By LTC Bill Fletcher, USAF ret, USMA ’74
F-4 Fighter Pilot

In modern America, if not the world, the impact of social media on society at large can be huge. Almost everyone has access to one form or more of the media at their fingertips. (In 2023 45% of Americans owned an IPad, and owned 310 million cell phones. Statistica)

The ability of a topic to “go viral” is awesome and inspiring. The impact may be more in nudging the needle as opposed to causing direct change, but the impact is there nonetheless.

In the past 3 days the Superintendent of West Point (the Supe) and the Association of Graduates (AOG) have watched the “mud hit the fan” and have to recalculate and re-evaluate their positions vis a vis the importance of our Motto Duty, Honor, Country because of the impact of social media.

On March 7, 2024, the Board of Visitors (BOV) of the United States Military Academy (USMA) held a public meeting. At this meeting the Supe announced significant changes to the Mission of the USMA. Said Mission statement substituted “Army Values” for West Point values.

WP BOV Slides 7MAR24 (pdf)

Duty and Honor were quasi included. Country was not. Questions from the public were submitted but ignored.

Needless to say some of the public were less than impressed with this change and the diminishment of important West Point values.

By Sunday March 11, 2024 the contents of the BOV meeting had reached Armed Forces Press and notes from the meeting were being circulated via email. The whirlwind was beginning to form.

Questions were being raised on social media as to the accuracy of the reporting. By Sunday afternoon, the Notes were published on social media via several Facebook Forums, validating the Armed Forces Press article.

The outrage was immediate and intense. The email address of the Vice President of the AOG was published and one could safely assume he was inundated with negative comments. How can we know this?

Monday morning March 13, 2024 the “mud was in the fan”. A Senior Officer responding to many inquiries from his Classmates sent an email directly to the Supe before 1000. By 10:30 he received a direct reply from the Supe with an explanation of his position.

A Class Rep also made an equivocal response. He mentioned to me (as an objector to his response), that he received more responses to his email than other other email he has sent out since graduation (greater than 40 years, btw). The email the Senior Officer received was similar in content to a letter all grads would receive later in the day. Clearly, they were aware of the onslaught of negativity.

By 1700 the AOG sent out a “can’t we all get along” email with a copy of the Supe’s quibbling letter. Under the Honor Code as it should be, “quibbling” was also considered an Honor violation.

SOURCE: https://www.westpoint.edu/news/press-releases/west-point-mission-statement-update-0

By Tuesday morning March 12, 2024 at least 3 separate groups of grads were organizing themselves and discussing the next steps to take to return core values to the Corps of Cadets, and to defeat these changes which diminish the uniqueness of West Point and the Code of Duty, Honor, Country.

Does the Supe have the power to make these changes unilaterally? Yes, he does. Should he? I think the answer is No.

Further, to publicly publish these changes at a BOV Meeting without coming to the AOG at Large was foolish. He is now reaping the whirlwind he has sown.

What is the long term effect? Too soon to tell. The backlash was immediate and intense. The opposition to these changes has strengthened.

Who has the power? Short term, he does.

But his opposition are professional soldiers who gave America a blank check for our lives. We fear no one and when angered can be a fierce enemy.

With social media at our disposal information can be exchanged Nationwide at a great rate. Organizing under pressure and completing tasks in chaos is what we do.

I write this at my desk behind which I practiced law after my Service, under a framed picture of “The Long Gray Line” by Ben Maile. I wouldn’t bet against us.

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Bill Fletcher is a 1974 graduate of West Point. Growing up an Air Force brat, having been born on Chateauroux Air Force Base in France, he joined the US Air Force after graduating. He became a pilot and has 1,750 hours flying the F-4 fighter. He served as the Executive Officer in IG office of the 116th Tactical Fighter Wing in the Georgia Air National Guard, retiring as a Lt. Colonel. Bill earned his law degree in 1986 from Emory University and has 37 years general civil practice (retired but license still active). He is licensed and practiced in all courts in Georgia including Georgia Court of Appeals, Georgia Supreme Court, Federal District Court Northern and Middle Districts of Georgia, 11th Circuit US Court of Appeals and the Federal District Court Colorado