, 2009, 5:01 pm 5:01 pm
Fake party crashers used to divert attention from Climate Hoax and Obamas failure on Afganistan
AL GORE: how about a $1209 handshake? LMAO Thanks Drudge for that info
Posted by: nothing more than a photo-op | December 1, 2009, 5:02 pm 5:02 pm
CLIMATEGATE: UK scientist to temporarily step down…
Penn State Professor also under investigation…
Posted by: nothing more than a photo-op | December 1, 2009, 5:06 pm 5:06 pm
Unbelievable! We can give billions to banks and insurance companies, but we can provide our future Army officers with good living conditions or nutritious food. For eight years, Bush-Cheney bragged to the American people about restoring a strong military. In reality, all we got was a bunch of “you’re doing a heckuva job, Brownie” moments.
Posted by: B. Bear | December 1, 2009, 5:06 pm 5:06 pm
Inadvertantly left the “not” out of the second line of my post. Should read,”… but we cannot…” At least, I posted on the subject.
Posted by: B. Bear | December 1, 2009, 5:18 pm 5:18 pm
So, wait a minute. The couple from Virginia was able to access the state dinner by sneaking through the climategate? What is going on, Jake Tapper!
Posted by: Jon Taper | December 1, 2009, 5:20 pm 5:20 pm
What the press won’t write (besides the ClimateGate story):
“Obama ends months of dithering…”
The press writes what the White House wants it to write.
Posted by: WhereWasThePress? | December 1, 2009, 6:01 pm 6:01 pm
Have patience my dear Comrades Americans: The time of our Joan of Arc has not yet come. We have 3 more years of waiting. It is an ample time for her legions to regroup and trained before going down to the lower 48 for final siege and take-over of the DC capital.
Posted by: Angelo | December 1, 2009, 6:07 pm 6:07 pm
The time of our Joan of Arc has not yet come. Posted by: Angelo
- burnt at the stake, ‘tried’ by an ecclesiastical court, doesn’t sound like a happy ending for your Joan, assuming that your Joan doesn’t quit on you like she seems to do with everything
Posted by: YO | December 1, 2009, 6:28 pm 6:28 pm
“Obama ends months of dithering…”
Posted by: WhereWasThePress?
I guess the press could write a story that goes something like:
8 years later, billions wasted, Bin Laden still free, lives lost from lack of policy and support, Obama now attempts to rectify the failures and malfeasance of Bush/Cheney without becoming part of an ‘eternal war’.
Posted by: YO | December 1, 2009, 6:31 pm 6:31 pm
YO, focus! Obama is the president. It is now HIS war whether you like it or not and he has been dithering…
I have a question, actually a couple of questions.
If ClimateGate is finally reported on in America and if Algore and his chronies are proven to be charlatans and cheaters, will future winners of the Nobel Peace Prize be tainted by this revelation? Will Algore, et al, have to give back the money, the prize and the diploma?
Posted by: Krakatoa | December 1, 2009, 6:47 pm 6:47 pm
Why not just give his war speech while sitting in the Oval Office?
Does Obama need to use the cadets at West Point as props just to prove that the military still like him?
He’s got to have the applause, and got to project a certain image–if we could only hear what the cadets really think of Obama.
Posted by: kyle | December 1, 2009, 7:18 pm 7:18 pm
I’m going to predict what the media will say about Obama’s speech.
It was his best speech ever.
The same thing the MSM says about every major Obama speech.
Before the speech it’s all about Obama needing a great speech to save himself.
Which according to them he always does.
Very predictable.
Posted by: mick | December 1, 2009, 7:24 pm 7:24 pm
Obama gets the spotlight and doesn’t have to answer one question.
Posted by: hank | December 1, 2009, 7:26 pm 7:26 pm
Another unprecedented Obama event?
Posted by: millie | December 1, 2009, 7:28 pm 7:28 pm
Finally we have a decision probably a good one, unless we dont follow thru and do what we say. Give the guy a break. If it doesnt go well we can then bail out.
Posted by: earl | December 1, 2009, 7:32 pm 7:32 pm
I don’t know what the “food criticism” is all about. — My goodness, for lunch they serve 4000 cadets in 30 minutes, there has to be soem generic food, but the only time my son ate “alternatives” like peanut butter was when they served some thing he didn’t like (like shrimp) but it was always good food — most people wouldn’t complain about shrimp — The cadets meals are packed with calories to keep up with the energy they expend on a regular basis. Meals have included shrimp, lobster, steak, ribs, as well as the occassional hamburger and stuff — always rich deserts like cheesecake — and they eat as much as they want. — Wheeler’s one meal doesn’t tell the whole story! — And I NEVER saw crumbling concrete, stone, ceilings, walls or anything like that in my 20 visits there. — They just completed two multi-million dollar projects, a library and a gymnaseum.
Posted by: HoosierValues | December 1, 2009, 7:39 pm 7:39 pm
Does Obama need to use the cadets at West Point as props just to prove that the military still like him?
____________________________________
Are you incapable of reading? The article above points out “the sub-standard provisions given the next generation of American fighting men and women that were allowed to degrade over the previous decade.”
And that “this deterioration largely took place during the presidency of George W. Bush”.
It isn’t Obama the military doesn’t like – its his predecessor. Most service people know it’s Obama who has been fighting for increased pay, proper benefits, assistance upon return.
The knee-jerk right wing should take a look at the fact, not the fantasy.
Posted by: tierra | December 1, 2009, 8:07 pm 8:07 pm
The school has been under renovation every year I have been here at the academy.
My room is checked for deficiencies every semester, where I have the opportunity to write down its problems. That opportunity was last week. The food isn’t great sometimes, but we’re definitely not starving and eating peanut butter as a survival technique. I do eat PB&J when I don’t like what’s on the menu, and so do most other cadets. Sometimes the repair men are slow to repair things and our chain of command is slow to pursue the correction, but that is not common.
West Point is well maintained for the most part. There are exceptions, but we are not neglected. Ration money could be better, but it’s not terrible.
I would love air conditioning, but that would be hugely expensive to install in 200 year old stone buildings. Better spend that money on soldiers in the war.
Posted by: Cadet S. | December 1, 2009, 10:48 pm 10:48 pm
Walter Reed, West Point… 100% government control, and look at the results! Can’t wait for my rationed health care. But it’s okay, I’ll just learn how to treat myself, thanks Barack. You know what the Native Americans do when their hospitials run out of money and close in July and they just have to fend for themselves!
Posted by: jafo | December 1, 2009, 11:55 pm 11:55 pm
Sadly this is not a new problem. In the 1990′s there was a soldier at Ft. Benning, GA that was permanently disabled by carbon monoxide poisoning and the govt. lawyers argued that the US military could order a soldier to live in dangerous housing (not in a war zone, but in sub-standard housing in the USA) and if they were injured as a result of that, they couldn’t get compensation because you can’t sue the military for the orders that they issue.
Imagine that! A military serviceman being injured by the negligence of his superiors (not on the front lines, but on the home front) and the govt. response was – tough luck.
Fortunately, the courts ruled that his injuries “did not arise from an activity incident to his service in the military”. So they allowed him to seek recovery from the govt. in the courts.
But that is the mentality of the govt. and military lawyers – these men and women that serve our country are theirs to do with as they please without having to answer to anyone.
I served for more than four years in the US military and I could not imagine doing that for the rest of my life – in fact, I can’t understand the kind of person that would surrender their life to military service – but I respect them. We need those people. They deserve our respect and our support – and as a country we have been stingy in showing our gratitude.
Posted by: OB-Wan222 | December 1, 2009, 11:59 pm 11:59 pm
Obama is the president. It is now HIS war whether you like it or not and he has been dithering…
Posted by: Krakatoa
sure it is, that doesn’t mean Bush/Cheney aren’t guilty of abandonment of the troops and policy failures that Obama has to try and fix….
it’s amazing to me that you folks seem to be in some fantasy world where before 1/20/09 everything was peachy keen, no wars, no economic problems, nothing wrong..
I haven’t seen one person admit that big mistakes were made during Bush/Cheney
Posted by: YO | December 2, 2009, 12:02 am 12:02 am
“Walter Reed, West Point… 100% government control, and look at the results! Can’t wait for my rationed health care.’
If you have an insurance policy then your care is already rationed. Except it’s rationed by an insurance flunky who has to approve any procedure your doctor recommends.
When I had a couple of teeth rebuilt the dentist recommended that I get a crown to protect the work that had already been done.
The insurance company said that crowns were a “cosmetic procedure”. I tried to explain that my dentist said I needed for a medical reason – the teeth were in the back of my mouth and the work already done could be damaged by ordinary chewing over time. But the insurance co. said – no way.
So I ended up paying almost $1000 out-of-pocket for a medical procedure prescribed by my dentist.
That’s not only rationing – it’s stupid rationing. Short-sighted, illogical and ignorant rationing designed to protect the company’s profits for that quarter, while risking greater costs down the road.
But that’s the kind of care that you can expect from for-profit providers.
And if you want to improve conditions at Walter Reed than allow lawsuits. Doctors that are incompetent or who can’t afford their malpractice premiums often join the military where they can’t be sued for their mistakes. That’s a case where “tort reform” works against good medical care.
Posted by: OB-Wan222 | December 2, 2009, 12:16 am 12:16 am