Dan, there's no flaming here. And there is no need for sweat parties. There are gonna be enough of those after Matriculation. I didn't even know they still had sweat parties at the Academies.
Look, I'm not into sh!t flinging and I'm definitely not one to be like "XYZ is the hardest place in the world! RAH!" but I've gotten sick of people saying that the Service Academies are "weak" or whatever term your school uses. I generally just smile and move along but there are definitely certain people that when they bash the Service Academies, really piss me off. I've worked my ass of every day since I-Day to stay at this place. I've seen my times of highs and my times of lows as has every mid. What angers me the most is when someone from a psuedo-military school and bashes the Academies and a) was rejected from one or more of them, b) has never spent any time as a Cadet or Mid in them, c) have no (in this case) Naval Knowledge whatsoever other than "My Leadership LT in NROTC said..." I was shocked to see NROTC Mids (though, not from your school, admittedly) over cruise not know what a cover was, who to salute, or any knowledge of Naval Platforms. It also pisses me off when I hear about programs such as yours that last about 1/2 as long as Plebe Year and again, you are the ones that bash the Academies, plus plebe summer, which is 7 weeks long, which, please correct me if I'm wrong, your "indoc" program is about 1 or 2 weeks, right?
I may be totally wrong here, but I've come to find that it's rare for a USNA Mid to bash any of the VMI's, Citadels, Texas A&M's, Virgina Tech's, Norwhich's, etc., but many of the students at those schools are very quick to point out the apparent "weakness" of the Academy. What people tend to forget is that everyone at the service academies serves; as a result, everyone must be trained for their specific branch. Sure, we have traditions and spirit and whanot that probably really are more tradition than officer development, (i.e.: chopping in the dorms, squaring meals, etc.) but there are certain aspects that are specifically designed to create officers for the respective services: learning how to Con a YP to give confidence on the bridge, exposure to so many officers, FEXs, pro-knowledge, etc. I don't think that problems are always solved by saying "oh, let's go PT the f out of the plebes." While it may be used as a punishment, did they learn anything? When I become an officer, how often am I going to PT a sailor working for me for messing up something? Instead, there is definitely a system of fixing the problem through other difficulties and hardships other than a PT session.
And you're right, we don't have sweat parties. But to say our plebes don't face similar challenges is absolutely ridiculous. Power hours in the early morning hours, Sea Trials, SMT's out on hospital point being PT'd for up to 4 hours; I'd say all of these qualify as fulfilling a physically demanding mission.
I'm sorry if I misinterpreted your post; but the smiley certainly gave me the impression that you were doing a little Academy-bashing.