I always find it amazing that people in this country...

It doesn't help when people don't know what an officer is either...sigh
:blowup:
 
Wait a minute....are you guys saying that there are other Military Academies other than the Air Force Academy. Get out of here.:eek:
 
Not long ago, I would definitely have been one of those people that had no clue about the academies. I had only vaguely heard of West Point in a movie once.

I think it really depends on what the military situation is like where you live. For me, there is very very little military presence. The only visible military presence is JROTC, which was actually an incredibly small number of students. At my high school, JROTC didn't really advertise or branch out, and it was geared primarily toward students who would be enlisting right out of high school. So I never really learned about any of the Academies until just last year.
 
Me: I'm actually going to the air force academy..

Them: Why wouldn't you go to college, it seems as if you did well in school.

Me: I am going to college...

Them: Oh really?! Where?

Me: Ugh..


You live in Colorado and someone there is not familiar with USAFA?
That's a real :scratch:
 
Ironic but so true. My clothes literally say "air force academy," and people are like, "Haha what's an academy, is that a joke?" No, it's a college, and of course there is no other colleges in Colorado than CU and CSU. Party colleges and Colorado. Should I expect anything else?
 
Ironic but so true. My clothes literally say "air force academy," and people are like, "Haha what's an academy, is that a joke?" No, it's a college, and of course there is no other colleges in Colorado than CU and CSU. Party colleges and Colorado. Should I expect anything else?

It is amusing that I was going to post something about most people assuming that an academy was a high school. Then I realized they probably wouldn't know that either. :eek:
 
I honestly didn't know there was until I was at a wrestling tourney and saw the cadets, I was like uhm coach those kids are in college. Needless to say that was a long day full of laughs!
 
Girl in my class: Oh you are a senior, where are you going to school?
Me: the Naval Academy.
Girl: Oh, did you even apply to any colleges?
Me: ...

I can understand that response from a high school girl.

I have had the same dialog with a United States Army recruiter, an active duty Staff Sergeant.

Me: Sorry, he's not interested, he has an appointment to the US Air Force Academy.
Army Recruiter: Has he made any plans for college when he's finished?


And you'd be surprised how many school administrators and guidance counselors are just as ignorant about all 5 of the academies.
 
Several of my son's teachers were surprised to hear that he was going into the Air Force when they heard he was going to USAFA. They always thought that he would go to college. Teachers said this!!! I use the WP analogy all the time.
 
Wait a minute, I didn't apply to the Air Force Academy knowing that it was an actual college!

:shake:
 
Wait a minute, I didn't apply to the Air Force Academy knowing that it was an actual college!
Agreed! My son is going to be sooooo disappointed to find out that he is going to have to deal with academics after a full day flying jets and learning to maneuver/land the space shuttle. Maybe I'll wait until he gets there on I-Day and let USAFA break the bad news to him. :eek:
 
Devil Dog - I am sending you a PM with a contact point for the Parent's Club for Central FL. Hope this helps!
 
There were so many funny comments on this thread, I could not pick one in particular to respond to! My son had the same experience of everyone assuming he was enlisting in the AF when he began his USAFA quest. I'm very proud of his circle of friends who have taken the time to learn about all the academies and they are the ones who speak up in a group! We have had many adults in passing conversations who clue in immediately to what USAFA is, and they instantly react so positively to my son. Also the few students he knows who pursued an Academy path empathize strongly with the shared experience of how hard they worked to get this far. I can't tell you how proud I am to meet a young lady or young man who has chosen this path. Whether they make it or not does not matter..........................they all have such excellent goals and such a passion to achieve and serve. (I feel a little tear squeezing out of my eye).
 
I can understand that response from a high school girl.

I have had the same dialog with a United States Army recruiter, an active duty Staff Sergeant.

Me: Sorry, he's not interested, he has an appointment to the US Air Force Academy.
Army Recruiter: Has he made any plans for college when he's finished?


And you'd be surprised how many school administrators and guidance counselors are just as ignorant about all 5 of the academies.

This reminded me of 3 additional incidents (sorry about monopolizing the thread!) :wink:

1. My son was wearing a "Friends don't let friends go to West Point" shirt when we were at lunch and a group of Army recruiters (all NCO's) came into the restaurant. The shirt is obviously a joke, and on the front says USAFA and has the AF logo. He had one of the recruiters come over, and ask him - seriously - why he was opposed to the military! :eek: Never realized when he bought that shirt how many people would think it was expressing an anti-military sentiment!

2. Our school adds a pennant of the college anyone will be attending each year after graduation, if no one has attended in the past. They order them all from the same flag/pennant shop. Ordered my son's last spring (since he was the first to go to USAFA) and it came back proudly proclaiming "US Air Force Acadamy". :shake: Geez, maybe they haven't heard of it, but isn't academy a fairly common word that you'd think before you printed on a pennant you'd at least look up the spelling for?

3. When my son #2 got his acceptance to MIT, he went and told his counselor (COUNSELOR - who works with 500 kids a year!) and she asked him (again, seriously), "So is MIT different than ROTC?" :confused: If you want to know why our school has never sent anyone to MIT before, I think I may have found part of the problem!
 
"So is MIT different than ROTC?" :confused: If you want to know why our school has never sent anyone to MIT before, I think I may have found part of the problem!

Thanks for the laughs this morning, marciemi! Love your sense of humor.
 
How can people that live in this country not know about Annapolis or Air Force? Where have these people been all their lives? I knew of the academies when I was 12 years old when my parents took us to see Annapolis and West Point.
I still can't get over that.

Or as in our case 'the elite' adults in our hood think they know everything and that you are an idiot for going to a service academy to become some kind of baby killer instead of going to Brown or Columbia to become a Liberal approved whatever....

We live in a very LIBERAL, often ANTI-MILITARY attitude school district where if any of the top kids don't get into an Ivy, Duke, MIT, Amherst, Swarthmore or one of the Stanford/Cal west coast schools then they consider it a failure. My son has a couple of friends for years at school he can't associate outside of school with easily because their parents won't allow their kids to be associated with any kid who's family owns any firearms or serves in the military. Yeah, you can find places like that around here. And like many here, most of his friends never heard of the AFA before my son came along and they still don't know what it really is nor have any curiosity to find out. And yes, I've heard stuff like, well, are you going to go to college when you are done with that or will you ever be able to get into a grad school coming from there. Some have the attitude that if you are going to school in Colorado then you are just a total loser who couldn't hack it in a real college so you had to settle for something less. There are just no schools worthy unless it's near one of the coasts...

It is such a shock to my wife and I. I told my son that some schools make a big deal about kids getting accepted to a SA and that they would even announce it on the school PA system when they found out they recieved an appointment. My son just laughed and said that would be the most embarrassing thing ever at his HS, not that they would ever do that for a SA anyway.
 
Or as in our case 'the elite' adults in our hood think they know everything and that you are an idiot for going to a service academy to become some kind of baby killer instead of going to Brown or Columbia to become a Liberal approved whatever....

We live in a very LIBERAL, often ANTI-MILITARY attitude school district where if any of the top kids don't get into an Ivy, Duke, MIT, Amherst, Swarthmore or one of the Stanford/Cal west coast schools then they consider it a failure. My son has a couple of friends for years at school he can't associate outside of school with easily because their parents won't allow their kids to be associated with any kid who's family owns any firearms or serves in the military. Yeah, you can find places like that around here. And like many here, most of his friends never heard of the AFA before my son came along and they still don't know what it really is nor have any curiosity to find out. And yes, I've heard stuff like, well, are you going to go to college when you are done with that or will you ever be able to get into a grad school coming from there. Some have the attitude that if you are going to school in Colorado then you are just a total loser who couldn't hack it in a real college so you had to settle for something less. There are just no schools worthy unless it's near one of the coasts...

It is such a shock to my wife and I. I told my son that some schools make a big deal about kids getting accepted to a SA and that they would even announce it on the school PA system when they found out they recieved an appointment. My son just laughed and said that would be the most embarrassing thing ever at his HS, not that they would ever do that for a SA anyway.

This was posted in another thread but I couldn't find it, but a funny yet ridiculous video about "anti-military" sentiments.

http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/mon-march-10-2008/marines-in-berkeley
 
Well we live about 45 minutes north of the Air Force Academy. The high school where my DD attends seems to always have at least one person appointed there so everyone knows about the service academies here in Littleton, CO. It never dawned on me that people didn't know about the academies.
 
It is apparent that in certain areas there is a lack of knowledge about the service academies in certain areas, but you can bet your britches that when an appointee is presented their appointment by their BGO, ALO, etc. And they say how much the "scholarship" value of the appoinment is worth..the auditorium will be on its feet, clapping and wooping. Hip hip hooray!
 
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