Fewer Applying To Academies

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Fewer Applying To Academies
Tweet Topic Started: Jun 16 2005, 04:10 PM (510 Views)
maniegom	Jun 16 2005, 04:10 PM Post #1
Member Posts: 1,049 Group: Regulars Member #265 Joined: December 30, 2004	Fewer Applying to Academies The Boston Globe June 14, 2005 WEST POINT, N.Y. -- The Long Gray Line of cadets still drills on the impeccably groomed parade field as it has throughout the 203-year history of the U.S. Military Academy. Reminders of the calling and challenge of military service are everywhere, from the statues of Generals Douglas MacArthur and Dwight Eisenhower to the meticulously maintained monuments to West Point's war dead. But across the nation this year, the number of high school seniors hearing the call to service is down; applications to join the Long Gray Line dropped 9 percent. And that was the least-discouraging news for the nation's top three service academies, where room, board, and tuition for four years of a sterling education are free. Applications for the U.S. Naval Academy plummeted 20 percent, and the number for the U.S. Air Force Academy fell 23 percent, military officials said. Colonel Michael L. Jones, the West Point admissions director, speculated that the decline is linked to hazy memories among today's high school students about the galvanizing events of Sept. 11, 2001, and not to a fear of dangerous duty in Iraq and Afghanistan. But with recruitment down significantly for the regular Army and National Guard, some observers suggest that a drop-off in interest in the service academies is related to the hardships of the war on terror. "All together, these factors amount to a kind of referendum on one aspect of George Bush's policy, and that's the Iraq war," said Michael T. Corgan, a Boston University professor of international relations who graduated from and taught at the U.S. Naval Academy and served in the Vietnam War. http://www.military.com/NewsContent/0,1331...ml?ESRC=navy.nl



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