There is a huge scandal brewing at the United States Military Academy at West Point, in which the case of avowed communist and former cadet Spenser Rapone is only the tip of the iceberg.

Retired Army lieutenant colonel Robert Heffington wrote a shocking open letter to graduates of the academy that details the decline of standards at West Point that has led to an "embrace of mediocrity."

Heffington points to a radical decline in academic standards, discipline, and standards of conduct that made Rapone's graduation from West Point possible.

Daily Caller:

Heffington's eye-opening letter describes systemic problems at West Point that he says have led to a decline in honor, standards and meritocracy. The end result of said neglect, according to the lieutenant colonel, is a current "embrace of mediocrity."

"Every fall, the Superintendent addresses the staff and faculty and lies," he asserts. "He repeatedly states that 'We are going to have winning sports teams without compromising our standards,' and everyone in Robinson Auditorium knows he is lying because we routinely admit athletes with ACT scores in the mid-teens across the board."

Heffington states that he has personally taught cadets who are "borderline illiterate." In another section, Heffington laments what he refers to as West Point's "nonexistent" academic standards, and takes aim at the dean:

Cadets routinely fail multiple classes and they are not separated at the end-of-semester Academic Boards. Their professors recommend "Definitely Separate," but those recommendations are totally disregarded. I recently taught a cadet who failed four classes in one semester (including mine), in addition to several she had failed in previous semesters, and she was retained at the Academy."

"As a result," Heffington continues, "professors have lost hope and faith in the entire Academic Board process. It has been made clear that cadets can fail a multitude of classes and they will not be separated. Instead, when they fail (and they do to a staggering extent), the Dean simply throws them back into the mix."

Heffington also blasts what he considers an increasing politicization of the curriculum. He points out that "an entire semester of military history was deleted from the curriculum," but that there is an ever-growing focus on race, as well as "the narrative that America is founded solely on a history of racial oppression."

According to the letter, cadets scornfully refer to one American history course as the "I Hate America" course.

West Point's honor code used to be a point of pride for cadets and instructors.  Not anymore:

The superintendent's duplicity, the dean's academic neglect, and a radical leftist shift in the curriculum are not the only problems plaguing the Academy, according to Heffington. The colonel also criticizes the Commandant of Cadets for failing to adequately enforce disciplinary standards.

Recalling an incident in which he reported a flagrant honor violation, Heffington states, "the Commandant of Cadets called my office phone and proceeded to berate me in the most vulgar and obscene language for over ten minutes because I had reported a cadet who lied to me and then asked if 'we could just drop it.'"

Heffington says in his letter that he was "duty bound to report the cadet's honor violation," and that he never found out why the commandant lashed out at him. "It seemed that he was simply irritated that the institution was having to deal with the case, and that it was my fault it even existed," Heffington comments.

Read the entire letter here.

Since the story of communist Spenser Rapone's stint at West Point became public, many of us wondered how this could possibly have happened.  Only a precipitous decline in discipline and standards could account for Rapone being graduated from America's premier military academy.  Heffington confirms this is so. 

Senator Rubio sent a letter to the Army secretary, Ryan McCarthy, demanding that he investigate to find out if West Point military leaders were aware of Rapone's ideology before he graduated.  Judging by Heffington's charges, it seems probable that they were.

No doubt they graduated Rapone in the name of "diversity."