SHENANDOAH JUNCTION, W.Va. — U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin, D.W.Va., met with students around the state virtually on Wednesday to discuss the importance of service academies and answer questions, and Junior ROTC cadets from Jefferson County took full advantage to learn all they could about the possible future path.
The meeting came as an expansion to an initiative Manchin began two years ago, when Jefferson County students also had a chance to speak with the senator.
“He wanted to talk to them and encourage them to apply for our service academies: the Air Force Academy, the Naval Academy, West Point, the Merchant Marine Academy and the United State Military Academy,” said Phil Suydam, a retired major with the Air Force and senior aerospace science instructor. “They had 23 schools from the state of West Virginia on the call this morning, a total of about 460 students, of which we had about 210 of them. We brought all of our kids in, and frankly, we’ve been super fortunate. In the 11 years I’ve been here at Jefferson, we’ve had 14 kids out of our Junior ROTC program who have received appointments to those service academies. I don’t know anybody who’s had that many. We’ve been very fortunate. We’ve been really blessed to have really great kids, because it is tough to get into these. These are kind of along the lines of Ivy League schools, really and truly.” …