US Naval Reserve Midshipmens School - Capstan Yearbook (Notre Dame, IN)

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When I first put this unjorm on I said, as I looked in the glars 'Ifs one in a million that any civilian Myjigare andform will surpassf I said, when Ijirsl put il on, 'It is plain to the veriest dunee That euegi beaugf willfeel il her duhf To yield to its glamor at once,, lf the truth were known, the secret reaction of Midshipman W. T. Door, to the first glimpse of himself in his eagerly-awaited dress blues coincided neatly with the sentiments expressed by Gilbert and Sullivanls vain colonel of the Heavy Dragoons. Donning dress blues, however, had no relation in time to actually becoming midshipmen, owing to several weeks, delay in arrival of the caps. By the time they came, impatience knew no bounds. This situation was neatly epitomized by Lt. Brown, commander of the first battalion, as he addressed the formation of the ultimate few whose odd sizes had Hnally turned up. In the drily humorous tone for which he has become well known, he remarked, Now, if there is any man here who doesn't want to get his dress cap, he has my permission to fall outf' After final indoctrination exams, however, jump- ers and white caps gave way immediately to blue shirts and ties, together with the then odd-looking blue-banded headgear, constituting undress blues. The blue-banders in turn were shortly succeeded by watch caps fthe Navyls term for what we called stocking caps in our belly-Hopping days, which, while no sartorial triumph, were accepted with re- joicing when winter in Indiana showed its true bitterness. The new class schedule revealed a highly satis- factory number of study periods, compared with the old indoctrination routine, but two develop- ments served to curtail all celebration. First of 1 42 ' ----N----. ,ff ' xc:-' Mgr ----..4 . 1' X K 5 7 - '2 fi-3 ,-. .,.-- K , KQV-.,,..- Q .fff .A Q 5 V 5- ti- we ,fr f my 4 a ,Q these was thatwwhile indoctrination had seemed rigorous enou ith,mspect to studies, it was FCHHY only Zig mild fwa fer-upper. Next, two or three study periods a week were snatched away for additional athletics. Navigation, ordnance, damage control, and sea- manship-these put together made up an incubus that fevered the hapless midshipman day and night, set himigto pawinsg wearily through tables in his dreams, curses on the man who first thoughtggf a gun on a ship fand incident- ally, agreeing wholeheartedly with Lord Nelson in his opposition to the use of sights on the grounds that they fwould introduce unnecessary complica- tions intoiiringj, getting hopelessly ensnarled in buoyancyiand stability calculations, and deeply envying landlubbers whose trafiic and steering problems had ,some relation to previous experience. If there was inthe regiment who stayed on top', of his Wark for more than a few hours be- hind, he did not let it be known, and most of us were lucky to keep Within hailing distance. To quote again the proud icolonel of the,-Heavy Dra- goons, ' I . H1 diana anticipate thai' , When I lirst put this unifoiiiti on.', One entry in the program which excited aicer- I tain amount of curiosity was executive drill. Now, everybody knew what drill was, and quickly tried to think of something else, but the executive part of it sounded intriguing. All hopes were we

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if , I H 1 D 1 fly: --A, X V. -1 dashed when executive dfrkll turjifziii out to be plain old ordinary drill, with if ,hour of athletics thrown in for good measure. Wijereuthe executive part of it came in remained an unfathomed, mystery. Two milestones in the annals of the Notre Dame Midshipmen's school were set up when, first, all classes were begun in the freshly-completed Navy building just beyond Rockne hall, and some weeks later, the Navy drill hall was opened, for use. There was a new appreciation of havingigrfdugh seats to go around, blackboards Qwith or without chalkj, and adequate space to workin. Best of all were the tables in the Nav. classrobms, where one could construct a Mercator chart without fear of running over the abyss which gave Columbus some mutiny trouble. , .-X . One or two more shotsfiri bhp arm-Qtetanus, they must have beenl, shortly put sto the forlorn processions which used to wind into the sick bay every week. The blood tests and fluoroscopic exams were still to come, but could be disregarded since they involved no hardship except loss of study time. Theyldid say, however, that one midship- man stopped 'on the' way back from a blood test to roll down hisqfigleevexand fell three assignments be- hind. ' Within the first week, the regiment made ac- quaintance with yet another hoary tradition-the tree,H an institution regarded with aversion, if not horror, by one and all. Every Wednesday was Arbor day, when trees were planted on main 43 bulletin boards where all could see one's name and jeer. This custom gave rise early in De- cember to a fervent hope which puzzled all civil- ians who happened to hear of it: namely that the regiment would have no Christmas trees. Whatever a midshipmanis other troubles, no one need fear that he worries over money, for he has none to trouble him. It was a black day early in November when, our finances touching rock bot- tom, we were lined up to be paid 154150, and with- in ten minutes lined up again to pay out 3540 for midshipmen's uniforms and accessories. Succeed- ing paydays, bringing stipends averaging 3515, de- veloped into occasions for exchanging debts. Then, too, there were interludes . . . the Satur- days when we strutted our stuff in town, proud as peacocks in our brand-new dress blues, and con- tent to have broken the back of our civilian indi- viduality to merge with an honored tradition . . . the brief minutes of daily liberty when, now in the habit of living intensely, we made firmer friend- ships than in years previously . . . the moments when esprit de corps was being born . . . the evil hour when we shook hands all around before walking into the first term Nav. final . . . that day of transcendent glory when one's name was an- nounced with a 4.0 attached to it . . . the week-end that best girl, or Mom and Dad, or perhaps all three, traveled up to South Bend. If this summing-up conveys the impression that all was not skittles and beer, it is a fairly accurate account. No one expected a lark, and while mid- shipmen's training by popular consent was voted the toughest stretch we had to put in anywhere, its severity served to impress us with the seriousness of our job as nothing else could have done. Most satisfying of all was the conviction, born of number- less weary and hopeless hours, of having earned our stripes.