Finally saying "hello"!

thought I would introduce myself. I have been reading posts here for a few weeks, trying to wrap my mind around all of this!

I am the mother of a son hoping to attend USMA, or if not possible, go the ROTC route either through Texas A&M or Okla State Univ ROTC. He is currently a freshman in H.S. We are in a very rural area of Oklahoma. We are not a military family.

a quick question I have is how the academy views participation in the Civil Air Patrol? My son has recently joined a composite squadron and is very excited and pumped to "get involved." This squadron meets 2 hours away from our home, so our commute to and from the meetings is quite a commitment. Our hope, though, is that the glimpse of military organization, order, etc. of the CAP will help our son determine for sure if this is where he fits.

He is ranked 1st in his class, has lots of leadership involvement and is running track this year, BTW.

thanks for your input on CAP.

Glad you found the forum!

The academies do like kids who participate in CAP so that will be to your son's advantage.

I have one son who is currently a cow (junior) at USMA and another son who is a senior in h.s. My USMA son did not join CAP because we didn't know about it. Had we known, he probably would have joined since our local high schools don't have JROTC. My younger son is in our local CAP squadron and is applying for an AFROTC scholarship to a state college. He wants to serve in the AF but has no interest in going the academy route. Luckily we don't have to drive 2 hours for him to participate in CAP. That is most definately a big commitment.

Welcome!

Wow, you already managed to get class rank before his first semester even finishes?

Getting leadership already as a freshman is really good.

America's Finest said:

Wow, you already managed to get class rank before his first semester even finishes?

Click to expand...

hmmm.... I didn't intend to sound pompous with that statement - but he only has 13 students in his class and none of them aspire to be straight A students but him. thus, I feel really fairly safe in saying that he is 1st in his class at this point in time. he's the only one that is ever on the superintendent's honor roll, etc.

I certainly didn't mean to imply that I can read the future, though.

thanks for reading my intro! We hope to learn a lot from this forum.

rudyinok said:

I certainly didn't mean to imply that I can read the future, though.

Click to expand...

I didn't take it that way. I was just surprised to know that you would have that information already.

A class of only 13? That makes his leadership positions even more impressive since a school that size wouldn't be able to provide nearly as many leadership positions as other schools.

Are his leadership positions related to track or are they community service oriented? It's always good to have some sort of service. It shows you are willing to make sacrifices for the good of others which is a really desirable trait.

And to answer your questions about CAP. The academy looks at any organization with a good mission favorably. CAP also helps show that he at least has a taste of what the military life is like and isn't just trying to join because of what he may see in movies. The academies really look into motivation to make sure it's really what the candidate wants to do. CAP also provides leadership positions among other things.

I think that is you make the commitment to drive 2 hours to CAP, and excell in the positions that you achieve, they will look very strongly upon that. A guy with Billy Mitchell Award that lives 5 minutes from CAP (although a great accomplishment) will not have nearly the dedication (the academies like to see that) that a guy who lives 2 hours away will. Just my 2 cents.

Later,

Brian