Over 30 years ago, a scandal rocked the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, launching an investigation by the Naval Criminal Investigative Service and uncovering evidence that more than 130 midshipmen might have cheated on an exam.
The events surrounding the 1990s cheating scandal have resurfaced decades later to embroil a former mid. The military records of Democratic U.S. Rep. Mikie Sherrill, a Navy midshipman then and now a New Jersey gubernatorial candidate, were released by the National Archives in what Rep. Robert Garcia called an “illegal and likely politically motivated disclosure,” according to Politico.
Garcia, a California Democrat and ranking member of the House Oversight Committee, on Thursday called for an investigation into the release that appeared to implicated Sherrill in the academy cheating debacle.
Sherrill, a former Navy helicopter pilot, told The New Jersey Globe that she was not allowed to walk with her midshipmen mates at her 1994 graduation because she “didn’t turn in some of my classmates” during the cheating scandal.
Maryland Gov. Wes Moore said in a post to the social media platform X on Thursday that the leak of Sherrill’s unredacted military records was “a betrayal of everyone who’s ever worn the uniform.”
Here are five things to know about one of the biggest scandals in recent history to unfold at the Naval Academy.
Someone got a master copy of an exam
A midshipman apparently obtained a master copy of an exam for Electrical Engineering 311 at least three days before it was given Dec. 14, 1992, The Baltimore Sun reported. Academy sources said that copies of the test were sold in Bancroft Hall, the dormitory that housed some 4,000 midshipmen at the time. Faculty were blamed for not following proper procedures in duplicating the exam, including a requirement for signatures to pick up exam copies from the copy center.
Dozens of midshipmen were involved
Some 700 juniors took the exam for the mandatory engineering course known as “wires.” But more than 130 midshipmen “were implicated by the Navy’s inspector general in the theft and distribution of the exam,” The Sun reported, and of those, about 80 admitted to cheating. Yet only 29 were recommended for expulsion. Despite the widespread cheating, a new test was not administered, according to The Sun.
Cheating was a big deal for military academies
The Naval Academy honor code commands that midshipmen should not “lie, cheat or steal.” Cheating was viewed as one of the most serious offenses because it “strikes at the heart of the academy’s mission” and because it showed a lack of discipline expected of Naval officers, according to The Sun. And it had happened before. In 1974, another major cheating scandal occurred at the academy when more than 50 midshipmen were implicated in the use of “crib sheets” in an exam for a navigation course.
Only a few midshipmen were punished
The midshipman who was identified as the supplier of the stolen exam was cleared after a witness refused to testify against him to the honor board. The witness said his lawyer advised him to stand by his brigade. He also claimed he was offered a $15,000 bribe to resign, The Sun reported. Six midshipmen along with the reluctant witness were convicted of honor violations. Four of the original 28 cases were later dismissed for insufficient evidence. An advisory board, at the time, recommended an extensive overhaul of the midshipmen’s honor code.
An admiral lost his job at the Naval Academy
Rear Adm. Thomas C. Lynch was reassigned to a post at the Pentagon after he presided over the Naval Academy during the cheating scandal. “Arriving at the academy in June 1991, Lynch was viewed as a ‘Mr. Fix-It’ in the wake of another scandal,” The Sun reported, involving a female sophomore “who had been handcuffed to a urinal and jeered by male classmates.” However, faculty and alumni were critical of the admiral, charging that he mishandled the initial probe of the cheating charges. Navy tradition holds that the ultimate responsibility for wrongdoing lies with the senior officer in command.
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