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

Page 67 text:

pensablesfwbrootns and brushes, polish and rags, newspapers for windows. and the laundry bag for stray articles which could find no other hiding place. Inspections were a daily ritual and you always thought you were getting better at chasing dirt. But you were liying in a fool's paradise if you supposed your ingenuity superior to that ofthe in- spectors 'l'oward the end of our tenure the officers becatne fantastically clever in ferretinq out Ininute items for attack a inolecule and three quarters of dust on the inolding at the inost inaccessible corner of the quarters: a suspicious cluster of foreign mat- ter on the under side of the bunks: a few grains of tobacco carelessly interred in a stack of tide and current tables on the starboard side of your l'OOIIllCiS desk. It was always your roonnnate who was at fault. It was he who left the cap off your tube of tooth- paste, or a hair conspicuously littering the glisten- ing washstand, or a cigarette butt beneath the locker or a inayerick button beside the radiator. And iT'couldn't have been you who left a telltale smudge on the mirror and the shoelaces adrift. These were the peccadilloes that kept you on board with the extra duty squad on Saturday afternoons because it was always you who was in charge of the room when things like this had to happen .... l63l

Page 66 text:

if T-T-fr X X ff 4 g 1 5.9 ' f EX' X 1 3 ! ! 5 -'B 2' I ' ffiif ' I if t' lf ,J j , C ,1 i f ,g f X Q fb t 'Q -, J ff I A fa ' . ft' ' , l X' E Zi X - K ROM fa Like the rising tempo of a Vlagner orchestra- tion the sound increases until it fills your room with an infernal din. r off, at first, a bell begins to clang. Then come the shouts of the mates in the pas- sageways. Reveille! Hit the deck! 'fCome on, you guys, pile out of there! Rubbing sleep-sodden eyes, you hazily throw back the covers, step down to a deck so cold that it could be used for an ice-rink and then rush to close the windows and drape yourself over a radiator. Such is reveille, a daily ordeal. And then there is Captain's Inspection, that 62 , ' gufwfif Saturday ritual which involves with dust motes, lint, and collar buttons. a desperate struggle A last hurried brush with the broom, a flick at the sink, a ginger Hnger test of locker tops, and a critical glance at the gleaming surface of desks per- fectly aligned, a final prayerful glance at your roomie, quailing at parade rest d for Captain,s inspection. , an you are ready Yes, ready at last, you fondly suppose, because you have corrected, with infinite patience, the mis- takes so generously indicated by your Chief in an uninterrupted series of room slips throughout the week. You learned to know well a curious appliance, called a i'swab, and you waited in a line just for a chance to use it. And there were other indis-

Page 68 text:

A V85 . X l 1 .'s W3 . .,? 1241. it 'S n - Q THLETICS occupied a prominent place in the Midshipmanls routine, with several hours each week set aside for calisthenics, tag football, nucom, track, softball,,gymnastics, boxing, wrest- ling, handball and squash. The calisthenics, led by Chief Degralla, were held outside on the drill field, weather permitting, or in the Drill House. Middies who couldn't touch the ground with the palms of their hands when they first began the course were doing it easily before graduation. Athletics were heavily emphasized during the Indoctrination period. A company competition in all sports was held and the regimental champion- ship went to Company Nine. A i'Submarine Squads' was organized for those who couldn't swim and they were given instruc- tion two and three times each week at the pool in Rockne Memorial Hall. The first few calisthenic sessions brought the boys back to their rooms with aching muscles. It wasn't long, however, before all of us were going through the drills with great gusto.