I guess we had to expect this. If enlistments in the service were down, applications to the academies had to drop as well.
Nice job, Shrub.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20050613/us_nm/arms_usa_academies_dc
U.S. military academies attract fewer applicants
By Will Dunham 40 minutes ago
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Applications from high school students to each of the three prestigious U.S. military academies dropped this year, officials said on Monday, at the same time the Army is struggling to sign up new recruits.
This drop in applications represented the latest sign that the all-volunteer military is having difficulty attracting people during an Iraq war that is producing a steady flow of U.S. casualties, defense analysts said.
Applications to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York, which produces junior officers for the Army, declined 9.3 percent this year compared to last year, the academy said. The Army provides most of the ground troops in Iraq, and has born the brunt of the military's recruiting problems.
But the decline was even steeper at the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland, where applications were down 20 percent from a year ago, and at the U.S. Air Force Academy at Colorado Springs, Colorado, where they were off 22.7 percent.
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Maybe the steep drop in apps at the AF Academy were also the result of the Christian Right Wing takeover?