The West Point option
To the editor:
This letter is about the need for the people in Aroostook County to find young leaders in our high schools and then turn them on to going to West Point.
I have found such a leader in Mr. Garrett Graham of Ashland. He has that one skill that is an inborn trait: the skill of reading people. I want to urge you to print this letter so that others might consider West Point, for young women and men for leaders in the Department of Defense forces. You might also do a bit about people who did go to West Point and are from The County. As you know well, West Point is not just for the U.S. Army, as anyone who is done with school there can choose any branch to lead in, for five years. I have sent letters about Mr. Graham to the speaker, our Sen. Collins, Sen. McCain and Sen. Burr (Intelligence Commission chair).
As a first-rate force, we have all kinds of toys for our women and men to use. Toys do not make the wins in war; it’s the people. Right now women are being taught to be U.S. Army Rangers and high-ranking Navy admirals. The County has women and men just as good as — no, even better than — other areas in the nation. I will bet my life on it. We do have one of the highest service rates in the nation. The Department of Defense does know that, and I know it’s time to expand it.
The County has sent men and women all over the world; our record as a sector can be and should be more profound. When we know so many former SEALs, Marine Corps, Black Ops. And Navy officers have been not just from Maine but from our County, we should be proud of it, but we have to look forward to a better and greater force for tomorrow.
Our very lives depend on them; our new Army, Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard need leaders from Aroostook County that go to West Point.
Mark Sherman Weaver
Ashland
