NCAA sports. My cousin went to the Naval Academy for football; he graduated in 1975 and spent about 10 years in the Navy.
Many colleges will take athletes as "walk-ons"; you just show up at the tryouts. My husband's niece just got on the gymnastics team at George Washington U. this way. But I don't know if that's an option with the academies.
Interesting. I'm actually looking to go to the UMUHS (Uniformed Medical University of Health Services, hooray for abbreviations)... Luckily, my school hasn't kicked military recruiters out (at least not to my knowledge) so I can learn a bit from them. But Westpoint would be fun, albeit very close to home.