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One of our airborne battle staff commanders was a West Point grad, full bird colonel. Never had a bad interaction with him or heard any negative opinions about him. The only thing was, you didn't want to play against him in racquetball. He'd wax your a$$ any day of the week, twice on Sundays...

"All the alumni were driven by patriotism even if, as with Robert E. Lee, that patriotism was misplaced" doubt he thought that!

How could a discussion of the sevice acadamy grads leave out Jimmy Carter? Class of 46

Server 43 years, military and contract work. Service academy grads were always a mixed bag. Some very competent, others could not wrap a birthday present without help.

Almost like the general population.

My dad graduated from the Naval Academy. He'd roll over in his grave if he saw it today. Killed on 4th tour in Vietnam flying over Hanoi.

I worked with quite a few USMA grads, most were good, some not so good.

One of many SAD things about the Vietnam war was the extra "sorties" flown with 1/2 Bomb loads to extend the short supply of Bombs to get in more 'SORTIES", thus ENDANGERING more
fighter/bomber pilots !!! Totally stupid leadership by dumb asskissers !!!!!

I served from 6-1962 to 6-1966. For the last 2 years i operated KC135 Flt Sim's. I sat beside mostly old Warhorses that had flown in WW2 and Korea. Those Officers were tops. THEY HAS "SEEN the ELEPHANT". Also knew a couple of 'SECOND & FIRST LEWEY's THAT WERE FROM THE ACADEMY. They were clearly out of place & not much use for anything !!

Spot on.

2LTs are school trained, but don't have the experience and seasoning that they need to do much more than learn via OJT. A good commander makes sure that his 2LTs have good NCOs, NCOs who will teach them the ropes and help them become technically and tactically proficient. By the time a 2LT gets promoted to 1LT, at about 18 months when I was in, he ought to be able to do more than find his own ass with two hands. If a 1LT isn't technically and tactically proficient in his MOS and at least familiar with his soldier's basic MOS skills, he should be reassigned to a job where he can't do any harm while he waits out the end of his rookie contract.