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

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-m- tion, perhaps the most important event in the life of a midshipman. It is here that he receives the cherished symbol of his days at the Naval Academy — the ring that desig- nates him a member of the great fraternity of seafaring men that have graduated from the United States Naval Academy. The Ring Dance is one of the most impressive and beautiful dances to be found anywhere. Memorial Hall with its tablets of hallowed memory was usually the scene of the dance until recent years when the size of the class necessitated the use of larger MacDonough Hall. The day is customarily that on which the senior class graduates. A huge golden ring modeled after the class ring with the Academy and class crests on opposite sides is set atop a dais. Clever interior lighting causes the setting of the ring to glow with a soft brilliance. Elaborate decorations and the best obtainable music create an atmosphere charged with romance and tradition. The Second Classman chooses his partner carefully and if his sweetheart cannot attend he will usually escort his other best girl, his mother. His One and Only accompanies him and dips his ring, suspended from a lace ribbon, into a compass binnacle filled with water from the Atlantic the Pacific, and the Caribbean, symbolic of his future home. The couple then passes through the huge ring where the lady places the ring on her gentleman ' s finger, class crest inboard until after his graduation one year hence, when, by custom, the Academy crest is worn inboard. At this time the young lady may receive a miniature ring to be regarded as an engagement ring. The couple then kiss and seal the ceremony. Ik CLASSES WERE SMALL during the twenties because of the world wide move- ment to limit armaments which began with the Washington Disarmament Conference of 1921. The size of the regiment has never determined its worth, however, and the small regiment of 1926 was no exception. That was the year that Navy journeyed westward to play Army in Soldiers Field Stadium, Chicago, before the largest crowd ever to see a football game, 110,000. The game ended in a 21-21 tie, but has been ranked by most of the followers of the game as one of the greatest football contests. It was at this time that the inter-service school rivalry first reached a fever pitch. Commander Tom Hamilton, present director of the Navy ' s pre-flight physical indoctrination pro- gram for V-5 cadets, was the hero of the Navy when on that day he coolly booted the tying point before one of the most tense crowds in football history. THROUGHOUT THE TWENTIES and thirties the academic standards of the Academy were continually being raised and new courses added. The Department of Foreign Languages typifies the progress that was made in all departments during these years. The foreign languages offered for study in 1850 were French and Spanish, whereas today the midshipman has his choice of any one of seven languages: French, Spanish, German, Italian, Russian, Portuguese, or Japanese. This choice, incidentally, is the only elective allowed the midshipman in his career at the Academy. In 1930 the Associa- tion of American Universities accredited the Naval Academy as a member, permitting graduates to be awarded a Bachelor of Science degree. Colonel Robert Means Thompson of the Class of 1868, the man whose unfailing interest in the early Naval Academy en- deared him to all midshipman, was honored on May 30, 1931, by the dedication of POST WAR YEARS OF GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT

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FIRST WORLD WAR FINDS ACADEMY PREPARED -XXIV- DURING THE first World War the policy of the Navy Department concerning the Naval Academy was to accelerate the course of study. The class of 1917 graduated three months early and the Class of 1918 graduated in June of 1917, one year early. The three year course remained in effect until the end of the war, when it reverted to the four year plan. The expanding navy of wartime required more officers than the Naval Academy could provide so a three month course was devised to train special- ized reserve ensigns. Rear Admiral Eberle, then Superintendent, supervised this pro- gram which graduated four classes of reserve officers, popularly known to regular officers as ninety-day-wonders. Since the first war the Naval Academy has been particularly fortunate in its assignment of Superintendents. All have been outstanding men with distinguished records of service and professional accomplishment. On July 5, 1921, Rear Admiral Henry B. Wilson became Superintendent and was immediately con- fronted with a Congressional invQStxgation of hazing. Prior to this time the hazing situa- tion at the Academy was nothing to be spoken of lightly. The civilian professors often wondered just what went on the night before in Bancroft Hall that made the Plebes come to class with swollen lips, black eyes, bruise marks, and cuts. The result of this investiga- tion was another Act of Congress forbidding the practice of hazing. Once this troublesome situation was settled Admiral fFilson determined to make some sweeping changes in the existing scheme of things and accomplished most of his objectives. He did a great deal to liberalize the rates and privileges of the midshipmen, conscientiously believing that the life of the midshipman was too strict. His fair and speedy justice met with the approval of the midshipmen who came to be great admirers of the methods of his administration. An excellent example of his celerity in assigning punishments for dis- ciplinary offenses is that case in which the midshipman was dismissed and left the Academy within six hours after being reported. The aggressive Superintendent also revived the lethargic sports program to the highest degree of activity it had ever at- tained. There were as many as forty organized and coached tennis teams in competition in one after noon after classes — a great accomplishment in comparison to the numerous radiator squads of earlier years. The uniform of the midshipmen was changed at this time from that resembling the dress of the fVest Point cadet to the present neat and far more practical open lapel type blue service suit. The privilege of smoking in the rooms of Bancroft Hall was granted to all midshipmen along with the first Christ- mas leave in the history of the Academy. PRIOR TO 1924 it has been a custom for Second Classmen to purchase their cherished class rings and keep them in their rooms until after the final navigation ex- amination of that year. On that fateful day First Classmen would unceremoniously accost Second Classmen leaving the examination building, drag them to Dewey Basin and cast them into the Severn. In 1924 an unfortunate accident, causing the death of a midshipman focused attention on the unorthodox method by which the Second Class- men received their rings. This rough and noisy ceremony was to be replaced by one more dignified and memorable — the Ring Dance. This is the only dance midshipmen attend; all other similar entertainments are called hops. The Ring Dance is, next to gradua-

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' j;: ' •S -XXVI- Thompson Stadium. The steel bleachers were made ot metal taken from the battleships scrapped by the Five-power Armament treaty of 1922. -51 THE DUTIES of the Superintendent were placed on the broad shoulders of Rear Admiral David Foote Sellers in 1934. He was very energetic and determined that the Academy should graduate men of action. His views on the purpose of the Academy were a topic of extensive debates among the officers and civilian instructors — and the midshipmen. The crux of the debate was whether or not engineering subjects should dominate cultural subjects at the Academy. Which should be stressed ? Admiral Sellers gave the answer in no uncertain terms in his classic statement of the mission of the Naval Academy: . . . the Naval Academy has before it one objective — the developmenty training, and education of officers to fight in the Fleet. Succeeding Rear Admiral Sellers was a young flag officer with a reputation as a strict disciplinarian, Rear Admiral Wilson Brown, Class of 1902. This Superintendent ' s tour of duty was characterized by the appearance of new buildings in the Yard. Melville Hall, named for the Chief Engineer of the ill-fated Jeanette Arctic Expedition of 1877, was con- structed to house the modern internal combustion laboratory. Ever since the Brooklyn Lyceum was established in 1834 the Navy had desired an adequate museum as an ex- hibition place and storehouse for the enormous collection of doc uments and relics gathered by the Navy in its world travels. Several rooms in Mahan Hall were used for a long time as a makeshift museum because a conservative Congress wouldn ' t ap- propriate funds for the construction of a separate building for this use. In 1938 the Naval Institute and the Naval Athletic Association donated $50,000 and $150,000 respectively for the construction of a new museum with offices for these two organiza- tions located in the building. Congress authorized the Secretary of the Navy to accept the money. Admiral Sellers laying the cornerstone in March, 1938. One of the Navy ' s most outstanding authorities on naval history, Captain Harry A. Baldridge, Class of 1902, was chosen as curator, a position he has filled with great success. Today the museum is one of the most complete repositories of naval history in the world. Con- tained among its thousands of objects is the Henry Huddleston Rodgers collection of ship models valued at over $1,000,000, the Malcolm Storer collection of 1,240 naval and military medals awarded from the Revolutionary War up to and including the present world conflict, and the Henry B. Culver library on naval architecture. Prominent among the exhibits seen is the only existing complete collection of Naval Academy class rings. IN 1936 the Naval Academy received a gift from Mr. S. V. Makaroff that was eventually to result in the formation of the handsome Academy Yacht Squadron. Mr. Afa aro presented the beautiful mahogany-hulled Vamarie to the assembled regi- ment of midshipmen on Worden Field as the handsome yacht gently rode the light waves of College Creek beside the parade field. The Vamarie, a staysail ketch, was built in Bremen, Germany and for four years as an ocean racer she had won cup after cup under the skillful hand and eye of Mr. Makaroffi. In 1938 a crew of midshipmen manned her in a race to Bermuda under the command of Captain John F. Shafroth, the first open seaway race participated in by Midshipmen representing the Naval Academy. The