US Naval Academy nominees meet with Kilili

The six Northern Marianas students who have been nominated for admission to the U.S. Naval Academy met with their congressman yesterday at his District Office on Capital Hill.

CNMI Delegate Gregorio “Kilili” C. Sablan submitted the names of the potential naval midshipmen in January as one of his first acts as a member of Congress. He is currently on-island while Congress is on recess and wanted the chance to meet with the nominees.

The six students are Jessica Babauta, Luis Chung, Amanda Johnson, JD Torres, Victorino Untulan and Jamie Vales.

“Nominating these young people was a great way to begin representing the Northern Marianas,” said Sablan. “I am very grateful for the opportunity to send the names of these students to the Naval Academy admissions board; and I am very proud that the Northern Marianas has such outstanding students to nominate.

Members of Congress nominate students to attend the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, the Military Academy at West Point, New York and the Air Force Academy at Colorado Springs, Colorado. The academy admissions boards make the actual selection from those students nominated. Upon graduation the students are commissioned as officers.

But Sablan wasn’t satisfied with nominating the students. Another of his first acts representing the Northern Marianas was to introduce legislation to open up more slots at each of the academies for students from the islands. Sablan introduced a bill, H.R. 935, on Feb. 10 that would allow up to three students from the NMI to be in attendance at any academy at any one time.

“Right now we are limited to having one student at each academy, “ Sablan explains. “That’s why I only nominated students to the Naval Academy this year because we already have a student at West Point and a student in Colorado Springs.

“Other parts of the U.S. can have more students in attendance. I think that our students in the Northern Marianas should have more opportunity, too.

“This is especially true because the people of the Northern Marianas have shown such an interest in military service and a high degree of patriotism. In the U.S. Army, for instance, we have four times the national average per capita. And, sadly, we have nine times the national average per capita who have been killed in action in Iraq.

“So I think it is only right that more of our students have the opportunity to become officers by attending the U.S. military academies,” he said. [B][I](PR)[/I][/B]