A West Point brochure sits on a table Thursday, Aug. 29, 2013 during the U.S. Service Academy Information Fair at the Carol Knicely Conference Center in Bowling Green, Ky. (Photo by Joshua Lindsey/Daily News)

Young people who choose to attend any of the country’s military service academies will be entering military service at a “time of great uncertainty,” U.S. Rep. Brett Guthrie, R-Bowling Green, told students and parents who came to a U.S. Service Academy Information Fair on Thursday.

At the Carroll Knicely Conference Center, Guthrie and Sen. Rand Paul, R-Kentucky, spoke to students interested in attending any of the nation’s five service academies, including West Point, the United States Military Academy or the United States Air Force Academy.

Candidates for all the service academies except the United States Coast Guard Academy require a nomination, which can come through several avenues, including a member of Congress representing them.

Guthrie, who graduated from West Point, said the service academies aren’t an easy place to live, and those who attend should be at least open to a career in the military.

He said before the event that every person he’s been able to nominate for a spot at the academies who ended up attending made that decision at a time of war.

“I made the decision in a time of Ronald Reagan, 1983 peace,” he said.

The world political situation is now less stable than it was when the world’s main powers were the United States and Russia, Guthrie said.

When the young men and women who will enter the academies for the coming school year enter military service, the United States should be out of Afghanistan, but the global situation is still uncertain, he said.

Guthrie said he thinks President Barack Obama needs to call Congress back in session to consider any military action he wants to take in Syria.

“The president can’t refuse to bring us back because he may not get the answer that he wants,” he said. “That’s not how the Constitution works.”

The president needs to make the case that the Bashar al-Assad regime was responsible for chemical weapons used and that military action will have a positive effect, Guthrie said.

“We need to show the world that, if that’s how you’re going to behave, that’s not going to be tolerated; however, I’m not convinced that a military strike will do that,” he said.

Before the event, Paul, of Bowling Green, also said that he wants any military action in Syria to be debated in Congress.

“I think that when you make the decision to go to war, it’s a very important decision, and it should be done by Congress,” he said.

If the debate takes place, one of the questions that needs to be asked is if a military strike is in the interest of U.S. security, Paul said.

“I think that’s a difficult hurdle because I don’t see a direct connection really to us,” he said.

It’s still unclear who initiated a chemical weapons attack, Paul said, and evidence to that effect should be presented to Congress.

“You have to ask the question, who does the attack benefit,” he said. “The attack seems to be getting everybody in on the side of the rebels, so you wouldn’t think Assad would do this if he were logical. He would have to be acting completely illogically to do this because he’s known from the beginning this would unify opposition to him.”

Paul said it’s special that this country’s military is an all-volunteer force.

“We defend probably the world’s largest economy, largest, greatest country with an all volunteer army, so that’s pretty special,” he said.

The students who attend the academy want to be the country’s next generation of leaders, he said.

Breanna Neace, 17, of Tyner, said she is working on applying to the Air Force Academy and still needs her nomination letters. The information fair was a chance to learn more about the academy.

She’s already made a commitment to join the Air Force and would like toattend the academy and become an officer, she said.

She wants to serve her family, friends and the rest of the country in the Air Force, Neace said.

“I feel like there’s nothing more honorable than serving your country,” she said.

Blake Sandlin, 16, of Somerset, said he came to the information fair because he wants to go to West Point. 

He joined ROTC as a freshman and responded to the discipline and challenge, he said.

“Ever since then, I wanted to be an officer in the Army,” Sandlin said.

— Katie Brandenburg covers government. Follow her on Twitter at twitter.com/BGDNgovtbeat or visit bgdaily news.com.