Meng Announces Queens Students Accepted to the U.S. Service Academies

U.S. Rep. Grace Meng (D-Queens) announced today that seven local students from Queens have been accepted to the United States Service Academies after the Congresswoman nominated them to attend the prestigious institutions.

The academies consist of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York; U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland; U.S. Air Force Academy at Colorado Springs, Colorado; U.S. Merchant Marine Academy at Kings Point, New York and the U.S. Coast Guard Academy at New London, Connecticut.

The students and academies they will attend include:

All will begin attending the academies at the end of the month.

The elite institutions prepare college-age Americans to be officers of the U.S. uniformed services. After four years of study, service academy graduates become commissioned as officers in the active or reserve components of the U.S. military or merchant marine for a minimum of five years.

Students seeking to attend America's service academies are required to be nominated by their Member of Congress. The institutions evaluate all nominations received by Members of Congress from across the nation and decide which nominees to accept.

Students nominated by Meng compete against students from throughout the country and must meet the highly competitive educational, physical and extracurricular standards set by the individual institutions. Meng is assisted in the nomination process by her Academy Review Board, a panel of local community leaders.

This is first round of students that the freshman Congresswoman has nominated for the academies.

"It is an honor to nominate these outstanding students from our community," said Meng. "These young men and women are truly the future of our nation, guarding liberty and freedom, and I congratulate each and every one of them. I know they'll make our country and our borough extremely proud."

To congratulate the students, Meng held a reception for them and their families Monday evening at the Queensboro Hill Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) Post 3427 in Flushing.

During the reception, Meng also awarded medals to the family of the late Harry Schlesinger who served in the U.S. Army during World War I. His son Stanley, a long time resident of Flushing, had asked Meng to secure the medals that his father never received so that he can pass them down to his children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. After intervening with the Department of Defense, Meng obtained the:

Meng presented the medals to Stanley and his wife Helene.

In 1915, Harry Schlesinger enlisted in the Army at the age of 21. He served in the 58^th Infantry; was in the American Expeditionary Forces in France; and in action on the Vesle River front, Champaigne-Marne, and Aisne-Marne Offensive. He was wounded in battle on the Vesle River front, the front that was stabilized by Allied forces, including American units, which allowed General John Pershing to form the First Army in the vicinity of the St. Mihiel Offensive. Schlesinger was honorably discharged in 1919 with the rank of sergeant. He died in 1938.

This fall, Meng plans to sponsor "U.S. Service Academy Information Night" for Queens students who are interested in applying to the U.S. Service Academies. The day and location are still being planned.