First, it was Sergeant Major of the Army, Gene McKinney and now it is Midshipman Michael Pilson, Jr. McKinney, in the aftermath of the Aberdeen sex scandal where drill sergeants were accused of raping recruits, was court martialed on charges of sexual misconduct by a gaggle of enlisted and officer females. He was found not guilty of all these charges. Nevertheless, his career was destroyed by these false charges and by the media and the Army's handling of the case. This event was a brazen display of power by politically-connected radical feminists to show that they could destroy the career of any man, including any black man, who is a symbol of male authority in the U.S. military.

       Michael Pilson, Jr., an Upperclassman at the U.S. Naval Academy is being given the same treatment.  The radical feminists and their allies at the Academy are sending an even more ominous signal -- 'We can destroy you at the lowest level as we did at the highest.  No one is immune from our absolute power.'

       Mr. Pilson was originally charged with rape of a female midshipman in her room at Bancroft Hall after they had attended an on-campus picnic hosted by the commandant of midshipmen -- at which the female, Ms. Hannah A. Kessler, sat at the commandant's table and reportedly consumed 'four glasses of wine during the two-hour dinner.'  After that event, the midshipmen visited two bars in Annapolis.  Classmates testified that "Midshipman Kessler became intoxicated.  She "sat on men's laps, blew into and kissed the men's ears, and was seen kissing a second lieutenant.  She was also seen with her arm around Midshipman Pilson."  Another midshipman testified he believed she "propositioned" Mr. Pilson.

       The group returned to Bancroft Hall around 10 p.m. Midshipman Pilson went to the woman's room to see if she wanted to go to Baltimore for more partying.  According to Mr. Pilson, "She was kissing me and began to undo my belt and pull down my pants and then asked me if I would get into the bed with her."

      The woman woke up the next morning and, "seeing Pilson in her bed, said she 'screamed' for help."  But that account was denied by a witness who saw Pilson in her bunk when Ms. Kessler later "walked in from the bathroom -- in her panties and bra."

       A military judge found "the alleged victim's account to be less reliable than those of the [male midshipmen] because of the alleged victim's level of intoxication and the apparent neutrality of the latter witnesses."  A medical exam on July 31 found "no physical evidence" of rape.

       Subsequently, the Academy expelled Midshipman Pilson for engaging in sexual relations in the dormitory but plans no disciplinary action against the female midshipman involved.

       This incident, reported in the Wash. Times (Jan. 19), is just one of a myriad of such incidents where double standards exist for females and males in the U.S. Navy.  There has been an indelible pattern of favored treatment for females over males and 'special consideration' for females at the academy and in the Navy in general.  What makes this case even more striking is that the male Midshipman, Michael Pilson, Jr. is black and the female midshipman, Ms. Kessler, is white.

       The male student's father accuses the Navy of conducting a '1920s lynching' of his son.  The midshipman, who admitted to having had consensual sex with Ms. Kessler in her dormitory room, a serious violation of Academy regulations, contends the woman lied about the encounter to protect herself from disciplinary action. The Navy, as it has inexorably in the past, has taken her side.  The father has a point -- this is the Clarence Thomas, Anita Hill case all over again, in Navy blue.  Radical feminism is running rampant at the Academy.

       The readers of my new book, 'From Trust to Terror: Radical Feminism is Destroying the U.S. Navy,' would not be surprised at such a double standard.  It has been in place for years.  My book tells the true story of a 1994 female graduate of the Academy who entered naval aviation training and ruined the careers of two Marine flight instructors, attempted to ruin the career of several others by manipulating the affirmative action commissariat within the Navy to go after the jugular of young flight instructors who were simply just doing their job -- giving failing grades to a flawed naval aviation candidate.

       After five formal 'downs' (failed flights), four excused 'downs,' and three progress review boards and a psychiatric examination, the flawed student pilot was finally attritted from the program.  But not until after she unleashed, through The Wing Commander and his radical feminist sympathizers, a campaign of terror against the flight instructors.  They were forced to undergo threats of summary dismissal, immediate loss of their 'wings of gold,' and Inspector General investigations before cooler heads finally prevailed and she was attrited. The Wing Commander was quietly 'retired.'

       But all of this need not have occurred had she been properly disciplined for behavior at the Naval Academy, not unlike that of Midshipman Kessler.  It is rumored that when the student pilot was a sophomore at the Naval Academy, she dated a  senior. They had problems. She reported to authorities that he had beaten her up about two weeks before his graduation. As a result of his actions, the senior midshipman was kicked out of the Naval Academy just before he was to graduate. Later on, it is rumored that she claimed a midshipman got her pregnant. An investigation was conducted. The charge turned out to be untrue. It was determined that she had made a 'false official statement.' An 'honor board' was convened to address this determination. The 'honor board' took no action on her false charge.

       I am told by a retired Academy alumnus, who served almost a dozen years in a formal capacity with the institution, that even more egregious events have occurred in the past.  He tells me that what goes on in Bancroft Hall, the dormitory of the Brigade of Midshipmen, is an open secret among those associated with the academy, as he was, on a daily basis.  Very few of these 'secrets' find their way into the press.  And when an incident makes the press, there are villains but no villainesses.  The way the game is played, the women are always the victims.

       He knows of documented examples of egregiously favorable treatment given to females.  A graduate female, assigned as the Registered Publications Custodian at her first duty station was supposed to inventory and sign for all the classified publications from the officer she was relieving.  She refused.  She maintained that she wasn't told that she would have to assure any such responsibility and she was not going to be responsible for those publications.  She was subsequently discharged before her obligated service ran out. She landed a position with a large corporation which was happy to have one of the 'pioneer' women at the Naval Academy on its rolls.

       This alumnus knows, from close association with the Academy, of documented examples of egregiously favorable treatment given to females. He believes that women have been and are being misled by the Navy and the radical feminists as to the purpose of the Naval Academy and what to expect there and how, after graduation, they are expected to perform in the fleet. This lack of understanding -- that they are expected to conform to higher standards than their civilian contemporaries -- is the greatest cause of conflict and problems. Many men have the same lack of understanding but most of them are eliminated by the system which had been operating effectively for more than 150 years. When attempts are made to apply that system to women, the cry of gender bias is raised and the issue becomes politicized.

     Apparently, it is all right to lie at the Naval Academy as long as you are a woman. Women don't lie, they just tell 'fibs.' Just like their Commander-in-Chief!

     Good luck Midshipman Pilson.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________

GERALD ATKINSON
CDR, U.S. Navy (Ret.)
(The author is a former Naval Aviator
and author of 'From Trust to Terror:
Radical Feminism is Destroying the
U.S. Navy.' His books may be reviewed
on his Internet Web Site at:
http://www.newtotalitarians.com
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________


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