The US Naval Academy

The US Naval Academy
Friday, March 16th

Yesterday, Tony (Sir Galahad) took us on a road trip to visit his alma mater: The United States Naval Academy. Annapolis is about 35 minutes south of Baltimore and a little farther down the Chesapeake Bay. It is also the capital of Maryland and the statehouse sits in the middle of a cobblestone traffic circle in the middle of town. The whole place is picture-postcard pretty and has a very colonial-era feel.

The midshipmen (as the students are called) were on Spring Break while we were there. Tony explained that even if you had nowhere to go for spring break, “you would sleep in your car just to get off the Yard.” The whole complex is surrounded by an 8 foot masonry wall; everything inside the wall is “the Yard” (i.e. campus). As a midshipman, permission to leave the yard is a privilege – especially if you are an underclassman. The campus is very pretty. It sits (as you would expect) right on the water and is all done in the federalist style that much of Washington D.C. is. Everything feels very grand.

The chapel at the Naval Acadmey

The midshipmen all live in one gigantic dorm (they claim that it is the largest dorm in the world – home to around 4,000 students). There is no off-campus living. In your first year, you must leave the door to your room open whenever you are in it. There are prescribed study, drill and sleep times. As a first year, you may not sleep except between lights out and revele (11:00 PM and 6:30 AM), if you’re caught sleeping you are punished. The reverse is also true, you are not supposed to be awake between lights out and revele – you can also be punished for that. Tony said that there was much studying with a flashlight under your blanket. Your quarters could be inspected at any moment with various punishments for mis-folding your tee-shirts and having dirty grout. It was everything you imagine military school to be. Everyday there is brigade-wide drill before lunch.

Of course, it is also a world-class college. There are 19 majors; 16 of them are engineering and math related. In addition to calculus and thermo-dynamics everyone also takes classes in weapons systems and naval architecture. The faculty is mix of Navy and Marine officers alongside civilian professors. There is also a large physical fitness component. You must run a mile and a half every semester and be graded on it (an “A” is something like 6 minutes).

The midshipmen also have to take summer “cruises”. These are your more specific naval training. You learn to sail. You learn to live on (and escape from) a submarine. You also learn what teargas feels like. After graduation, the newly minted officer is obligated to the Navy or the Marines for at least 4 years (more if you want to fly or be a SEAL).

The whole place was very impressive. It also made me really appreciate and respect the commitment that the members of the armed services have made. I can not imagine committing 8 years of my life right out of high school. I further can not imagine going through the “plebe summer” of being yelled at, having all my “civilian” possessions taken away and saluting all the time. All that training and investment clearly turns you into a top-notch fighting professional; it is truly a shame that the people at the very top of the command structure are not similarly professional and well trained. Lastly, the whole experience made me glad that I went to MSU.

At the end of the first year, the seniors place a "firstie's cover" (the white naval hat from "On the Town") at the top of this pillar and grease it with 5,000 lbs. of lard. The "firsties" then struggle to replace it with a midshipman's "cover". When they do, the freshman are all allowed to exchange their hats for that of a midshipman. Tony said it took his class about 4 hours...

After our tour of the Yard, Tony took us into Annapolis for an experience I was more familiar with from my college education: beer and pub food. As I mentioned, the whole town looks like it was lifted from illustrations of the colonial period. Many of the streets are cobblestone or brick. They’re all too narrow and winding. The buildings all are also narrow and none are more than two stories. Lovely.

We ate lunch at an Irish pub, McGarvey’s, near the water. It started out warm enough for us to eat our oysters and drink of Guinness outside, but by the time we were finishing our entrees we retreated inside. Next door, there was a market building converted to house ice cream shops and bakeries. We all indulged at a little Italian bakery that was celebrating its 51st Anniversary (a 51 cent cannoli – how could I pass it up?). There was time for a brief constitutional along Main Street before we had to load-up and head back to Baltimore.

Before rehearsal this afternoon, I headed back to the Lexington Market for what maybe the final stop on my Crab Cake tour. I partook of Faidley’s version of the venerable Baltimore tradition. It was delicious. Of course I went for the all lump-meat variation. It came with a side of slaw (runny and with lots of non-cabbage goodies) and cucumber salad. The crab cake was perhaps a tie or maybe a close second to the one I had the first day at Mo’s (maybe it was just the surprise of how much I liked the first one that lingers). I followed the crab cake up with a fruit salad and, on my way out of the market, discovered another Baltimore delicacy: Berger’s Cookies. These little bits of heaven are sort of an uber-Milano. The cookie is somewhere between the cake part of an NYC black and white cookie and a sugar cookie. The cookie is then topped with a thick fudgey frosting. You can imagine my delight!

A Faidley's crab cake. I'm drooling...

Bergers Cookies!

I had hoped to have many photos (from Atlanta, the National Aquarium and the B&O Museum) to share along with this post. Some exceptionally poor customer service at CVS as delayed their publication. Despite their assurance to the contrary, the CVS could not provide a CD of the photos in one day. So, we’ll make do with some stolen photos until I can scan some of the prints for future posting.

Tonight it is rumored that we’ll be headed to Bertha’s for some of their fabled mussels. I will, of course, drink a toast to all my friends in NYC celebrating Saint Patrick’s Eve with our favorite leprechaun.

JV