My twelve year old son is expressing an interest in serving his country. He’s very academic and athletic, and if he sticks with this desire I’d like him to apply to one of the academies. What is the best way to explain the differences between them? I myself am not sure, except that one is Army and one is Navy. Thanks!
There are also Coast Guard and Air Force academies. I’d say that differences are mainly between the services they feed into rather than the academies themselves. This struck me as a good summary & introduction: http://usmilitary.about.com/cs/generalinfo/a/military101.htm
Academics are essentially centered around the same core, which is lots of Math,Science, and Engineering courses. There are small variation between academies in terms of courses/academics, but not something a 12 year old would need to worry about. As stated above, the main difference is obviously in the services into which graduates commission. If you really look into it, USNA is by far the broadest in terms of what service options you have. From USNA, you could fly jets/helos, drive ships or submarines, or commission into the Marine Corps as a 2 LT, and go into Infantry, intelligence, or even USMC aviation. USNA also provides exposure to all of these communities. It’s very important to remember that USNA is an officer training program for both the Navy AND the Marine Corps, so a graduate could become a ground infantry officer, just like many USMA graduates, or he/she could commission into the Navy and have a multitude of options to select there.
Thanks, that was very helpful!