This message goes out to anyone and everyone who cares about the Corps in any way shape or form. It goes out to the thousands and thousands of cadets who have passed through the arches and hallways of this great institution of leaders, to those who are proud to call themselves an aggie, and to everyone that wants to continue seeing the Corps create the Leaders of Tomorrow.

Due to the global pandemic referred to as COVID-19, this year the Corps of Cadets stopped caring about its cadets and it's Corps Vision Statement, that "The Corps of Cadets develops well-educated leaders of character prepared for the global leadership challenges of the future".

The Corps was completely unprepared to handle the COVID-19 pandemic while cadets were forced to come back to campus or have their military contracts and scholarships taken away.

From the moment FOW started, cases had already been reported of cadets testing positive for COVID-19. Nonetheless, they disregarded this fact and continued. Once everyone came back, they realized it would not be as easy maintaining COVID regulations as they had thought. Changes to the corps system started rolling in continuously which completely changed our institution into nothing but a husk of what it used to be, sacrificing our values, health, development, and careers in order to stay open.

The changes included multiple restrictions that go against our vision statement stated above.
No more training inside the dorms of any kind, no more pushing, posting up in the hallway, corrections, or pre-formation activities such as a fallout hole. This does not create an environment of adversity and challenge for cadets which gives the freshman a false sense of what the corps really is, allowing those who would have otherwise left after they realized it was not for them to stay and believe this is how it will always be.

Physical training was restricted as well with the most notable and controversial change being that no one is allowed to run. Yes, you read that correctly, we as a military and leadership institution are not allowed to run. Almost no one received a reason and the only one most cadets heard was related to "shin splints". PT is now only allowed 3 times a week meaning Mondays and Fridays there is no more PT.

We are forced to attend formations with no real training involved pre-formation then we return to our dorms since now we are not required to attend Duncan dining hall for any meal, which honestly is better than the long lines and waiting time we had to go through to collect plates to take back to our dorms in the first couple of weeks of class, some of which included maggots in the food which cadets were told not to talk about.

The constant changes to training, regulations, and rules keep all the cadet leadership wondering what will be restricted next in a haze of last-minute changes. At this point, most cadets do not understand why we are even open since nothing related to developing our minds, bodies, and leadership is really allowed or efficient in any way.

Complete outfits have been sent home because of COVID cases and others have been left without most leadership present because of quarantine and COVID self-isolation. It has come to a point where some cadets are being disciplined for having to quarantine which is just outrageous.

This is not a semester where we can create leaders, but one where the whole corps culture can be changed and softened like never before seen to a point where many would just call us a frat in uniform with no real purpose or tradition.

One thing, however, has not changed, and from what has been said it is most likely the biggest reason we are still here. Football, we are not allowed to run or be in groups of more than 10 people, but the corps is still planning on having corps runs and march-ins for football games as well as having us go, as far as we have heard so far. We are required to go support players who do not even care about us such as Kellen Mond who called to defund the corps and called us racists, but we cannot even support ourselves and develop as leaders. While football is one of the greatest traditions of the Corps it shouldn't be the only reason we stay open, meanwhile all leadership, mental, and physical training is heavily restricted because of COVID regulations yet it magically will disappear for the football games.

We want to develop ourselves and our peers, but in this environment, all we are doing is dressing up in uniform and preparing for football games. If it is allowed to continue these changes will become normal to this new class of fish and by next year the corps as we know it will finally be completely dead turning into a normal organization like all others on campus and even the phrase "Old Army is dead" will turn into "Army is Dead".

A petition has been created to get the attention of the Commandant, the University, and all former cadets. I only hope to bring more attention to this so that we don't lose that which we love, and that is The Spirit of The Corps.

Change.org petition
https://www.change.org/p/greg-abbott-shut-down-the-corps-of-cadets?utm_content=cl_sharecopy_24699193_en-US%3A5&recruiter=1128606384&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=copylink&utm_campaign=share_petition&utm_term=share_petition

No fans in the stands at Annapolis (the Mormon's out trained the Middies btw) but Cadets were allowed at West Point. Not sure about Air Force.

Midshipmen and Cadets are not allowed off campus, period. Corps stays on the Quad. Maybe that is the answer.

USAFA is in the Mountain West - I believe the MW canceled the football season. They have not played this season yet , anyways.

Maybe the Mountain West will follow the B1G and start up their season.

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Midshipmen and Cadets are not allowed off campus, period. Corps stays on the Quad. Maybe that is the answer.

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I don't actually know what students at A&M are doing today - are they going to class in person or is it all/some distance learning? Apologies for being so out of the loop.

So, naturally, for the Corps to stay on the Quad, it will have to all be education via the computer. The academies can isolate a lot easier - it's a different dynamic. Again, it sucks this year, and I totally acknowledge that it sucks for current students and Corps members.

my son is a fish and loves it. He doesn't have anything to compare it to. His outfit has had some positives. He was not positive but was "exposed" so he had to quarantine for 14 days. Came home and he's done fine. Goes back in the morning and won't skip a beat. If you are comparing it to the past, yes, it is different. But he and his buddies don't know anything different.

BG Ramirez Thank you for your response. Great job with the corps in a trying time. For the original poster, stop listening to "barracks lawyers" and pay attention to your chain of command. Your conduct and example is how the fish learn about the corps. They can learn who not to be or who to aspire to be. Right now, you are showing them who not to be-someone without facts, a complainer, a lack of knowledge of the chain of command, and a lack of loyalty to an organization to which you belong. Mission accomplishment. Welfare of the troops. Get an education. Keep your cadets healthy. Their experience has some different requirements than usual but no less important. If you are getting a commission, your soldiers health and safety will be a large component of your daily life, from hygiene to mental health. The military used to lose more soldiers to disease than combat and later to traffic accidents than combat. It's hard to be deployable without a full contingent of healthy soldiers. Start learning about reality and leave distorted notions behind. When I was a child I spake as a child, i understood as a child, I thought as a child, I as a child, but when I became a man I put away childish things. 1Cor13:11.

I don't want my prior message to be misinterpreted. Bad typist here. That should have been - Thank you General Ramirez!

You do know you can edit your post?

When I was a child I spake as a child, i understood as a child, I thought as a child, I as a child, but when I became a man I put away childish things. 1Cor13:11. This always comes to mind in regards to my number one Aggie pet peeve.....The bozo a year or two out of school that always seems to have the seat in front of me in the east stands of Kyle Field and wants to stand up the whole game and then give me a lecture on tradition. But that's another story.

Amen and amen to Canyon's response. Seems like we get a post like the OP every couple of months. Something is changed from from the way it was, the Corps is going to hell, and then the commandant addresses the issues raised. I've even got a canned response which I could cut and paste from the last go round

I'm not here to question the OP's love or concern for the Corps or TAMU. I'll concede the point that it's been fifty years since I was in the Army, but I don't think this has changed since then, since Washington at Valley Forge or when Alexander invaded Persia. In a military unit, like the Corps of Cadets, once the commander has made a decision, it's your job to implement that decision, not carp and backbite trying to prove your alternate point of view was correct.

I trust the Corps leadership, starting with the Commandant. Will they reach the ideal solution 100% of the time? Of course not.

There are no solutions. There are only trade offs.