Taking the Political Temperature in Vermont!
Last December, U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders and U.S. Senator Peter Welch and U.S. Congressperson Becca Balint announced that they nominated a total of 23 young Vermonters to the U.S. Military Academies.
The U.S. Military Academies are four year college degree programs with free tuition, room and board for graduating high school students who qualify.
Now, here’s the question: How many wish they had not applied?
After all, the War with Iran had not started in December 2025.
The acceptance process is a dance back and forth because after
students are nominated by Members of the U.S. Congress,
House and Senate, then the U.S. Military Academies have to
decide which of the young people, out of the ones nominated,
they want to accept. Then, after they issue acceptance letters to
some of the nominees, by then, some of the students have changed their
minds, and decline the acceptance.
https://www.sanders.senate.gov/bernie-buzz/nominating-23-young-vermonters-to-u-s-military-academies/
Some of the nominated students are not first draft pick choices of the U.S. Military
Academies, and are issued a letter that they are on a waiting list, so if
one of the first draft picks changes their mind, then someone on the
waiting list gets in.
Because of the War with Iran, which President Trump now likes to
downplay as a mere skirmish, I am wondering what the decisions
and circumstances of the 23 nominees from Vermont has turned out
to be.
I was looking at the list and seeing which Vermonters were nominated
to the U.S. Naval Academy, because if I knew which ones were accepted
and decided to join, rather than turn down their acceptance, then I
could tell my nephew. He was not a first draft pick, he was on the
waiting list.
When U.S. Congressman Tim Moore of North Carolina
called my nephew at home in Mecklemburg County, NC, this past week
my nephew was thrilled. He’s now 18, and like any healthy, super intelligent
teenager, he is incredibly excited to go to the U.S.Naval Academy
and start a four year college program in engineering. He is
graduating from the Early Engineering College which is a specialized
high school in the Charlotte, North Carolina area.
So, I wanted a list of young Vermont students who he will be
going to school with at the U.S. Naval Academy, so I can send it to him.
I am almost in tears that he probably won’t be visiting me again
as soon as I would like. One of his favorite places in Vermont is
cliff diving at the Dorset Quarry, a place the Navy recruiters should see,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cUTFkd2RyF0
but I’m sure the U.S. Naval Academy
will give him the adventures his spirit aspires to.
If any Vermont young person is headed this June to the
U.S. Naval Academy, despite President Trump’s conflicts with
Iran, my nephews name is Kamran Ericson.
I am praying for him.
