United States Naval Academy - Lucky Bag Yearbook (Annapolis, MD)

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Midn Y: Oh, didn ' t you hear? There wasn ' t a Training Officer this year. It was all done by he Hall computers. ew and Midn X: Was it the same computer that con- ceived the idea of RUN AIDS . RUN king 01 SANTACLAUS . RUN EASTER , and oth- ver the er various holidays and diseases? Course. i the 0- Midn Y: I think you ' re exaggerating, X. Anyway, the Academy wasn ' t really run by computers, you know. There were people behind those comput- rumor. ers. Rumor had it that The Man behind the -there machine was LT Kachmarik. around iticipat- Midn X: It must be true. That man single- handedly prevented my Mail Directory from mi- grating for a whole year. rding to e to the Midn Y: And, in spite of all his advice, we still went out and drank green beer on Saint Patrick ' s Day. 11 ral ' Midn X: You know, we had a lot of people deainat aroun( j t0 gj ve us a( j v ice. For example, take 0r ' CAPT Shupp. Please. Ha Ha. ode had , under- Midn Y: Yes, I remember the Drill God — he re found advised me that if I took a knee on the parade hange of field, he would remove my tonsils with his thumb Id have and forefinger. Midn X: He wasn ' t totally unreasonable, Y. Sure, - on his he didn ' t want us to take a knee — but he didn ' t the news mind if we took a face. Always remember Shup- orth last pology 7 (?), Work hard and don ' t take a knee. tyously. I Midn Y: Words to live by. But I have to admit, ided. whenever I think of all the valuable advice that I ' ve received, my mind starts to wander . . . back to . . . Midn X: Oh, no . . . not way back to . . . Class Historviy » ■

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Midn X: At 1825 on Sunday, Hospital Point seemed just as far away as the Stadium. I guess it was all right, though. The dash back to the Hall gave us a chance to practice for the New and Improved Mile-and-A-Little-Bit-More. THE YEAR IN REVIEW... Midn X and Midn Y were in the yearbook office, reminiscing about The Year. Midn X: Hey, remember when we used to get all those honor bulletins? They always used our names, and it really made me mad. I was afraid we might be getting a reputation. Midn Y: I remember. Those were the good old days. USNA. They gave up the bulletins when they ran out of letters. But you ' re off the track already. You ' re supposed to be reminiscing about THE YEAR. You know, OUR year, this year, when we were first class, leaders of men and women, responsible, in control . . . Midn X: In control of what? The first thing I remember about being a first class is getting a thirty-minute lecture on where I couldn ' t park. Midn Y: You must be thinking of the changes neccesitated by the building of the Dave Rob- inson Memorial Basketball Arena ... I mean, the Brigade Activities Center. Look on the bright side, though; at least we were all allowed to park in the Yard. According to Rumor Control Cen- tral, anyone with an OOM in the bottom two hundred would have had to park at the Stadium. Midn Y Right. And while you were parking on Hospital Point, you got a chance to look over the New and Improved (Safer!) Obstacle Course. You know, I heard someone was killed on the O- Course. Midn X: That was just an out-of-control rumor, Y. Speaking of Rumor Control Central — there were some pretty good stories floating around about former SECNAV Webb ' s much anticipat- ed USNA visit. Midn Y: I heard a couple of those. According to one rumor, Mr. Webb was going to come to the Academy and give us a Forrestal Lecture during exam week. Midn X: That wasn ' t a rumor, Y. That really happened. I was talking about the crazy idea that ' 90 would have a Two for Nine Night. Or the even more amusing story that an alpha code had been found on one of those women ' s under- garments — you know, the ones that were found hanging in trees on the morning of his change of command ceremony. Now that could have made his speech really interesting. Midn Y: Even so, we hung — get it? — on his every word, and responded joyously to the news that all summer training would henceforth last eight weeks instead of four. Midn X: At least the firsties responded joyously. I wonder how the Training Officer responded. 18

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PLEBE YEAR? Midn Y: Yep. Plebe year. The infamous quote of the century, here at USNA: Suck it up and go with it, ' cause that ' s the way it ' s gonna be — MIDN CAPT Butler. Midn X: Those were the good old days. We got our first taste of what the Naval Academy would be like on 1-Day, when we were obediently sign- ing all the forms they put in front of us. We were told, By the way, one of those papers you ' re autographing says that you agree that your com- mitment will be five years active and three years in the reserves, instead of the two years that we told you before. Psych! Midn Y: That was just the first of many changes that we would see over our years at the Academy. When I talk about our plebe year, I tend to start with, Do you remember when ... ? For ex- ample, DYRW we had to pick up our uniforms at the Press Shop, and the Brigade Services Mall opened in October? Midn X: DYRW The Laundry People made us write our alpha codes on all four corners of our sheets and bedspreads? DYRW we didn ' t have to wear a nametag on liberty uniforms, and women wore real ties with WUB A instead of wings ? Midn Y: DYRW Mr. Pep drew moans and cheers from the Brigade, but in either case refused to be ignored? Have you got that spirit — yeah, yeah . . . DYRW midshipmen (besides plebes) ac- tually attended pep rallies and had a good time? DYRW we had to do over 300 push-ups at the Princeton game? Now those were really the good old days — when we excitedly summarized a football game for our upperclass, and they said, Nap?! Nap?! is that what you call him?! Do you rate that? Midn X: Our plebe year was the last year that plebes didn ' t have mandatory breakfast, and up- perclass didn ' t have reveille. Firsties had liberty every afternoon, second class had Wednesday libs, and reg PE gear was something that only plebes and really weird youngsters wore. Midn Y: But things weren ' t all rosy for the up- perclass. When we threw our company com- manders in the Severn after the last parade, they got fried — breaking ranks, or something like that. RHIR. Midn X: And firsties who stayed in the Hall while they were on weekend had to go to formation (were supposed to go to formation) on Saturday mornings. Midn Y: The reasoning behind the rule was, Bancroft Hall is just like a ship, and if you were on a ship, you wouldn ' t ever be able to sleep through reveille. Midn X: Army-Navy, ' 85 — as plebes, we were allowed to jump ship and stay overnight in Philly. It was the last year, officially, that plebes were allowed to change shoulderboards with fir- sties. Midn Y: We were supposed to be reviewing The Year. How did we get all the way back to plebe- dom? Midn X: I think we were talking about mem- orable quotes. Hey, I ' ve got one. Who said, If m 20 Class Histon. £