
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, June 12, 1990                   TAG: 9006120376
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: ANDY WILLIAMS
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

WHAT'S HAZING AND WHAT'S NOT

PAXTON Davis in two recent columns has raised the question of hazing at VMI because of the incident at the U.S. Naval Academy involving a female midshipman who was locked to a urinal by male midshipmen. I, too, find this prank disgusting but problematical.

Why problematical? Simply stated, if the status quo demands that we mix the sexes in a military-school environment, at times you're going to have boys acting like boys and not mature young men.

It is possible that a similar incident could happen at VMI if female cadets are allowed entrance. But let's not convict VMI before the fact for something that the Naval Academy is dealing with at this time. This makes VMI guilty by association. That's unfair.

I, too, completed my rat year at VMI. The VMI of the '40s and the VMI of the '90s are not the same in respect to hazing. As far as my experience with VMI goes, hazing is not:

Doing 50 push-ups when an upperclassmen so directs.

Running laps with your M-1 rifle around the parade ground seven times in an afternoon P.T. exercise.

Walking the rat line in barracks and enduring the comments from upperclassmen.

Duck-walking up the tennis court steps.

Sweat parties in overcoats in the main sinks.

All of the above I experienced my rat year. My punishment for all that was a gain in weight of 30 pounds, and I have never been in as good a shape.

Hazing is:

Beating a cadet with some blunt instrument.

Smacking a cadet with your hand or fist.

Physical or mental torture.

I witnessed none of this form of hazing during my four years as a cadet. I am not aware of any such conduct at VMI now. To imply such is underhanded and a misrepresentation.

The physical and mental stress that a cadet endurses during his rat year prepares him well for life's pressures, and the molding of his character during his upper-class years prepares him to meet life's challenges as a citizen in our society.

At issue here is the very essence of VMI: a toughness that produces mentally and physically fit young men. Will the admittance of women water down this fabric and necessitate a double standard at VMI as it has at the service academy? My guess is that it will.

I chose to think that Davis has brought up the hazing factor to support his call for VMI to admit women. What I can gather from his definition of hazing is that he would also support eliminating boot camp at Quantico, and basic training in the Army, Navy, and Air Force. After all, training at these sites includes physical exercise, mental testing, and physical endurance.

If Davis had a bad experience at VMI in 1940, I'm sorry. But let's not condemn something that has worked remarkably well for more than 150 years by using a measuring stick that's 50 years old.

by CNB