On 11 March 2022, national news media reported that 5 West Point Cadets on spring break in Florida sought out a drug dealer to purchase cocaine. The cocaine was laced with fentanyl, sending them to the hospital. Fortunately, none of the cadets died from the fentanyl overdose. At least one of the cadets was a West Point football player. However, the incident opened the eyes of many to the fact that all was not right at West Point.

On 14 March 2022, then West Point Superintendent LTG Darryl Williams sent a letter to West Point graduates (The Long Gray Line) via the West Point Association of Graduates (WPAOG) letting the graduates know that the incident had made the news. The Superintendent (Supe) made 2 concerning statements in his letter:

“As many of you know, the United States Military Academy has been working through a serious incident involving several Cadets. The health and safety of all our Cadets is my top concern and priority. I ask that you refrain from speculating or commenting on the details of any ongoing investigation.

Initial reports indicate that four Cadets were transported to nearby hospitals in various conditions while on spring break in Florida after allegedly being exposed to a substance that may have contained Fentanyl.”

First, Williams was clearly trying to put a lid on the scandal and ask the Long Gray Line alumni to keep quiet about it. Second, he deliberately told a false truth by stating that the cadets were exposed to a “substance.” His email was sent 14 March 2022, 3 days after the national media had already clearly exposed that the “substance” was cocaine. He knew what they had purchased. It was clear he was trying to hide what had happened to save face for West Point, his beloved football team, and…himself.

To be fair, cadets are human and make mistakes like the rest of people may do. West Point’s honor code and military regulations exist to weed out the ‘bad eggs’ and prevent them from graduating and becoming Army officers. However, a quick query showed that the cocaine scandal of 2022 was not isolated. Multiple cocaine rings dating back to 2016 had been exposed in the news with several cadets getting expelled and at least one going to jail. Other news articles described the drug culture at West Point, complete with West Point staff aiding the cadets by giving them notice of drug tests so they wouldn’t get caught. From 2016 to 2022, the West Point leadership gave no public statements that acknowledged the said drug culture and more importantly gave no indication that the drug problem was being addressed. The fact that 5 cadets would brazenly seek out a known drug dealer to buy cocaine 6 years after the initial drug scandal and included football players indicates that West Point and its football team had done little if anything to address the cocaine problem. Worse, the academy’s recent fixation on a winning football team indicates that it is tolerating criminal and unethical behavior on its football team to ensure that it has a roster capable of winning.

Further, just like the 2020 honor scandal and multiple sexual assault cases, the West Point football team was disproportionately represented. West Point football players make up 1% of the cadets but are complicit in over 50% of the drug, honor, and sexual assault scandals. To catch up readers on current events, when accused of an honor violation, cadets are supposed to appear before an honor board within days and, if found guilty, given a punishment of administrative sanctions or expulsion immediately. The honor scandal of 2020 occurred in mid-2020 and the football players (over 20 of the accused) were allowed to play football in the entire fall football season before facing an honor board for punishment. That event signaled loud and clear that the academy placed college football above all else including the honor code.

The Superintendent is supposed to be the supervisor of the honor code. Consequently, it can be inferred that the Supe should be held to a higher moral standard that would include being truthful and not lying. LTG Williams lied about the substance and in public signaled he wanted to hide the incident from the public.

In mid-2022, LTG Steven Gilland became the next Supe of West Point. At that time, he could be given some slack as he was not there as the Supe during the cheating and cocaine scandals. However, he was there during that time period as the Commandant of cadets, indicating that, as the enforcer of discipline and regulations in the Corps of Cadets, he either was incompetent in meting out the criminal behavior or he turned a blind eye to it to protect the football team or did so at the behest of the Supe at the time. Either way, he was the new Supe in 2022 and had a chance to restore order and honor at West Point. It would seem prudent for him to make an initial public statement that West Point had suffered recent embarrassing scandals (honor, cocaine) and to provide specifics on punishment for the affected cadets and specifics on changes being made on his watch to ensure that such scandals never happened again.

Gilland did neither. Instead, he continued the recent dishonorable tradition of lying (Gilland lied to Congress in July 2023 about DEI), hiding crises (refusing to answer numerous Freedom of Information Act Requests (FOIAs), hiding DEI activities, and creating a climate where cadets, staff, and he himself defied and mocked elected government officials.

West Point graduate Tony Lentini (Class of 1971) filed a Freedom of Information Request Act (FOIA) to learn the fate of the 5 cadets that purchased cocaine during Spring Break 2022. To date (years later), he has not had his FOIA answered. FOIA regulations state there is a defined time limit for government agencies to provide answers to the FOIA requests.¹ That time period is usually 20 days.

Worse, the WPAOG continues to play the part of half cheerleader for West Point and half lapdog to the Supe. Just last week, Robert MacDonald, a “distinguished” alumni sent out a message to the Long Gray Line via the WPAOG messaging apparatus that described troubles at West Point due to the new President’s Executive Orders and requested business as usual from alumni – keep giving West Point undeserved and blind support and money.

Gilland’s silence, coupled with malfeasance in his deeds, indicate that although no major scandals aside from DEI were reported via the media on his watch, it is highly likely that the lack of reporting on scandals is just due to his ability to hide scandals better than his predecessors. In the meantime, he attempts to distract the public and grads with meaningless ‘flashy things’ like its football team and expensive construction projects while the essence of West Point (Honor Code and ‘Duty, Honor Country’ mantra) rot on his watch. He even downgraded the Honor Code to being ‘aspirational’ and removed ‘Duty, Honor Country’ from the mission statement of West Point.

As a result, it is sad yet highly likely that if hair follicle testing was done on the corps of cadets tomorrow, many positive drug tests would be resulted, particularly from the football team. Hair follicle testing would be preferable as cocaine shows up in urine for only up to 5 days on average (allowing cadets and faculty to “cheat” again). Hair follicle testing can be positive for drugs such as cocaine for up to 2 months, which makes cheating a drug test almost impossible unless false specimens are submitted/collected. Given the alleged cheating during prior urine tests, I would not put that possibility out of bounds for LTG Gilland and his staff. Gilland and his command have given no indication that any other result would be probable. As he brags about the success of last season’s football team, his focus is clearly on something antithetical to the real mission of West Point. His focus only be on training cadets to win America’s wars. Nothing else at West Point matters.

Hair follicle testing sounds like a great experiment for the SECDEF to conduct at the United States Military Academy.

Enough already. The recent stain on West Point’s honorable history needs to be cleansed. It is time for a change of leadership at West Point.

1. Lentini, Tony. “West Point Must Come Clean on Cocaine-Fentanyl Cadets’ Fate.” Real Clear Defense. 10 MAR 2025