Isakson to Join Merchant Marine Board of Visitors

Appointed by Senate Colleague

Jun 30, 2009

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator and Senate candidate Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.) has been appointed to the Merchant Marine Academy Board of Visitors in Kings Point, N.Y.

The members of the Board of Visitors make recommendations on the operation of the academy after visiting the academy annually. The fully-accredited, four-year, college level academy was dedicated by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1943. It is operated by the Maritime Administration of the U.S. Department of Transportation and has graduated more than 21,700 midshipmen who serve the maritime industry and the Armed Forces both at sea and shore.

“It is an honor and a privilege to be appointed to the Board of Visitors of the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy,” Isakson. “The academy prepares promising young men and women to serve as leaders in the maritime industry and the armed services.”

The board consists of one senator appointed by the Vice President; two senators appointed by the chairman of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation; one member of the House of Representatives appointed by the speaker of the House; three members of the House of Representatives appointed jointly by the chairman of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation and by the chairman of the House Committee on National Security.

One of Isakson’s many duties as a U.S. Senator includes nominating students to the Merchant Marine Academy, as each Member of Congress must do. Those nominees who are accepted into the academies are awarded full four-year scholarships. Since his election to the Senate in 2004, some 120 Isakson nominees have been accepted into U.S. military academies.