European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - November 17, 1990, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Navy feeder prep sch path to Annapolis midshipman Eric Verhage a graduate of the naval Academy preparatory school is now a senior at the . Naval Academy where he is in charge of this group of  Tom Stuckey associated press Eric ver Hage by his own admission was Alouso High school student and a troublemaker who earned Quot almost ridiculously Low grades Quot he finished near the Bottom of his class of 3f0at Mechanicsburg pay a and did t have enough credits to graduate. Six years later ver Hage is entering his senior year at the . Naval Academy where he ranks in the top third of his class. A change of heart and a lot of hard work helped ver Hage make the transformation from High school goof off to successful scholar. So did a $40,000, one year prep school education financed by taxpayers. Ver Hage Tike generations of naval officers before him is a graduate of the 75-year-od naval Academy preparatory school naps in Newport . It is run by the Navy solely to qualify students for the naval Academy and the coast guard Academy. The army and air Force have similar schools that serve As feeder schools for their academies. The armed forces spend More than $20 million annually to prepare about 800 Young men and women for the service academies while each year the academies turn away hundreds of qualified applicants. In fact prep school graduates make up about 15 percent to 20 percent of the Cadet corps. Quot we wire Brush them get them All shined up get the brass looking Good and then we deliver them Quot says capt. Thomas p. Danaher director of the Navy prep school. Generally the prep schools have gone about their business with Little interference from the outside. But now Congress has asked the general accounting office to look at the three schools and submit a report next year. Quot Congress just wants to know if the schools Are doing their Job Well and if the Money is being Well spent Quot says James Schweiter a staff aide with the House armed services committee. Some prep school students such As ver Hage Are late is seeking a second Chance. Others Are minorities fades and test scores Are too Low. Lets Are athletes recruited to play sports. Liter says some members of the committee have la whether prep schools Are improperly used to collegiate athletes. The Gao study May answer Timon he says. Ivy prep school the oldest of the three began in h 13 enlisted men As students t a very Small school to provide a commissioning listed men Quot says John w. Renard Dean of Eis at the Academy. I final Mission of the schools was to help men and Lorn the regular army air Force and Navy enter the jes. But the role has been expanded in recent years Ihl etes and minorities qualify for the academies Foh ools also offer a Way into the academies for l who do not follow the Normal admission route a on from a member of Congress be the Cost there is no talk at the academies of Jack or eliminating the prep schools even in a time of hey and dwindling military budgets. Jaden ties Are not Short on applicants. Navai Academy More than 12,000 applied for in this year. More than 2,000 of them qualified locally medically and physically for the 1,232 sin the class of 1994, re acknowledges he could easily fill the class tar without the prep school a would i want to the answer is no Quot he says jets at prep schools May have had shaky academic in High school but they Are Bright and often have vation and leadership qualities that produce the cers Renard says Jas at All three schools emphasize the importance Lep schools to their efforts to enrol minorities. They it school graduates add a diversity that would not be academies restricted enrolment to the to the air Force Academy Quot just  meet our recruiting goals Quot without the prep school says lies Wright head of the air Force Academy preparatory school at Colorado Springs Colo. If you close the prep school you eliminate a source of entry to West Point. For soldiers for minorities for some females who would t otherwise have a Chance to go Quot says col. Jim Orahood commandant of the . Military preparatory school at fort Monmouth . Quot you need All these segments of society Quot he says. Minorities Don t come from the Best schools As a group. We do want to keep them in the mainstream of our military and often this is the Best Way for them to get  Orahood is a walking advertisement for the military Academy preparatory school. The West Point graduate returned to fort Monmouth As its commanding officer 26 years after he graduated from the prep school. Quot i came from one of those Small High schools Quot he says. Quot there were 20-something in my class. I did no to know what a slide Rule was. I did no to know  the prep schools say their graduates often go on to become medal winners War heroes and top Echelon officers. Astronaut Loren Shriver is a graduate of the air Force prep school j5o is Graham Shirley who flew 200 combat missions in Vietnam and Rose to the rank of brigadier general. The naval Academy prep school numbers among its graduates vice adm. Joseph Metcalf now retired who commanded . Forces during the invasion of Granada. And vice adm. Frank Donavan currently commander of the military sea lift command. All three academies use the prep schools to boost their athletic programs. Quot we would not be Able to Field the athletic teams that we do Quot without prep school Wright says. Quot we need every Little Edge we can get because of the High academic standards at the Academy Quot says Jack Lengyel Navy s athletic director. Quot if an athlete meets Normal admission standards but the academics Are shaky then we will offer the athlete the prep school Quot Renard said. That was the Case with John Casey a Junior from Doylestown a. He was asked to go to prep school when he was recruited to Row on Navy s Crew team. Quot that was Fine with me Quot he says. Quot i figured that would give me a Good background for my military training and boost my  Mark Smith a wrestler from Holt Mich., went the prep school route because he made a last minute decision to attend the naval Academy instead of Michigan state. Quot i called the Academy and they said they were interested Quot Smith says Quot they said they could get me into naps on Short notice. It was a great Avenue for  by accepting appointment to the prep school students commit themselves to military service whether they go on to the service Academy or not. If they pass the course they Are virtually guaranteed appointment to one of the academies. If they done to pass they become part of the regular military service As enlisted personnel. All prep school students take the same Basic course a two units of math one of English and one of science students also begin military training. Those who go on to an Academy graduate at about the same rate As those who enter directly from High school or College. Prep schools say their graduates tend to stay in the military longer than other Academy students. A study by the army showed retention rates higher by 5 percent to 10 percent at key landmarks such As five years when Academy graduates can first leave the service and 20 years the first retirement Mark. Prep schools require applicants to commit an extra year of their Young lives to the military Quot my brother had gone that route. He recommended it Quot says Chris Oddo a Junior at the Navai Academy Quot i done to think i had the grades to get in Here first. I done to think i could have made it Here Quot without a year at naps. Ver Hage says he did poorly in High school because Quot i was Lazy Quot Quot now i am the Complete opposite Quot he says. Quot i done to want to miss anything again because i m Lazy. Quot academically i Learned an incredible amount at naps. Naps was my foot in the  less stress for plebes ritualized hazing banned by Michael Hill associated press t he new class of cadets at the . Military Academy this year has been spared a disciplinary ritual As old As West Point itself. Hazing of first year cadets or plebes has been abolished. But at the 18b-year-old school hazing is a tradition that has survived Reform before. Plebes of old had to do such things As memorize How Many ice cubes go in the drinks of upperclassmen. Or double time around the Barracks at 120 Steps a minute squaring Corners like robots. Or study new York times articles ready to repeat them verbatim at the whim of older cadets. Quot it s a rite of passage that we Arentt doing anymore Quot says Todd Manninen a third year student from Unionville Mich. Quot it s a tradition that they be been doing  it was intended to teach discipline. Upperclassmen had the right to come up to any first year students wearing a crooked Cap or Dingy Belt buckle and literally shout in their face the proper rules for conduct. But what upset Many at West Point were the Quot unwritten but nonetheless tolerated practices Quot of the upperclassmen under what was called the fourth class system according to col h. Steven Hammond whose commandant s office oversees military training for the cadets. Quot you would read the rules and say Well this sounds of but in terms of How it was practice there was much Opportunity and great potential for abuse by the upper class cadets a Hammond says the abuses differed from the mistreatment piled on unlucky civilian College fraternity pledges. West Point hazing was supposedly instituted to improve the character of neophyte officer candidates. In the name of leadership plebes were mandated to learn not Only military history but pages of other trivia and gibberish that in effect equated an extra academic course. But what really rankled Hammond and others was that upperclassmen were so Busy trying to Lead plebes they did no to spend enough time working on their own character. Quot too Many people in the past saw the seniors role As placing stress on the subordinate Quot he says. Quot but the leaders role is to remove  so this semester with Little ado the Cadet leadership development system was unveiled. At the heart of this new system Are 15 rules defining the proper Way for a military Leader to act toward subordinates. This fall s plebes now just have to read the times not memorize the front Page. However Many who passed through hazing voice regret. A you can Tell by looking in their eyes that the plebes wish it was the same Quot Manninen says Quot it s not the same Quot says Robin Schuck a female senior from Davenport Iowa. Quot when i was a plebe anybody could Tell you your brass buckle needed a Shine. Now Only someone in your Chain of command can make a  Quot i  say it s easier Quot says John Hugena a plebe. Quot a lot of the things we have to do the upperclassmen had to do. We still have to be familiar with world  some cadets have taken to calling the freshman class Quot get overs Quot a As in those who Quot get Over Quot by doing As Little work As possible. Hammond though emphatically rejects the idea that plebes have it any easier than their forebears or that West Point is becoming Quot a Harvard on the . Quot every single class that has Ever come Here has been told during their freshman year that you got it easier Quot a Hammond says. Maybe they do. Devising was such an arduous pastime Early in the 19th Century that an Academy superintendent advised plebes standing guard duty to use their bayonets against relentless upperclassmen tormentors. At the turn of the Century the death of a former Cadet linked to hazing provoked a National scandal. Page 14 the stars and stripes Oscar l. Booz died of tubercular 18 months after he dropped out Oflyn Academy. But his family blamed his daily dosages of Tabasco sauce his schoolmates forced him to drink a congressional committee Unsod other abuses such As forcing plebe bayonets or slide naked Down splint if boards. One Young first year Cadet called to before Congress Douglas Macart forced to recall his own humiliations Macarthur biographer William a recounts in american Caesar that tool general in command of . Forces til East was once Laid unconscious and convulsions after three separate Gra upperclassmen forced him to per font knee bends Over broken Glass. Hazing was modified in the waked scandal but the almost sacred rites could not be eradicated. George Patton class of 1909, personal letters How upperclassmen in sure he would always Quot Brace Quot that walk so erect As to push his Chin into bullets. Dwight d. Eisenhower once recall own plebe year in 1911 As Quot double Quot  perhaps remembering his own w Macarthur curtailed abuses of thelois system upon his appointment in 191 superintendent of West Point. But once again while the physical brutality lessened the ritual remained. Hammond says previous attempts at Reform failed because they attacked the symptoms of abuse not the cause. For example bracing was abolished in the 1960s Only to give Rise to pinging double timing around the Barracks squaring the Corners but the new Reform is fundamentally different he says. This time cadets both past and present worked with faculty and staff for years to make reports and suggest changes. Hammond says the Cadet leadership development system cuts right through to the very purpose of the Academy Quot to provide the nation with leaders of character who serve the common  Quot leadership Quot and a character Quot Are sacred terms at West Point. It s the army a concept of leadership that initiated the change. And despite the grumblings it s the cadets respect for leadership that will make or break the new system. Schuck while conceding that Many of her classmates had doubts about the new system predicts Success for the new rules. As a whole we try to support the system whether we agree with it or  saturday nov 1990 a. A new Cadet at the . Military Academy at West Point receives instructions from a senior Cadet the stars and stripes a a a Page 15