[lbo-talk] fewer signing up for military academies

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

>[lbo-talk] fewer signing up for military academies
>Doug Henwood dhenwood at panix.com
>Mon Jun 13 11:03:15 PDT 2005
<snip>
>Boston Globe - June 13, 2005
>
>Fewer applying to US military academies
>Observers cite Iraq conflict, decline from post-9/11 surge
>
>By Brian MacQuarrie, Globe Staff
>
>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 US 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 US Naval Academy plummeted 20 percent, and the 
>number for the US Air Force Academy fell 23 percent, military 
>officials said.
<snip>
>Applications for the Air Force Academy at Colorado Springs fell to 
>9,604 from 12,430 last year, said Meade Warthen, the academy's chief 
>of media relations. The Naval Academy, as of Jan. 31, reported that 
>applications had dropped to 11,140 from 13,922 at that date in 2004. 
>And at West Point, the number had fallen to 10,774 from 11,881, 
>academy officials said.
>
>The decrease occurred as many colleges and universities experienced 
>a record number of applications. Harvard received nearly 23,000 
>applications, a 15 percent jump from 2004; Cornell's applicant pool 
>was up 17 percent, and Princeton's soared 21 percent.

Of course, the Iraq War must be the main cause of the decline in 
military academy applications, but it is noteworthy that the biggest 
decline is registered at the Air Force Academy, considering that West 
Point graduates are the ones who will confront the most dangerous 
assignments in Iraq and Afghanistan.  One reason may be material: the 
airline industry being what it is, those who might have considered 
applying for the Air Force Academy would have had to think about what 
their transition from military to civilian careers might be like. 
Another reason may be that the word of fundamentalist Christian 
proselytizing at the Air Force Academy had gotten around long before 
it was brought to the attention of Americans United for Separation of 
Church and State ("Report of Americans United for Separation of 
Church and State on Religious Coercion and Endorsement of Religion at 
the United States Air Force Academy," 
<http://www.au.org/pdf/050428AirForceReport.pdf>) and became major 
news (cf. 
<http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/pipermail/lbo-talk/Week-of-Mon-20050509/009744.html> 
and 
<http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/pipermail/lbo-talk/Week-of-Mon-20050509/009859.html>).
-- 
Yoshie

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