Democracy champion US army recruits athletes by alcohol, women

The United States army has used alcoholic drinks and women to recruit football players.

In a Saturday statement, the US Military Academy at West Point, New York, acknowledged that it disciplined 20 cadets for promoting underage drinking and other misdeeds, the Gazette reported.

The report said the academy wooed the army football team’s recruits through the misconduct, which included an alcohol-fueled party and a dinner date with female cadets.

The US police also escorted the footballers’ party bus, which was packed with cheerleaders.

The academy later reported the recruiting violation to the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), but no suspensions were announced and no one was dismissed from the team.

The Military Academy’s statement called the misdeed “a minor infraction” of the NCAA regulations, adding it itself takes the matter “very seriously and adjudicated this at the highest level of the disciplinary code.”

Army Major Dwight Mears, a West Point graduate and former history professor at the academy, said such violations are nothing new at the academy.

“That’s not shocking, considering in the past the academy has basically waived its own administrative procedures to keep players on the field,” he noted.

Meanwhile, West Point spokeswoman Theresa Brinkerhoff said the misdeed would be dealt with “administratively” and the details would not be disclosed.

In August, a probe into athlete conduct at US Air Force showed that a core group of football players had engaged in drug use, drinking, sexual assault, and academic cheating.