AIR FORCE ACADEMY EXPANDS DRUG TESTING AMID SCANDAL

AIR FORCE ACADEMY, Colo. - Also, more ethics lessons are being worked into
courses amid charges - including rape and theft - against several cadets.

The Air Force Academy has stepped up drug testing and is putting more
classroom emphasis on ethics amid the biggest drug scandal in the school's
47-year history.

Thirty-eight cadets out of 4,300 have been implicated in the scandal that
began in December 2000.

In addition, six cadets have been charged or convicted of crimes such as
larceny and sodomy. The former president of the class of 2003 is accused of
stealing $9,000 from a class activity fund.

Academy officials have no simple explanation for the rash of crime. This
month, a student was arrested on charges of raping a female cadet.

"We rely on the American people to send us their best. Every now and then
we don't get the right people," said Col. Mark Hyatt, director of the
Academy Center for Character Development, a department at the school that
concentrates on everything from dinner-party manners to battlefield ethics.

The drug scandal - involving mainly the use of Ecstasy and marijuana - is
the biggest problem for the academy since 105 cadets accused of cheating
resigned in 1965. In the past 10 years, there had been only one other drug
case at the academy, a spokesman, Lt. Col. Perry Nouis, said.

Because of the scandal, the academy has made it clear that an admission of
even one puff on a marijuana cigarette will result in expulsion and
possibly imprisonment, Hyatt said.

"We have to do things right or people die. When I come out of Baghdad and I
am out of fuel, I am trusting that tanker pilot will be there," Hyatt said.
"Because of what happened, we are not going to look the other way."

Also, academy officials increased random drug tests. The academy is also
considering state-of-the-art DNA testing of hair follicles, which can
detect some drugs up to 90 days after their use.

In addition, the academy is working ethics lessons into courses across the
curriculum.

Of the 38 cadets implicated, eight were court-martialed and seven of those
went to prison; one of them got a 3 1/2-year sentence at Leavenworth, Kan.
Twenty-one others have left the academy; some of those are being forced to
repay the government for their tuition, while others must serve in the Air
Force in the enlisted ranks and not as officers.

Nine others received punishments ranging from loss of privileges to fines.

The investigation began after a cadet tested positive for drug use. The
academy said all of the drug use occurred off-campus at parties. One cadet
was accused of drug dealing; the rest were accused of using drugs or
knowing about such use but keeping silent.

Theron Mink, a cadet who heads the honor committee, said, "Initially, a lot
of people were shocked. Then people got angry. Then because of the trust
issue they felt a little bit betrayed."