AIR FORCE ACADEMY STRESSING ETHICS

COLORADO SPRINGS -- The U.S. Air Force Academy is beefing up its classroom
ethics education following a turbulent year of courts-martial for drug and
other criminal offenses.

The heightened focus on ethics accompanies an increase in random drug
screening at the academy following the biggest drug scandal in the school's
47-year history.

Eight cadets were court-martialed for drug offenses, one for dealing and
the others for use of controlled substances, after a drug probe was begun
in October 2000. All of the drug use occurred at parties outside the academy.

The investigation identified 35 cadets. Twelve were cleared, nine were
disciplined, not for using drugs themselves but for failing to report
others, a violation of the school's honor code. Five others received
administrative discipline and one resigned.

Six other cadets have been charged with crimes such as larceny and sodomy.
One was the junior class president, who has been charged with stealing
$9,000 from the class activity fund.

Academy officials have always prided themselves on attracting the nation's
best and brightest to the school that trains future military leaders. But
ethical breaches by cadets are troubling them.

"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's Center for Character Development, which teaches ethical conduct.

Academy officials said cadets are a cross-section of America's youth, and
as such will include some problem behavior.

The 14 cadets court-martialed are a sliver of the academy's 4,300-member
student body. But with the presumption that all cadets will become officers
responsible for others' lives, there is no compromise for responsible behavior.

"We have to do things right or people die," said Hyatt.

The academy is weaving ethical issues into classes throughout its
curriculum, and it hosts an annual symposium on character and leadership,
with guest speakers who discuss the consequences of individual behavior.

The symposium, held last month, included Navy Cdr. Scott Waddle, captain of
the U.S. nuclear submarine Greeneville, which collided with a Japanese
fishing vessel when surfacing off Hawaii Feb. 9, 2001, killing nine of the
35 aboard the Japanese boat.