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We have taken the plunge…

…the plunge for crazy, silly, ridiculously priced pictures!  Thornton Studios is the “official” photographer on the Yard during Plebe Summer and throughout the year.  They have a ton of photographers on site, and they do amazing work.  Here we are, a little over two weeks into the summer, and they have over 22,000 photos on their site.  Amazing!

Obviously they need to get paid.  But man…you don’t even want to know.  I’ve found 23 pix of Mark so far, but I only chose five for purchase today.  Thornton also does DVD’s and other collections which we’ll probably mortgage the house to buy.  We’ll keep you posted as we get new stuff.

Given the circumstances, I’m going to ration these babies.  But today is a bonus day!  Today we’re going to go with two photos.  A little background first…

The Academy has what’s known as “the Squad Endurance Run”.  A squad is the smallest group in the organizational structure: squad is part of platoon is part of Company is part of Regiment is part of Brigade.  Got all that?  A squad typically has eight to twelve members.

The Endurance Run (also known as ‘E-Course’) is a run through the woods and up and down some fairly steep ravines.  The course is split into two halves — plebes run the second half during plebe summer.  The second half is 1.3 miles long.

Plebes run it twice — once for practice and once for time.  The times are recorded (obviously) and included in the competition for Color Company.

Color Company is some serious stuff.  For the plebes, the award comes at the end of Plebe Summer at the Formal Dress Parade on Friday morning of Parents’ Weekend.  Being named Color Company means being recognized as the best.  It’s a very big deal during Plebe Summer, and the competition resets and goes Brigade-wide (i.e. the whole student body) once the academic year begins.  Let me repeat: this is drop-dead serious stuff.

So on to the E-Course!  As you all know, Marky-Mark is a runner.  He’s a pretty damn good runner.  Apparently, he can even have fun running in combat boots:

Is that the start of a smile?  Maybe so…because here’s the group at what appears to be the end.  I’m thinking they’re waiting for the folks they smoked because it looks like happiness on some faces:

Of course, they could be waiting for the rest of their squad or platoon (or even Company).  In some things, this would be considered “bad” — success as a group overrides success as an individual.  But I’m not seeing looks of concern on the faces of these guys, so I’m going to run with the “happy” theme.

We’re halfway there!  Plebe Summer is rapidly coming to a close.  If any of you have a moment and get inspired, drop Mark a line.  He doesn’t have any time (really!), so if you write two lines you’re good to go.  He won’t read much more!

More pictures soon!