“Retired General Martin France, himself an Air Force Academy graduate and former chair of the academy\u2019s department of astronautics and engineering, views this military campus crackdown, which includes complementary work by other federal bodies, as a myopic effort to eliminate courses that encourage independence, an instinct echoed by many of the more than 20 current and former civilian and military faculty I spoke with, many of whom were granted anonymity to freely discuss the conditions of the crackdown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cOur officers should be sentient beings who understand just war theory, the laws around conflict, the orders that they are morally obligated to disobey,\u201d France said, arguing that the Trump administration, by contrast, wants to breed compliance rather than teach nuance. This, in turn, France alleged, forms an officer class of \u201cflesh-and-bone drones.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Due to the Air Force\u2019s highly technical mission, its service academy has an especially rich STEM program, one that rears future fighter pilots, astronauts and nuclear missile operators. As such, many of the departing civilian professors taught engineering courses. \u201cThey think that our graduates should be more comfortable with crawling through the dirt and carrying a rifle,\u201d vented one current military professor. \u201cWe\u2019re the Air Force, we don\u2019t do that. We don\u2019t fire rifles. We operate multi-billion-dollar systems and multi-billion-dollar bomber aircraft.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
…<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Amid this exodus of civilians, some military professors are leaving, too. The long-time military professor described a pervasive sense that the overall academic environment has been fatally compromised, dynamics he explained with a baseball metaphor: \u201cWhen there\u2019s a team with pitchers but no catchers, you can\u2019t play ball.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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I understood the worries of the professor in black. They were echoed throughout my interviews for this story. Still, I wondered if maybe his anonymous get-up was a bit of an overreaction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
My mind changed six days later, when it became apparent that I myself had been monitored. That morning, a Secret Service agent showed up to my parents\u2019 door, explaining that West Point had reported me for acting suspiciously. Specifically, they alleged that I\u2019d been asking people to speak with the president. This wasn\u2019t true, and the service declined to discuss the intelligence undergirding the allegation. But it felt like a poetic charge in light of my reportorial focus on the military\u2019s stifling of academic inquiry. Certainly, any reporter, as with any pupil, must be allowed, encouraged even, to ask probing questions.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n