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Crack down on cheaters

Soldiers have been cheating on Army Correspondence Course Program tests for nearly 10 years in order to gain points for their promotion scores. It’s the worst-kept secret in the Army.

Yet leaders have done little to stop it.

One soldier said she cheated because her commanding officer encouraged her to do so — because everybody did it.

Cheating is simple enough: Any number of web sites feature copies of actual exams — with the correct answers filled in.

One site claims more than 10,000 registered users.

The rampant cheating was exposed last year in national media reports, yet 18 months later, the Army is finally just getting around to implementing an anti-cheating strategy.

One new part of the strategy is to find cheaters and discipline them. An investigation by Training and Doctrine Command, the command responsible for the tests, has identified 20 suspected cheaters. Their names will be sent to their unit commanders, who are supposed to look into each situation and report back. Presumably, cheaters could be disciplined under the Uniform Code of Military Justice.

Zero tolerance is the only course for cheaters, but singling out 20 suspects after thousands have escaped during 10 years of inaction feels a bit like rounding up jaywalkers after a bank heist.

The Army must work quickly to make cheating impossible, or as close to that as can be achieved. That could require a total overhaul of correspondence courses and how they are delivered, as well as a crackdown on cheaters. Army leaders owe that to the soldiers who are playing by the rules and truly earning their promotions.

Moreover, they have a duty to restore honor and integrity to NCO promotions and to make it clear to all that cheating violates that code.

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