So I was talking to a retired Naval SWO today about DD's application and nomination process. He said he had served under a fairly well-known Admiral (many of you would recognize his name from CNN and such as an analyst), still keeps in contact with him and would be happy to mention DD's name to him if I wanted. That wouldn't help at all, would it? I read you military contributors saying even a Grandfather who was an Admiral doesn't help at the Academy so this kind of 3rd hand mentioning couldn't help. More likely, could it actually do the opposite? Is it seen as meddling and could it even push her app farther down the pile?