DangerousDan, it seems as if your Co. Officer/SEL experience was terrible. My company officer is very involved and I've seen him fairly often and have only gotten in minimal trouble. I've had two Gunny's as my SELs, one was amazing, the other one was on a steep learning curve with respect to just how USNA operates. The company officer I had in plebe summer was a grad and he was and is a fantastic company officer. There are several here that I'd say I look up to. My Batt-O plebe year embodied nearly everything I'd consider to be good leadership. But even with the bad ones, you learn quite a bit from. To be honest, I've learned quite a bit from the interaction, both friendly and professional, of several of the officers in Luce, many of whom have been my professors in PRODEV classes. I'm just saying this, because I've referenced interaction with officers here as a strength. While some I view strictly as disiciplinarians, the vast majority I look at as competent leaders with valuable experience to learn from. This may or may not be (one possibility) because most of my officers have been deployed in combat (and yours, I presume, at least the JO's, had not, as you mentioned it was Pre-9/11?)... But either way, I came in without even thinking about exposure to officers and now part of the reason I'm glad is because of the exposure to so many and to learn vastly differing and effective/ineffective leadership styles.