How do military academies prevent relationships between cadets?

Factual Questions
1

AIUI, service academies such as the U.S. Air Force Academy officially prohibit relationships between cadets. I don’t believe for one moment, though, that when you have 4,000 cadets interacting with each other for four years that there aren’t going to be relationships happening.

Is this like “Don’t ask, don’t tell” - that as long as you put up a good enough show of concealing a relationship, that the Academy doesn’t care? What if two cadets are talking over private communication means like email, Facebook, phone texts, or over summer break?

2

It’s also prohibited to have relationships with your subordinates. But it happens.

There is a policy. There are consequences. If you are caught you face the consequences. Just like with any prohibition it still happens.

3

They also “officially prohibit” the use and possession of illegal drugs. How likely do you think it is that the academy authorities treat drugs as some sort of “don’t ask, don’t tell”?

Answer that question, and then apply that answer to your question.

4

My brother had a high school classmate who got into the Air Force Academy. He fraternized. They expelled him.

That’s how they enforce it. Punishment and presumably deterrence.

5

I know it was some years back. A short time after allowing women into Kings Point the US Maritime Academy. I believe the woman was a 3rd Class Midshipman and the man was a 1st class Midshipman about to graduate that month. She was forced to resign and he was put on probation his last month at the academy. One reason he was not kicked out was he had already passed 3rds so no matter what the Academy did he would get his license.

6

So far as I know, relationships between cadets/midshipmen are not strictly prohibited. Relationships between first year cadets and upper class cadets may be prohibited, and relationships between cadets holding different ranks within the same chain of command might be prohibited, sex in certain facilities or rooms might be prohibited, but… so far as I know, there is no absolute/universal/all circumstances prohibition against cadets having a relationship.

From what I can recall from my time at USNA, I believe there was also a requirement that midshipmen in a relationship not be in the same company, for instance, but not a universal prohibition. There was a process to request for one or the other to be assigned to a different company to allow the relationship to proceed, with the request form for the chain of command being colloquially referred to as a “love chit.” The regulations for what is/isn’t allowed at USNA are no secret, and can be found online:

I suspect the other service academies would have similar rules, and I doubt any of them would still have a universal ban on relationships between cadets.

7

I concur with ASL_v2.0, in the Naval Academy, you could date other mids. But you couldn’t be in the same company, and a pleb couldn’t date an upper classmen. Other than that, you were generally good to go.

But for these, and other rules, if you broke them, you’d pay the consequences. That could mean getting kicked out and having to pay for the years you were there for, or being sent to the fleet as a junior Enlisted. By and large midshipmen break many of the chicken s**t rules, but the significant ones were followed.