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

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jwhen it was more amusing than anything else, days when the sweat flowed so freely that you couldn't even do a single push-up because your hands kept slipping and you'd come crashing down to the deck only A to repeat the process while laughing with your classmate on the other side of the P-way who suffered a similar fate. Meanwhile your injured class mates armed with mops tried to soak up some of the sweat so that the detailers could continue their punishment. In case you really got out of line, there was the dreaded Quarterdeck: never a pleasant experience. lf that failed, well, PMP with the Gunnys. Plebe Summer wasn't just about physical devel- opment though. It was an immersion into, what was to most, an entirely g new culture. Former POWs, astronauts, 1 Holocaust survivors and generals tried to , f J' impress on us the ideals of loyalty, honor, ing Attention to Detail talk accompanied by Lean on lVle playing softly in the back- ' ground, the body bag lying on the cold hard floor, the free flowing tears on every face, the staggering emotion in the voices revealing the real life tragedies they experienced due to carelessness. Right then and there we vowed that we would not let that happen to those under our command. We had parades and drill to teach us military discipline and team- work. The O-Course, the old E-Course, the brand-new Tarzan Assault Course, the Squad Combat Course, tested as individuals to give us confidence in ourselves and forced us to work together to learn to trust those around us. We fought our way through the Plebe Hack. We built strong arms from holding out our pillow cases stuffed with our sheets in the mornings before PEP. We had sailing with the Ensigns, A a chance for us to push our socks down and let loose for a few short hours. We had Aught-Five Hour in Dahlgren with the chap- lains and Krispy Kreme. We traveled to Baltimore for an Orioles baseball game where we showed off our new whites and gorged ourselves on hotdogs and soda. Iebe Parents Weekend couldnt have come fast enough for most, but when it did come, many spent it sleeping in their parents hotel rooms. We got our first taste of liberty. We wore our uniforms proudly, used sir and ma'am with regularity even when referring to our parents, and saw our significant others for the first time in six weeks. Plebes and their families packed restaurants in the Annapolis area and the IVlidstore lines were never-ending. All too soon, everyone came back Sun- day with a new room fan and longing for Thanksgiving leave as detailers megan? blasted Christmas Carols out their windows to greet our return to the con- CLASS VBWGB fines of Bancroft Hall on Sunday night. commitment, service, sacrifice, and duty. 1 is No one will ever forget the heart-wrench- g 2

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This is not a complete history of the Class of 2005. This is only but a remembrance of our Four Years by the Bay. There is no way to compile a complete history for our class, this history's purpose is to refresh the memories of all the times we had together and the things that affected our lives from June 29,2001 to lVlay 27, 2005. I hope this account can bring back some memories that have been forgotten. From the day we showed up to Annapolis and started our journey together, there was something special about the Class of 2005. We had the highest SAT scores in the history of the Naval Academy tsomething that would be bested by following classesj but there were other more intangible characteristics that made our class great. We can all remember I-day. The long winding line in front of Alumni Hall, filled with friends, families, girlfriends and boyfriends, that were all as anxious as we were. As we entered the glass doors into the air-conditioned beast, we knew we would never be the same. A table awaited us with detailers handing out name tags and giving us these instructions: Put one on. The first and last words out of your mouth become sir or ma'am. Follow the yellow line up the stairs to the next table. lVlemorize these Q E six digits? These six digits, your al- - 1 ' 4' pha code would come to define your life. We moved on and received everything from socks and underwear to whiteworks and Dixie cups. We soon realized that board shorts and flip- flops would be a thing of the past. r v-gf It rained on our l-day. lt not only rained, it stormed with thunder and lightning, only to clear up for the swearing in ceremony. We were greeted with a fly-over, our first of many at the Academy. We looked up surrepti- tiously unsure if we were supposedfallowed to look up at the passing jets. Vice Admiral Flyan, the Grand Ole Supe, welcomed us to the Naval Acad- emy. At the time, we did not how good we had it with him. After saying goodbye to all that we knew, we entered the world ofthe unknown...Plebe Sum- mer had officially started, or so we thought. The first few days were a kinder and gentler Plebe Summer than most of j us had anticipated filled with briefings and placement tests. But all good x things must come to an end, and sure enough, we awoke one morning to find totally new detailers yelling at us. Apparently, sometime between the T night before and that morning Plebe Summer kicked into high gear. j l l l Camp Tecumseh was over and the big bad detailers were out. PEP was not the only physical workout the Class of 2005 received. Every mistake, every unmotivated sock, every unknown rate was subject to physical punishment. While not usually pleasant, the physical pain associated with . mistakes soon helped you to remember not to do certain things. Of course there were times 1 l '7 I H l

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Parents weekend was not the end of Plebe Summer by any stretch of the imagination. First, we had to move out of our Plebe Summer rooms and into our rooms in our company areas. Some had it easy moving up, down, or over a few decks, others had the misfortune of trying to move out to 7th and 8th wings or for one company, Bicketts. Then came the last test of Plebe Summer, Brigade Trials to prove that we were ready to join the Brigade of Midshipmen. Ah, the Brigade of Midshipmen, the entity we knew only through the stories our detailers had told us: the three-to-one upperclass to Plebe ratio, that it was Plebe Summer with chemistry. Hello night was a terrifying experience with 90 to 100 upperclass in your face asking you 100 differ- ent rates. During Beform, we would walk around in packs, afraid to venture off alone and get cor- nered. BearAdmiral Locklear, our first Commandant, told us The Naval Academy is not Camelot. It wasn't perfect and it wasnlt for everyone. Once the year really began, we found out that things had been slight ly exaggerated. The return of the Brigade showed us there where two stan- dards, the Plebe standard of spotless uniforms and rooms and the Upper Class standard far below that. lt was all a part of the indoctrination. Our first football game was a disappointment, the worst lost in Navy history to Geor- gia Tech, and foreshadowed the long season ahead of us. Instead of betting that we would win, we bet in the hope of betting the spread, but we always lost this year. Cur first march on was also the last march on in front of St. John's for the next couple years as a tragedy was about to strike our country. I Ain Plebe Year was rolling along just as it should, with pro-knowl- edge, chemistry, and calculus when a day dawned that changed our lives, our careers and our nation forever. September 11, 2001 occurred just a few weeks into our first semester on a regular Tuesday morning. Whether you were in Chem lab, leadershp class, or taking a Calculus quiz, we all distinctly re- member where we were and what we were doing when we found out. Classes were officially cancelled during fourth pe- riod and the Mids sent back to the protective walls of Bancroft Hall everyone gathered in the ward room to watch the chaos and devastation unfold. Lunch was rolling tray with no more than one battalion at a time in King Hall. No one knew what was really going on. Who attacked us? Why did they choose the targets they did? Were more attacks yet to come? We were glued to our computers and TVs as NADN delvered us images that we will never forget. We stood watch armed with our bayonets in front of every door to Bancroft, regardless of location. Suddenly, in the course of one fall morning, we were at war. President Bush addressed the nation that night and told the men and women of the Armed Forces to be ready. He was speaking to us, though we were still in school, we had been given a new resolve and purpose. The country bounced back, as did we. A new sense of pa- triotism surged through the nation as we went back to our ev- eryday lives. The football team still struggled, as we did with Plebe chemistry. The nation mobilized for war against the Tal- iban regime in Afghanistan that had given the terrorists who attacked us asylum and had oppressed its own people. We I