of North Carolina affiliate in Charlotte; arntax accountant, who was also a reservernCaptain in the Army and a Civil War enthusiast;rna district court judge; a housewifernwith no apparent links to the militar}’,rneven through her husband or otherrnrelatives; and a large, busding woman inrnher 40’s whose aggressively gregariousrnmanner reminded me of a used car salesman.rnIt turned out that she was in sales,rnreal estate sales. Several years before, shernhad visited the Air Force Academy inrnColorado Springs and was forever smitten.rnShe claimed to be a lifelong Democrat,rnand I wondered how she got on thisrnpanel given the congressman’s eternalrnmembership in the Republican Party.rnNohng her last name, I asked her if shernwas an- kin to the owner of a large Buickrndealership in town. “Oh yes,” shernreplied, “that’s Daddy.” Enough said.rnDaddy was probably a generous donorrnto the congressman’s campaign. Ah, politics.rnThere was a slight knock on the doorrnand the smiling face of one of the secretariesrnswimg into view. “Are you readyrnfor Mr. Compton?”rnYoung Compton was about five footrnnine, ver^ thin, with glasses. He smiledrnlamel- as the chairman told him to takerna seat, f^is SATs were fair, with the Mathrnand Verbal total just over 1200, and hisrnCPA was a 3.67. He was a senior (asrnwere all the kids) at a local public highrnschool where there had been a recentrnshooting, and his mother was a part-timernnurse; his dad worked for the local powerrncompan’. The chairman started thingsrnoff. “Tell us about yourself, Ted.”rn”Well,” he began, looking at his foldedrnhands in his lap, “I was born andrnraised here. My dad was in the Army asrnan enlisted man and said it was OK but ifrnI ever wanted to go into the service Irnshould l^e an officer and the best way tornbe an officer is to go to a service academ}’.”rnSound enough advice, and I noticedrnthat he had selected Air Force asrnhis first academv choice, followed byrnNay. No West Point.rn”Wh- do you want to be in the AirrnForce?” said our realtor lady.rn”I want to be in the Air Force and go tornthe Air Force Academv because it representsrnthe best of all the services to me.rnThe Air Force is where it’s at, so to speakrnand I think—”rn”Have you ever been out to the Academy?”rnshe interrupted.rn”No, but I visited my cousin once atrnWest Point. He was a cadet there butrnquit after his first year.”rn”You should really try to get outrnthere,” she plowed ahead, “it’s just sornbeauhful, and believe me I can understandrnwhy you want to go there.”rnThe district judge, a man of no militar}’rnexperience, asked what would havernbeen an intelligent question some yearsrnago: “I see that your grades in English,rnHistor}’, and French are all very strong,rnbut you seem to have had trouble in Algebrarnand Chemistry. Are you awarernthat all the academies place strong emphasisrnon math and science? You’llrnchiefly be studying engineering, and torndo well at academics, indeed to graduate,rnyou’re going to have to pass theserncourses. Can you handle that?”rnTed frowned a bit and said that hernthought he had the desire and couldrnovercome difficult courses by “burningrnthe midnight oil.” The judge obviouslyrndid not know that since the admission ofrnwomen to the academies in 1976, therncurriculum has eroded to the point thatrnengineering courses are now largely optionalrnand cadets and midshipmen canrngraduate with degrees in subjects such asrnAmerican History or English. Experiencernwith the first few classes of womenrnshowed officials at all three academiesrnthat women tend not to do well in hardrnscience and engineering, at least not asrnwell as the men, and consequendy experiencerna higher dropout rate. Hence thernmovement away from engineering andrntoward a more liberal arts curricidrmi.rnMore questions followed, and the atmospherernturned a little friendlier. Tedrnwas praised for holding down a job afterrnschool and still lettering in cross countr’rnand track.rn”Do you have a girlfriend?” the realtorrnlady asked, jangling what appeared to bernabout three dozen shiny brass braceletsrnon her right wrist as she scribbled away.rn”Well, sort of,” he smiled.rn”Does she know that if you go out tornColorado Springs you won’t be able tornsee her luitil Christmas leave? You knowrnthat, don’t you? They only let you gornhome once during your first year. Isn’trnthat going to be tough on her? On you?rnOn both of you?”rn”Yeah, I know that, but this g i r l . . . ” Irnfigured it was my time to say something,rneven though our chairman hadn’trnglanced at me to gi’e the go ahead.rn”You indicated the Naval Academy asrnyour second choice,” I said.rn”Yeah,” he replied cautiously (it thenrnoccurred to me that this kid hadn’t oncernaddressed any of the adults on this panelrnas “sir” or “ma’am”).rn”Are you aware that the nature of dutyrna Navy ensign is assigned can and mostrnprobably will be vastiy different from thatrnof an Air Force second lieutenant?” Irncontinued.rn”Sure,” he said, “but that’s OK, becausernwhat I really want to do is serve myrncountr)’.” (He is clueless about the naturernof work junior officers do in anyrnbranch of the service.)rnNow our chairman spoke again: “Ted,rnI want you to follow along with me onrnthis little exercise. I’m on a plane; I’mrngoing out of town on business, and after Irnget in my seat a young man sits down besidesrnme. We both buckle up and at lastrnthe plane takes off. After a while we beginrnspeaking to each other and we findrnout that we’re both from Charlotte [largerngrin].”rnTed: “OK.”rnChairman: “Well, then, it appears, afterrnwe’ve been chatting for a while, thatrnwe have a number of friends in common.rnAnd one of them is you! I ask himrnto tell me about his thoughts on our mutualrnfriend, Ted.”rnTed: “Uh huh.”rnChairman: “Tell me Ted, if I ask himrnto tell me three good things about you,rnvhat would he say ,7″rnTed: “Gee, that I’m a good friend, thatrnI, uh, work hard. That uh, I uh . . . “rnChairman: “Ah! You work hard.rnWell, what do you mean by that?”rnI cringed to think that this sort of questioningrnmight go on all day long. Thernmost inflated, circumlocutions way ofrnasking the kid to list three personalrnstrengths and weaknesses!rnFinally, young Ted left and we talliedrnour score sheets. The maximum scorernany candidate could get was 100. Thernpoints were broken down as follows: 20rnpoints for SAT scores, 20 for high schoolrnGPA, and 60 points based on subjectiverncategories such as leadership, poise, personalrnappearance, self-expression, potentialrnto serve a career in the military. Regardingrnthis last categor}’, how were we tornknow a young man’s seriousness with respectrnto a military career? And leadership:rnthat, too, was enormously difficultrnto judge. Sure, some kids were team captainsrnor class presidents, and one couldrncite such offices as evidence of leadership;rnbut leadership at the high schoolrnlevel is merely a name given to popularity.rnReal leadership entails making difficult,rnunpopular decisions, telling peoplernMARCH 1998/41rnrnrn