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

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you don ' t like it, quit! They ' re still taking ap- plications at the University of Maryland ? Midn Y: Too easy. It was the one, the only, CAPT K. — aka Captain Al, the plebers pal. The speech that you ' re referring to will live forever in the hearts and minds of all members of the Class of 1988. 1 wish I had a complete transcript. As it is, I can only remember general impressions . . . Midn X: I know what you mean. When I think of it, I remember bits and pieces, like faggy stuffy things, pansies, and we don ' t have to apol- ogize for anything we do. YOUNGSTER YEAR Midn Y: Yep, that speech really capped off the year well. It was the year of Carl Beve. Jr. Midn V. Talk about rumors! I heard some real winners about him. Who was he, anyway? Did he have anything to do with Sandra Day O ' Connor? Midn Y: No. I don ' t think so. Must have been another rumor. But some events were more sub- stantial — for instance, the demise of Midship- men Held Publications. We all mourned the MHP ' s loss, until we figured out that it would mean more weekends, and more civilian clothes privileges. Midn X: The civvies regs were definitely twisted. Old rules: weekends in uniform, but when de- parting on and returning from leave, civilian clothes were allowed. New rules: civvies were allowed on weekends, but for leave, we had to be in uniform. Whv? In the Fleet, vou alwavs re- port to your duty station in uniform. What ' . ' Midn Y: Whatever. Under the New Rules, the Dant ' s List was defined to replace the company officers ' list. Newly privileged mids received standardized bennies. Midn X: But there were some bonuses that we all received. Like, for example, our official Torpedo ' Em penlights. Did we really pay five dollars for those things? I still have mine. I figure it ' ll be a collector ' s item someday. Midn Y: One of the biggest events of the year was Hurricane Gloria — the gloriafied rainstorm that cancelled Friday classes and sent firsties to the sea wall to rescue drowning cars. Midn X: As youngsters, we drove POV ' s to Army, Class Histoi 21 4

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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. £

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% which didn ' t seem like such a big deal until we were second class and had to take the bus. In fact, if we ' re talking long-term effects, Hurricane Glo- ria couldn ' t hold a candle to CAPT K. ' s infamous speech. SECOND CLASS YEAR Midn Y: The New and Improved Rules That Didn ' t Have To Be Apologized For began to rear their ugly heads second class summer. During the long, hot weeks of PROTRAMID, our evening liberty was curtailed so that we could participate in a mandatory study hour. Study hour? For NS300T? Midn X: Actually, study hour wasn ' t always en- forced. Exceptions were made whenever CAPT Shupp felt the urge to practice for the change-of- command ceremonies. Midn Y: During summer training, Group 10 blew holes in the theory that they can ' t fry us all. Other Groups who sat through the stressful lecture were sympathetic. Midn X: Later, the can ' t fry us all theory was to be further tested at the ' 86 Army-Navy game. Some of us wondered if, by the time they were through yanking people out of ranks, there would be anyone left to march on the field. Midn Y: It shouldn ' t have surprised us, though. The first semester of our second class year should have been warning enough of which way the tide was flowing. After all, we did spend a whole year of Saturday mornings attending widely appre- ciated SSIP lectures. Midn X: When we weren ' t attending mandatory lectures, we were in reg PE gear, getting our rooms inspe ction-ready. In Fourth Batt., to be extra-professional, mids field-tested a new no- sleeping-in-the-afternoon rule. That policy crashed like . . . like a midshipman in the af- ternoon. Midn Y: The administration decided that mids weren ' t responsible enough to ride bicycles, but if they would have let us ride bikes to Baltimore, we might have made it to the Notre Dame game in time for the kick-off. Midn X: It took almost as long to get to the Notre Dame game as it did to re-brick Stribling Walk. Midn Y: No, it didn ' t take thai long. By the time they finished re-bricking Stribling Walk, they were nearly done with whatever they were doing with Mahan Hall. Midn X: I don ' t know; that scaffolding was up there for an awfully long time. Midn Y: It was up there for almost as long as we ' ve been rambling along, trying unsuccessfully to stick to our topic. Midn X: Which was? Midn Y: The Year, in Review. Later, ENS X and ENS Y continued their ram- bling, feeling, as alumni, even more sentimental about The Institution. Their final words could 22 Class Hiv r £