<p>Yeah I thought they only give LOA’s to kids who have sent in the application but haven’t gotten to the nomination selection phase yet…like “if you get a nomination, you’re in.” Then again, it is a Boston Herald article, not an Army one, so there is the ever so possible possibility that the journalist got her facts wrong 
The application/nomination process is so complicated anyway I can see how the writer could have gotten mixed up. I mean, I had an interview with my local newspaper and told the lady point-blank that my grandpa served in WWII, and when I read the paper it said “Korean War”. Gotta love the press :)</p>