Folks, go back and read Cdr Bailey’s “letter” again. It is nothing but spam, pure and simple. Greystone is probably a good school and prepares its students well for reapplication to the academies. The school is not the issue. Cdr Bailey’s “advertising” is what is at issue. Go to the link which I provided and take his little quiz. Choice ‘A’ is Greystone, choices ‘B’ and ‘C’ are literally jokes. His letter is filled with the same propaganda, Greystone good, all other choices bad. Everyone is entitled to promote their beliefs. The real issue is that the letter is filled with lies, half truths, misinformation, and innuendos, all self serving. Self serving falsehoods that prey on the insecurities of unsuccessful candidates. I know this because I have received emails and PMs from these candidates, scared and confused because they are doing something other than what the letter suggests. These actions are totally appalling and completely out of line.
My situation is that I am just an old opinionated grad and I feel totally obligated to do battle with a piece of spam. A piece of spam promulgated, indirectly perhaps, by the “Director” of an officially sanctioned USNA Foundation School, which, in itself, carries a lot more credence, in this case totally abused, than an old fart grad who hates to begin every sentence with “Since I am a BGO, I know what I am talking about”. I should perhaps have suggested to the moderators that it be removed. However, from PMs, I had already seen portions of the letter and knew that it was being promulgated by Greystone and was using false information to confuse rejected academy candidates. Apparently, just like his opinion that one prep school fits all, one letter also fits all, just the highlighted portions change to address the specific issues. Therefore I felt an obligation to expose it for what it was to both this forum and to candidates who had received the letter and might perhaps read our forum.
I began by attempting to start a dialog on incorrect information that had been presented to me by email/PM as concerns, the 2% success of ROTC, the fact that ROTC is not an acceptable route to USNA, and the alternate method of acceptance which the CDR had dreamed up. Also, SubSquid, just like the retiree uniform regulations, I knew who Stew Smith was, not a Lieutenant and definitely not “currently the USNA Plebe Physical Education Program coordinator”. Yep, Squid, you are correct. Cdr Bailey gets out there every morning at 6AM and runs the candidates through an online PE program that it wouldn’t surprise me if they have to pay extra for.
After checking the forum occasionally over the past several days and determining that K-Mom was routinely reading my posts but choosing not to respond, I felt that in the eyes of the forum readers, only an anonymous contributor, questioning an approved USNA institution, the only effective followup would be to attempt to “shoot the “messenger””. I simply asked what her position was in this obvious piece of spam. (Okay, all of you who think (s)he is truly a concerned unbiased mom, move to my left. All others move to my right) That (s)he chose to bite her lip instead of replying is indicative of the dialogue which we are going to get from them on this issue. Also, any true concerned mom with only a modicum of admissions knowledge would know that the letter was biased and self-serving and, if truly only a parent, would have thought twice before posting it. So, please Moms, get it out of your heads that I am beating up on one of you. (S)he is not one of you.
So I ask you, there are probably at least a dozen more pieces of misinformation in the letter which I have not yet addressed and since it is obvious (s)he is not going to address them, what should we do? The ONLY piece of advice K-Mom has been correct on is to talk to your BGO. And if the BGO recommends specific schools, he is totally out of line. And which is truly sickening to me, there are BGOs out there specifically recommending their candidates talk to Greystone and CDR Bailey.
Incidentally, I am planning to forward a letter of my concerns along with a copy of the letter to the USNA Foundation Director.