Nature
Service academies can be used to refer to all of the academies collectively. However in popular usage, this term is more often used for the academies of the four branches of the military: those of the Army, Navy, and Air Force (under the Department of Defense); and that of the Coast Guard (under the Department of Homeland Security). These are the only four academies whose students are on active duty in the Armed Forces of the United States from the day they enter the Academy, with the rank of officer cadet or midshipman, and subject to the Uniform Code of Military Justice. In the case of the Merchant Marine Academy, midshipmen may elect to receive an active duty or reserves commission in any branch of the uniformed services, including NOAA and the U.S. Public Health Service, most are commissioned into the Navy Reserve, Strategic Sealift Officer Program.
In the context of college football, the term "service academies" most often refers specifically to the grouping of Army, Navy, and Air Force, the three academies whose football teams compete in the top-level NCAA Division I FBS. The three schools compete annually for the Commander-in-Chief's Trophy. Coast Guard and Merchant Marine compete at the NCAA Division III level and play each other annually for the Secretaries Cup (formerly Secretary's Cup when both academies were under the Department of Transportation).
The United States Coast Guard, and therefore the Coast Guard Academy, is a United States military service under the Department of Homeland Security but in time of war it can be placed under the Department of the Navy.
Read more about this topic: United States Service Academies
Famous quotes containing the word nature:
“Though nature be ever so generous, yet can she not make a hero alone. Fortune must contribute her part too; and till both concur, the work cannot be perfected.”
—François, Duc De La Rochefoucauld (1613–1680)
“Speaking thick, which nature made his blemish,
Became the accents of the valiant;
For those that could speak low and tardily
Would turn their own perfection to abuse
To seem like him.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“He was a thing to her so foul that all her feminine nature recoiled from the closeness of his presence, and her flesh crept as she felt that the same atmosphere encompassed them. And this man was to be her husband!”
—Anthony Trollope (1815–1882)