The Air Force Academy's year of reform

Here on the Air Force Academy's expansive campus, in the shadow of the Rampart Range, there aren't many outward signs of the cultural sea change that's occurring.

Clean-cut cadets, dressed in blue uniforms, head purposefully to class or the playing fields. There's little free time, and seniors (or first-degrees, in Academy jargon) still complain, as they've always done, that the entering class has it easier than they did.

This year, though, some things are different. For starters, this year's entering class is the first since 1964 not to enter the gates beneath the old sign exhorting: "Bring Me Men." They no longer spend hours marching on the tour pad or doing push-ups as punishment. They brandish cellphones, and they had to "run the strip" and carry their bookbag off their shoulder only for the autumn, instead of all the way through March.

It's a kinder, gentler Air Force Academy - in some ways, at least - just one year after a sexual-assault scandal sent shock waves through this campus, forcing resignations of the top leadership and a flurry of congressional and military investigations. When it came out last year that scores of cadets claimed to have been assaulted since 1993 - and, perhaps worse, that those in charge typically punished the victims rather than the perpetrators - a lot of ink went to dissecting academy culture, particularly its hazing and subordination systems

It's too soon to tell if the changes will work: Cultural shifts take decades, not months. Recent accusations about rape among active troops - including the Air Force in the Pacific, and at Sheppard Air Force Base in Texas, and troops in the Persian Gulf - only underscore the enormity of the military's task. Critics worry that the academy's response is just another surface job, and point to elements, like confidentiality for victims, that are still missing. But it's striking how much has changed in a year, starting with a leadership that acknowledges the depth of the problem.

"We're real early in the journey," acknowledges Brig. Gen. Johnny Weida, the commandant of cadets, who came to the academy last April. "We're very optimistic, and hopeful for the future, but we're realists. We need to manage expectations." When he arrived at the academy last April, he first tried to discover how widespread the problem really was. What he discovered, he says, is that it was not only systemic, "it was broader than sexual assault or sexual harassment."

Hence the changes, not just on rape response, but on push-ups.

Wes Spurlock, a squadron commander from Riverside, Calif., who plans to go to pilot training in Georgia when he graduates this spring, says the new system has had a big effect on his leadership style: "Last year, if I had four-degrees [freshmen] messing up, I could just yell at them, have them out doing push-ups. Now I have to get them to want to be better."

He describes a typical scenario - making morning rounds of the dorm rooms and finding one that fails inspection. A year ago, he might have had the cadet pick up his rifle, head to the tour pad, and march in a circle for 10 hours, without considering extenuating circumstances. This year, says Mr. Spurlock, he'll sit down and talk to the cadet. If it becomes a repeat problem, then a paper trail of disciplinary letters will follow the cadet, even into the Air Force. "It's harder, it takes more time," he says. "I have to walk around and talk to people. But you do get to know people better. I've learned more about these cadets" in his new squadron "than the squadron I was in for two years."

Most cadets like the cultural changes - punishments no longer seem as meaningless and the disciplinary system is more in line with the actual military's - even as they say the sexual assault problem isn't as great as the outside world seems to think.

"There were a lot of talks - 'Don't go off into the woods with someone after Taps' - common-sense stuff," says Jordan Wilhelm, an upbeat blond freshman from Mason, Ohio, who's wanted to go to a military academy since eighth grade. To her, many of those warnings "felt like overkill."

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