- Joined
- Jan 26, 2009
- Messages
- 353
Don't think JDog's post was tongue in cheek. He is a proud, intelligent, passionate and articulate alum......
Oh Boy, at the risk of bringing a knife to a gunfight, here goes............
Relative to Jasperdog's post:
1 - It has to do with, on the first page of the thread, it quickly became clear, for about the 100th time, in my minuscule two year exposure to KP, that it and everything about it is thought of by the general population as the red headed step child of the all Service Academies. So, much so that our Commander in Chief elects to follow the same footsteps and single it/us out as the ONLY one of the five that does not deserve to be included on the SA graduation speaker rotation.
2. Totally agree he used the proper nomenclature
3. We all agree....got it.... I just think (and acknowledge that I am alone and this is unpopular) that it would be better to stop lumping KP in with the other four under the grand of umbrella of the term "Federal Service Academy".......It's mission is too different, it's midshipmen are treated too differently and it causes confusion. Perhaps it could lumped into the same category as the post graduate, Federally funded Uniformed Services University of Health Sciences.....that too is a "Service Academy" but we rarely hear about it as a Service Academy......it too is a college operated by our Federal Government. The unfortunate fact is that, for all practical purposes, in our country and most others, the term "Service Academy" is a synonym for "Military Academy"......which we ALL agree KP is not.....refer to number 2, I know the proper nomenclature.
4. Sam Aca mentioned out that during his exploration of which Academy to attend, the commissioning aspects of KP were pointed out. I will submit it was "pointed out" to my DS as well. Very much pointed out. A big selling point. Much marketing and salesmanship about it. If I heard it once, I heard it six times during discussion with admissions, alum, state reps, etc. about "when you graduate, if you want to go active duty, you have your pick of which branch of the military to go in to. They will be glad to have you, and one of the key reasons is they did not have to pay for your education....both academically and regimental"......that quote is real and without exception was a clear and loud and consistently expressed message passed on to my DS, and his family. You can take that to the bank. Now....just now..... I hear that ah, never mind, not true, you will be treated like every ROTC candidate, nothing special, need to have a certain GPA just to go active duty etc. etc.......please know this does not matter. DS is straight deck, interested in the Maritime business......but, I gotta say if that were not the case, these "new developments, to us" would be quite negative.
I also agree with much of the last paragraph. KP is different, it is unique, it does have great strengths, it's graduates are not insecure, etc. etc. For that reason it needs to be separated from the other four Military Service Academies.....from my earlier post:
Please, by now, most of us know the "becauses" for all the above. It's just time to call this what it is. KP is in a TOTALLY different category and that category should be celebrated and not muddled up by lumping these hardworking midshipmen with their brothers and sisters at the Military Academies, then loudly proclaim KP is one of our five Federal Service Academies........except the federal service is different, much different. Oh.
Oh Boy, at the risk of bringing a knife to a gunfight, here goes............
Relative to Jasperdog's post:
1 - It has to do with, on the first page of the thread, it quickly became clear, for about the 100th time, in my minuscule two year exposure to KP, that it and everything about it is thought of by the general population as the red headed step child of the all Service Academies. So, much so that our Commander in Chief elects to follow the same footsteps and single it/us out as the ONLY one of the five that does not deserve to be included on the SA graduation speaker rotation.
2. Totally agree he used the proper nomenclature
3. We all agree....got it.... I just think (and acknowledge that I am alone and this is unpopular) that it would be better to stop lumping KP in with the other four under the grand of umbrella of the term "Federal Service Academy".......It's mission is too different, it's midshipmen are treated too differently and it causes confusion. Perhaps it could lumped into the same category as the post graduate, Federally funded Uniformed Services University of Health Sciences.....that too is a "Service Academy" but we rarely hear about it as a Service Academy......it too is a college operated by our Federal Government. The unfortunate fact is that, for all practical purposes, in our country and most others, the term "Service Academy" is a synonym for "Military Academy"......which we ALL agree KP is not.....refer to number 2, I know the proper nomenclature.
4. Sam Aca mentioned out that during his exploration of which Academy to attend, the commissioning aspects of KP were pointed out. I will submit it was "pointed out" to my DS as well. Very much pointed out. A big selling point. Much marketing and salesmanship about it. If I heard it once, I heard it six times during discussion with admissions, alum, state reps, etc. about "when you graduate, if you want to go active duty, you have your pick of which branch of the military to go in to. They will be glad to have you, and one of the key reasons is they did not have to pay for your education....both academically and regimental"......that quote is real and without exception was a clear and loud and consistently expressed message passed on to my DS, and his family. You can take that to the bank. Now....just now..... I hear that ah, never mind, not true, you will be treated like every ROTC candidate, nothing special, need to have a certain GPA just to go active duty etc. etc.......please know this does not matter. DS is straight deck, interested in the Maritime business......but, I gotta say if that were not the case, these "new developments, to us" would be quite negative.
I also agree with much of the last paragraph. KP is different, it is unique, it does have great strengths, it's graduates are not insecure, etc. etc. For that reason it needs to be separated from the other four Military Service Academies.....from my earlier post:
Please, by now, most of us know the "becauses" for all the above. It's just time to call this what it is. KP is in a TOTALLY different category and that category should be celebrated and not muddled up by lumping these hardworking midshipmen with their brothers and sisters at the Military Academies, then loudly proclaim KP is one of our five Federal Service Academies........except the federal service is different, much different. Oh.
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