I’ve been waiting to post news from the Naval Academy front in the hopes that I’d have more news to share. Unfortunately, I don’t have much to report.
As most of you know, we monitor a ton of email lists made up of USNA parents. Over the past week or so, the theme in most emails is the same: limited or no contact with plebes. It’s worse than Plebe Summer!
Lots of parents are kicking and screaming, but the bottom line is simple — plebes are very, very busy. The academic year started on 8/20, “boards” need to be done, signature sheets completed, chow calls made, three formations a day, and ‘march on” practice for the upcoming Navy football home opener this weekend. (Yes, it takes practice to make 4,000 plus midshipmen look great when they march from the Yard into the Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium). Add homework and cross country practice (in Mark’s case), and you’ve got a recipe for one hard-to-find kid.
Let’s take these in reverse order:
Mark is still running successfully with the cross country team. The coach is ruthless when it comes to performance and staying on the team. You either run well and come in strong every day, or your name shows up on “the list” in the morning — clean out your locker. A couple of weeks ago, Coach walked by Mark and said “Trunzo, right? Right…thought so…Trunzo, I want you to lose nine pounds.” Mark laughed when he related the story to me, but guess what? After last week’s practices, he lost seven pounds. Mark doesn’t have a whole lot of extra weight on him to lose…
He misses morning formation every day. Great, right? Well, he misses it to run the first of two daily cross country practices. He misses an evening formation too so he can run the afternoon practice. Sunday morning is sleep-in time for most midshipmen. Mark hits practice at 6:30 AM.
How ’bout this for a practice session? It’s a five mile “must” for upperclassmen, but plebes can bail anytime after three miles: first mile at 5:40 pace, second at 5:30, third at 5:20, fourth at 5:10, and fifth is a race for the finish. Let me help some of you out with this pace thing. A 5:40 mile pace (the slowest part of this practice) is just a little bit faster than any of us can run if we run as fast as we can down our driveways. Mark characterized the workout as “hard”. Yeah…no kidding. No wonder he lost seven pounds.
Academics are going well so far. Classes don’t seem to be Mark’s concern for now — it’s the other stuff. He’s even doing well on his “Pro” knowledge tests. “Pro” tests happen every Sunday when upperclass (mainly first and second class, i.e. seniors and juniors) quiz plebes on their military knowledge. Please don’t assume that because one student is testing another that this material isn’t seen as being important. It is — vitally so. The grades earned on Pro tests are a part of each student’s cumulative, overall grades which determine order of merit (class rank). Order of merit is the key to everything anyone wants in the Navy or Marine Corps. The higher your order of merit, the more likely you are to go where you want to go and do what you want to do.
Upperclass handle many of the training and testing responsibilities as a part of their own training. It’s an amazing system designed to develop leadership and management skills in each of these kids.
So, what’s a chow call? If you want to see silly, go to YouTube and search for “USNA Chow Call”. You’ll find a handful of videos showing chow call in action. It’s hard to put into words, but plebes are tasked with the job of announcing the menu in the hall outside of King Hall (the HUGE dining room for all mids). Announcing the menu isn’t so hard, right? Well, right…except it must be done at the top of your lungs and faster than an auctioneer. Oh, and be clear in your speech so everyone can understand you, okay? Oh, and do it every minute on the minute. Oh, and have an upperclassman circle you like a shark circling dinner so said upperclassman can “evaluate” your performance. Not fun.
What’s a signature sheet? In the most basic form, it is what it sounds like — a sheet of signatures. In this case, it’s a sheet with all of the Company upperclass signatures. Plebes need every “non-plebe” signature from their company. Easy, right? C’mon…
3rd class (i.e. sophomores) remember what it was like to be plebes. They sign the sheets right away. 1st and 2nd class extract payment. Most payment comes in the form of a task or a quiz-like Pro question. Some payment is a little more involved. Signature sheets are due Sunday, but this weekend is a long weekend, so many of the 1st and 2nd class will disappear (as is their right). So essentially, the signature sheet must be done by tomorrow (Friday). When I last spoke to Mark, he had 70 signatures to go. Hmmm…let’s hope he makes it.
And last on our list…what’s a “board”? “Boards” are Company area bulletin boards that do all the normal bulletin board stuff and then some. Most of the bonus material on these bulletin boards is motivational…or a tribute to the 1st class. Put on your cynical cap for a moment and ask yourself…”would these college seniors really make the freshman suck up to them in a huge way?” The answer is obviously “yes”.
Company boards are designed and maintained by small groups of plebes. Boards must be original, artistic, and perfect. For example, what’s the blue box with white stars on the US flag called? All of you answered “Union Jack”, and all of you are correct. Now, how far down the flag does the Union Jack go? No cheating…let’s rephrase the question: how many red and white stripes are made shorter by the placement of the Union Jack on the flag?
Mark’s group invested a lot of time and effort into designing a beautiful flag and placing it smack-dab in the middle of their board. The board sucked up to the upperclass in an approproate manner while also being motiviational and patriotic at the same time! Wonderful! Job well done!
Well…almost. The flag on his group’s board was drawn with a Union Jack occupying six stripes of corner space. In other words, six red and white stripes were made shorter on the flag. The correct answer to our earlier question is “seven”. Just how painful do you think it is to watch your entire board be torn down because of this oversight? And worse yet, how painful do you think it might be to be told that the board still must be done right and be done on time or “no liberty this weekend”. Remember those comments above about a long weekend? Plebes actually get Saturday and Sunday Town Liberty this weekend…but not if their boards aren’t done. Mark had a few choice words for this incident when we last spoke.
All in all, life at the Academy now is tougher than it was during Plebe Summer…more responsibility but also added “silliness”. Boards, signature sheets, chow calls…all of these things have a purpose. As outsiders looking in, and after a little thought, all of us know why plebes are forced to do something that otherwise seems stupid. Attention to detail, success under pressure…those are just two things that come to mind. But plebes don’t see it this way. To them, this is “dumb”, it’s “a pain”, and they “hate it”. I can’t say I blame them…
All of this adds up to a busy, harried and grumpy kid. I’m hoping to see him in the next couple of weeks, so maybe we can do something to take his mind off of “life” for awhile. I’ll keep you posted.