Christcorp
15-Year Member
- Joined
- May 21, 2008
- Messages
- 5,382
For a slate submitted under a "Principal and 9 ranked Alternates" method:
If the Principal Nominee is not qualified, the academy must appoint #2. (yes, I know you said "declines appointment" and that is different from "not qualified" - just pointing out another scenario)
ummmm; I did say that. "#2 on my list of 3".
Same scenario that you posted. Now; if this individual they appoint, turns it down, the academy doesn't HAVE TO go back to the list and continue on. (Basically, the rest of the thread discussion).3) Ranked: The MOC prioritizes all 10 nominees. The academy MUST start at the top and take the first qualified applicant.
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AJM. ALL nominees who did NOT receive their MOC's available slot; ARE ALL PLACED in the National Pool. So YES, the wait list must come from the National Pool.
The part you might be confusing is the "SLATES" trying to be filled. There are a lot of different slates being filled. If an appointed individual turns it down, does the academy HAVE to go back to that slate and choose a replacement? NO they don't. HOWEVER: If they DO go back to that slate; e.g. presidential; then the ONLY INDIVIDUALS that they can "Consider" to fill that slot, MUST be on that slate. So yes, if a MOC's appointee turns it down, and the academy CHOOSES to fill that MOC's slot, then they can ONLY CHOOSE SOMEONE from that slate of 10 nominees. But that person, being s/he was on a slate, is automatically put into the national pool upon not being appointed initially. Inside of that pool, they are on NUMEROUS RANKINGS.
1) National Pool Rank: This is the list that the ACADEMY can choose from to fill the class with however many they need to get to the number they want to appoint.
2) MOC Rank: This is the list(s) that you are on that has you ranked in case the person from this list who DID receive an appointment turns it down, and the academy CHOOSES to fill this slot.
3) Presidential Rank: This is the list of the 500+ individuals who have a presidential nomination, but was NOT one of the 100 appointees. If one of the 100 appointees turns down the appointment, the academy may choose to go back to this list to fill this slot.
There are others too like ROTC, MOH, and other military related nominations. The question begs then: "Why would the academy CHOOSE or NOT CHOOSE to fill a slot if the original appointee turned down the appointment. Because if the academy got greedy and didn't fill these slots FROM THE SLATES that originally nominated the individuals, then the next year, that MOC would have an EXTRA available slot. Here's the Worst Case Scenario to scare the living crap out of admissions at the academy.
SCENARIO: The academy got greedy, and EVERY slot that got turned down, they filled themselves from the national pool with who they wanted, and they didn't back fill the MOC's available slot. On average, each MOC has usually 1 vacancy per year. That's 535 appointees. (435 representatives and 100 senators). Now; if ALL these MOCs had 2 available in a particular year, and they went ahead and each presented 2 slates, the academy would be bound by law to fill EACH of those slots for each MOC. In theory, that could be 1070 appointment. That's MORE than was given for the ENTIRE Air Force Class of 2016. That doesn't even leave room for all the OTHER military slates like presidential. That leaves NO ROOM for any other nominee at all. This would be a suicide trap on the part of the academy.
So yes, sometimes they CHOOSE to not fill a MOC's slot if the original appointee turns it down. This happened in my state this year. We have 2 senators and only 1 representative. Between them, we had "5 vacancies". However; when one of the 5 appointees turned it down, the academy only kept the other 4. They didn't give the 5th appointment to our MOC. Our MOC will have an additional one available next year. But the academy has to be careful doing this. But they have a lot of experience. They also have to balance this with HOW MANY ARE GRADUATING. Remember; a MOC can only have 5 at the academy at one time slated to them. If they have 2 in one year and 2 in another and 1 after, they could go a year with no available slots. And if not careful, they could even have 3 available in the same year. The academy definitely doesn't like this to happen. It's a major balancing game.