June 2005 Blue & Gold Officer's Notes

Cindy Miller '90, Area B&G Coordinator

A tale from the USNA candidate recruiting trail

Blue & Gold Officers are volunteers that assist USNA by performing the face-to-face interviews of students that are applying to USNA. For more details, please see past articles in the USNA Atlanta Alumni newsletter or contact Cindy Miller at (770) 650-8921 or cindymiller@1990.usna.com. We are in need of Blue & Gold officers in the Roswell-Alpharetta-Cumming area, and in Macon. If you can help, please contact me at the above phone number or email address.

Here's a tale from the USNA candidate recruiting trail:

Cindy,

I'm pleased to report that our part in the College Fair at Rabun Gap Nacoochee School went off beautifully.

We were placed in the back of the library. Originally, we were to share a table with Western Carolina University, but there were two empties behind us, and we were invited to take over one of them all to ourselves, which WCU appreciated, also. Before ever seeing the place and the layout, I'd hoped we would be in the back of whatever room we were in. Prayers answered. We didn't want the idlers and anti-military types making cracks as they went by. As it was, we had only one or two of these, even though Momma in the second group picked up material.

We enjoyed lunch in the dining hall beforehand, sharing a table with some juniors, although I didn't see any of them at the College Fair later. And one was a Navy Junior. But it was a good lunch. The parents of one said they'd be by later because of their intense interest, but we didn't see them, either. I don't think their daughter shared their excitement about USNA.

That 50 to 60 surrounding schools changed to 25 when I got there. And while there, we heard that some of those schools planned to send a bus with their kids. The only kids we talked with had RGNS logos on their polo shirts, so if any came from elsewhere, we didn't see them.

However, the hostess group told us that several students came through the door asking only for USNA and asking at which table were we seated. We estimate that through the course of the afternoon we talked with about six (6) really serious candidates and not too many others. But these took a lot of time. (By a little after 1600 there were hardly any students in the room, so we vendors wrapped up and left before the official 1700 closing time.) I recall only one candidate who was a junior, and the rest were freshmen and sophomores. These we made sure got the 2005 Summer Session pamphlets and told them to keep up with it on the Internet. Second Lieutenants Whitney Vaughn and Michael McFarlin arrived about 1420 and jumped right into the middle of the two or three I was talking with at the time. I pointed to them, stepped back, and went to retrieve the camera while those two literally held their audience, parents and students alike, in rapt attention.

Were I to characterize those two Marines' collective attitude, it would be "Extreme Enthusiasm." And the kids ate it up.

Having recent grads there made a remarkable difference. At dinner we talked about the changes of the past 50 years at USNA (which seems like only last month to me), and it was amazing. So having them there was a stroke of genius for keeping the record and facts straight.

RGNS Headmaster John Marshall told me as we were on our way out that three of their students were accepted at Princeton last year. That's a far cry from just a few years ago when Sheryl's niece and nephew graduated from RGNS and the usual fare for graduating seniors were nice little liberal arts colleges nobody ever heard of.

Afterwards we went to dinner at Mama G's. I thought later we should have gone to the Dillard House nearby to the campus, but you can remember that for next year. But dinner was excellent at Mama G's, and they had the roast beef.

I can honestly say we thoroughly enjoyed our afternoon and the company. Thanks for the opportunity. And you definitely want to go there next year if they have another. This was their first ever.

John