Congressional nominations are a horrible idea.
Why is the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps more popular? In large part it's because they're FAR larger than the Coast Guard. The service academies associated with them are the same. While CGA has existed almost 100 years longer than AFA, someone AFA surges ahead.
Why do I think this is true? Well, contrary to popular believe, in an operation standpoint, American's interact in an official capacity often, mostly on the coast, but also along navigable waterways.
In an unofficial capacity of course, people will run into their neighborhood soldier or airman or sailor or Marine often.
A LARGE part of the recognition is budget, but in their motion picture offices and recruiting. I hated Marine commercials with the lava monster fighting the guy climbing a hill....but it was everywhere. Heck, I can remember at least three different Army commercials over the past 15 or so years....to hear a Coast Guard recruiting commercial, you need to stay up late at night and turn on the radio. I've heard 1-2 total commercials on the radio and seen a total of 4 commercials in the movies or on TV....and I was IN the service.
Coast Guard doesn't sponsor sports center, doesn't have a NASCAR car (had a Busch car but couldn't justify the funding, the Harvick won the Busch series and they dropped him).
Money speaks. It's not that the missions of the Army, Navy, Air Force, or Marine Corps SPEAK to the American people anymore than the Coast Guard's missions. There are a total of about 30 Coast Guard public affairs officers and under a hundred public affairs specialist petty officers. It has the worst "public affairs official" to service member ratio of all of the services....but far.
So lets see....the Coast Guard is MUCH smaller, spread across the country but often in "clusters" that don't fund an entire town like a DOD base might.... the service academy is tiny, the smallest of the five federal service academies.... it has one CWO as the PAO and a couple PAs. No money for real sustained advertising, small motion picture office, and a general ignorance from sister services.
The path to becoming "known" is not easy. I tried to pitch ESPN on covering the Coast Guard Academy v. Merchant Marine Academy on Sept. 11 last year. Really, the service that coordinated the evacuation of Manhattan and the service academy (KP) that actually sent students to help. All in uniform, and on the day of Sept. 11.... ESPN didn't bite. I'm not even talking about covering the game...I'm just saying have the Game Day there, all the uniforms in the background making noise.... and let's not forget, ESPN HQ is just down the street from New London....
Nope.
Instead we have Showtime taking the time to create a docu-drama to cover "America's game". It's a nationally televised game every year.
It's not that the American people know exactly what West Point or Annapolis are....they don't.... but they've seen the game....and they've seen the movies....and they've read the articles....
I don't know how USCGA competes with that....certainly not with their money. I'm not sure how concerned I am either. I am concerned with the overall funding of the Coast Guard. The Coast Guard Academy will not have trouble filling its ranks. The Coast Guard, as a service, has the highest standards for entry....and the recruiters are done recruiting before they start. I used to hear from angry Americans who couldn't figure out why their kids were on year or two waitlists....
No easy answers... and if we feel "bad" imagine how Kings Point feels, they don't even have a service to be the recognizable "face" of the school.