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

Page 26 text:

' ' -:■.■■•• . r„ 3 .X A..HS

Page 25 text:

r% WITHIN the chapel walls the new plebe first feels the power of that in- tangible force known as traditions of the service. The sun- light streams in bright colored rays through the stained glass windows which commemorate the Navy ' s leaders of yesterday. It slants across bronze and marble tablets telling of the deeds of one who fell fighting in far-off China, or another who per- ished at sea that his comrades might live. Finally in bright patches of light the sunbeams come to rest upon the white tile pavement which cov- ers the resting place of the Navy ' s first hero. In the crypt below, surrounded by flags and with the names of his different commands inscribed upon the pavement, lies the father of the Ameri- can Navy, John Paul Jones. He it was who first commanded a foreign salute for the flag which hangs above the chancel. In depicting the ideal officer Jones says that besides being a capable mariner he should be as well a gen- tleman of liberal education, refined manners, punctilious courtesy, and the nicest sense of personal honor. In relation to those under his command, he should be the soul of tact, patience, justice, firmness, and charity. Give me the iron in the men and I care not so much about the iron in the enemy ' s ships. Men, trained to arms will always do their duty if ably led. This is Farragut ' s statement of character ' s supreme importance. It is men such as Jones, Decatur, Porter, Farragut, and Dewey who have charted the course and set for us a standard of ideals. American sea power is still an unfinished story. Those chapel windows yet un- dedicated inspire the thought that posts of honor remain which any of us may be destined to fill. But glory, honor, hardship, and danger ever go hand in hand; and in the presence of the glory of the past we kneel and sing a hymn to the Eternal Father for those of today in peril on the sea. Tradition and navy spirit grow upon one with the passage of time. They cannot be suddenly grafted upon us, nor can they be well understood except by long association. A key to this understand- ing exists, however, in the inscription upon the bronze portals, Non Sibi Sed Patria. Full well have those com- memorated here exemplified in their lives the motto, Not for ourselves but for our country. c:

Page 27 text:

. THE Naval Academy of today has grown from an humble beginning under George Bancroft, founder of the institution. The hall wherein the Regiment eats, sleeps, and studies bears his name. One ' s first impression is a sense of the size of this structure and, as a lowly plebe, one ' s first act is to get hopelessly lost in the maze of corridors and rooms. Then the plebe grasps the system- atic scheme of arrangement and in due time his own little apart- ment with bare buff walls, white iron bed, hard bot- tomed chair, and green topped study table becomes endowed with a person- ality which distinguish- es it from a thousand similar rooms. On the terraces of the hall with feet blistering on the hot concrete and sweat streaming from every pore, he stands at attention in the blazing July sun, and learns the meaning of military dis- cipline. Amid the clatter of dishes and the hurrying of mess boys, he assumes a brace and dines among the upper classes in the long mess hall. A year later will find him smiling quietly as he watches new plebes marching in file beneath the endless lines of corridor lights. And four years hence he will hurry along the same corridors littered with trunks and cruise boxes to fall in with the other members of the graduating class. Memory will of- ten turn back to the moments of leisure spent in Bancroft. Spring evenings and the smokers on the seaward terrace, with the jazz band in action, listening in on the radio after taps, trying out the latest on the vie, and divers sessions of the radiator club. Little things are these, but vital bits of Bancroft life. %. 17