- 24 minutes ago
Category
📚
LearningTranscript
00:00:00For more information visit www.fema.com
00:00:30The magnificent 150-year history of the United States Naval Academy, stretching from 1845
00:00:47through today, spans far more than the desperate battles its graduates fought over hostile
00:00:52seas and savage shores.
00:00:54There were the sometimes tougher battles to begin and then to survive as a mighty national
00:01:01institution.
00:01:03A bulwark of leadership in war, a wellspring of learning and human achievement always,
00:01:09the Naval Academy has been an indispensable resource of the United States.
00:01:16Sitting between the two mightiest oceans of the earth, with coastlines stretching over
00:01:213,000 miles, the United States has inevitably and urgently had to send the fighting navy
00:01:27onto the seas to defend the national life.
00:01:32Since 1845, prime leadership of that navy has come from the proud institution that stands
00:01:38on the shores of Annapolis, Maryland, where the Severn River meets the Chesapeake Bay.
00:01:45Here at the United States Naval Academy, a fierce forge of tradition, scholarship and dedication
00:01:52discovers the finest of the best to help lead their country through the century ahead.
00:02:01A century whose hurricane challenges are certain to match those that the Academy faced in the
00:02:07uproarious century and a half that lies behind it.
00:02:30The impressive sweep of today's U.S. Naval Academy, as it spreads over 338 Maryland acres,
00:02:36gives no hint of the spartan and struggling little installation that first came to this spot.
00:02:43Or how mightily the fledgling schools struggled, first to be born and then to survive and prosper.
00:02:51Without a handful of superbly stubborn and brilliant men who seemed destined to appear at the Academy's
00:02:58bleakest moments, it might long since have vanished as a classic American institution.
00:03:04Here tradition, the long blue line of people, ideas, quirks and glories, is no mere nostalgia.
00:03:12It is a steely shaper of men honed in history to powerfully proven purposes.
00:03:18After a while, you realize that you're being dragged through the tradition of thousands of
00:03:25officers that have gone before you, and very famous officers in all of our wars, and a lot
00:03:31of it cloys to you, till you start putting yourself in their shape.
00:03:38The history is long.
00:03:40The Continental Navy, that so splendidly attended the birth of the United States, was not to survive
00:03:45long past independence.
00:03:48The Congress abolishing it as a breeding ground for a new aristocracy.
00:03:54Therefore forgotten was the recommendation of John Paul Jones, father of the Navy, for the
00:03:59establishing of an academy to teach young officers the principles of mathematics and mechanics,
00:04:06to create a fleet in evolution.
00:04:10By 1794, the depredations of the Barbary pirates off North Africa had forced Congress to establish
00:04:16the U.S. Navy and build six frigates.
00:04:20Quality officers would be needed to lead fighting sailors and marines.
00:04:26Despite efforts by Alexander Hamilton and others to achieve a form of academy, naval education for
00:04:32young officers was catch-as-catch-can.
00:04:37One old guard seaman observed, you could no more educate sailors in a shore college than
00:04:42you could teach ducks to swim in a garret.
00:04:46Then there were the lessons of the naval battlefield.
00:04:49The French, who had a formal naval academy ashore that steeped its officers in science and theory,
00:04:55lost their sea battles.
00:04:59The British, who educated their officers strictly with shipboard experience, won theirs.
00:05:06By 1839, the United States Navy had placed its first orders for steam-driven vessels.
00:05:13It was becoming clear that young officers couldn't absorb the physics of steam engineering by any
00:05:18amount of shipboard observation.
00:05:22The first of the future Naval Academy's great men now appeared.
00:05:26The brilliant scholar William Chauvinet took charge of a naval cram school at the Philadelphia
00:05:31Naval Asylum and began to lay the traditions of the scientific and practical naval curriculum
00:05:38that would carry through 15 decades.
00:05:42Every junior officer is a technical manager and a user of technology.
00:05:46And if they don't understand how it works, then how can they teach their people to use
00:05:51it?
00:05:52And how can they use it most effectively?
00:05:54And that's really what you have to do in combat.
00:05:56Chauvinet battled mightily to expand the single eight-month academic year.
00:06:03But the formal Naval Academy, advocated by several presidents and 20 congressional bills, refused
00:06:09to materialize.
00:06:10A major impetus toward a naval academy came on December 1, 1843, when the discovery of
00:06:17a murderous mutiny plot on the United States brig Summers led to the hanging of three men,
00:06:24including the mutineer's leader, midshipman Philip Spencer, a black sheep son of the Secretary
00:06:30of War.
00:06:33The uproar crystallized the need for disciplined, formalized training of the Navy's young officers.
00:06:41In 1845, President James K. Polk appointed a scholar politician as Secretary of the Navy.
00:06:49George Bancroft was part genius, part magician.
00:06:53Having heard the entreaties of William Chauvinet, he pulled some sleight of hand in forming the
00:06:57academy.
00:06:58He didn't go to Congress, as other secretaries had, but he pulled funding from other sources
00:07:03that were already in existence.
00:07:05He found that there were teachers around the various naval bases who were being paid to
00:07:09teach the cadets, the midshipmen as it were, and he pulled that funding together to pay
00:07:16the salaries of the professors at the academy.
00:07:21Bancroft found an obsolete army post, Fort Seven, standing at Annapolis, Maryland.
00:07:27The army was glad to give away the nondescript nine acres and its eleven ramshackle buildings.
00:07:32Bancroft's genius extended to the appointment of the brilliant commander, Franklin Buchanan,
00:07:38to serve as the first superintendent of what was called the Naval School.
00:07:44Buchanan had all it took and more.
00:07:46A young Buchanan once confronted a group of murderous seamen with only a sword cane.
00:07:52An eyewitness wrote, As they gave vent to their feelings in blasphemous oaths, he stood in
00:07:58statue-like repose, and not a man dared lay the weight of his finger upon him.
00:08:05With a faculty of seven, including Chauvinet, Buchanan declared the Naval School open on October
00:08:1210th, 1845.
00:08:14The Annapolis, Maryland Republican wrote, About 40 young gentlemen have already reported
00:08:20themselves, whose handsome appearance and gentlemanly deportments give a cheerful aspect
00:08:26to the streets of our quiet city.
00:08:31Naval Academy standards were strict from the start.
00:08:35Serious academic or disciplined shortcomings would result in a midshipman being, in the
00:08:41euphemism of the day, restored to his friends.
00:08:45Pressure as a character builder is another tradition.
00:08:48There are people and objectives and missions bombarding you from every side.
00:08:53Everyone wants you to have something done all the time.
00:08:55Personally I feel crunched every hour of the day.
00:08:59It would be years before the procedures and durations of training standardized.
00:09:03Meanwhile, there was steady building and experimenting.
00:09:08On May 13th, 1846, the Mexican War began, and the first men of the academy went into battle.
00:09:17Midshipmen Adams, Hayes, and Houston.
00:09:20Ninety more would follow, five would die.
00:09:24The solidarity that was to mark the body of Midshipmen now took hold.
00:09:29The saying was, a messmate before a shipmate, a shipmate before a stranger, a stranger before
00:09:35a dog, but a dog before a soldier.
00:09:41The friendships that you make here at the Naval Academy last a lifetime.
00:09:43It's even hard to remember the friends that I had in high school or even grade school.
00:09:47It seems like my life started when I got here and these are the only people that I remember.
00:09:50In 1850, new regulations finally extended study to four full years, although interrupted
00:09:58by sea duty.
00:09:59The faculty was organized into six departments, Naval Tactics and Seamanship, Sciences, Gunnery,
00:10:07Infantry Tactics, Ethics, and English and Modern Languages.
00:10:12The school was renamed the United States Naval Academy.
00:10:17Unlike other universities and other military academies, the Naval Academy has a mixed staff,
00:10:24and by a mixed staff I mean military and civilian, that keeps us from becoming stayed and satisfied
00:10:31with just the Naval Academy way of doing business.
00:10:36Now dueling was outlawed.
00:10:38Uniforms were required.
00:10:41Firearms, card playing, tobacco, and intoxicating drinks were banned from a midshipman's life.
00:10:47A demerit system and a hierarchy of midshipman officers was established that has become the
00:10:52traditional heart of the training.
00:10:56The first class midshipmen truly run the brigade, and at each level, from the brigade on down
00:11:00to the squad leader, the individual is given the chance to interact with subordinates and
00:11:05to inspire the maximum amount of performance and productivity from their people and to make
00:11:10sure folks have a good time doing it.
00:11:13The first annual summer cruises began in 1851.
00:11:18Also in that year, the four-year curriculum was mandated to run consecutively, and the graduates
00:11:24passed to receive midshipman warrants.
00:11:28The present system was taking shape.
00:11:31For the first time, academy appointments passed from the President to Congress.
00:11:37The first commencement exercise for six members was held on June 10, 1854, when Richmond Orlick
00:11:44was the first graduate.
00:11:47That same year, steam heat and gas lights arrived, along with a chapel.
00:11:53New dormitories were opened, and there were now 98 double rooms for the midshipmen.
00:11:59The support you get from other midshipmen here is very important.
00:12:03It's one of the reasons why no midshipman lives alone.
00:12:06Everyone here has a roommate, if not two or three, and that's very important.
00:12:09You cannot make it through the Naval Academy by yourself.
00:12:13The first of the towering naval heroes of the future were now appearing at the Academy,
00:12:18including George Dewey, who would win glory in the Spanish-American War at Manila Bay,
00:12:25and Alfred Thayer Mayhem, whose world-shaking writings on naval doctrine would become the centerpiece
00:12:30of sea power strategies.
00:12:34The ghosts of old heroes remain on duty as morale builders.
00:12:40And you walk by the Naval Academy chapel, and you know that the bones of John Paul Jones are
00:12:46in there, and when he said, surrender hell, I've just begun to fight, that gave you the extra
00:12:53bit of courage to take one more licking from the enemy.
00:12:58But I believe it's that depth that we tapped into, it's the roots, if you will, of the tradition
00:13:05of the Naval Academy.
00:13:07The new school did not have to wait long for its first crisis.
00:13:11When the Civil War began in 1861, the Academy, located on the northern edge of the seceding
00:13:17south and filled with midshipmen or students from both sides of the line, found itself in
00:13:23a precarious position geographically and emotionally.
00:13:30Both midshipmen and faculty began the heart-breaking division.
00:13:35Of the midshipmen, 174 would follow the old flag, and 72 leave to serve under the Confederate
00:13:41banner.
00:13:45Lieutenant William Harwer Parker left his post as head of the Department of Seamanship to
00:13:49serve the south by organizing the Confederacy's own Naval Academy.
00:13:56His staff included some former Academy men and held its classes on the Confederate ship
00:14:01Patrick Henry.
00:14:03The Confederate Naval Academy was adjudged a success during its short existence.
00:14:10The USS Constitution, the legendary old Ironsides of the War of 1812, used as a floating dormitory
00:14:17at the Academy, found her storied timbers standing to battle again, with double-shotted guns ready
00:14:23to repel any rebel assault.
00:14:27But with the burning of the Norfolk Navy Yard in an attempt to make it useless to the south,
00:14:32Secretary of War Gideon Wells found it prudent to transfer the school north.
00:14:39As the war between the states built in fury, there was real doubt that the Academy would
00:14:43ever return to Annapolis, or even survive the dreadful national conflict.
00:14:50It moved unhappily to all manner of cramped, fetid accommodations in Newport, Rhode Island.
00:14:57The gods of the sea sent a famous craft to the Academy, the crack racing yacht America,
00:15:04that had beaten 14 vessels of the Royal Yacht Squadron to initiate what became known as
00:15:09the America's Cup, was captured while running the Union blockade.
00:15:14She would serve for three years as an honored and formidable training craft.
00:15:20Between 1861 and 1865, as the Navy increased from 42 to 641 vessels, the insatiable demand
00:15:28for officers stretched the Academy limits.
00:15:33Standards plummeted as 112 midshipmen were rushed to the fleet.
00:15:38The last 76 were only saved from active duty by a protest that it would virtually destroy
00:15:44the Academy and the work of years.
00:15:47The class of 1865 passed through four years without ever seeing Annapolis.
00:15:55Academy graduates fought in almost every Civil War naval action.
00:15:59By war's end, 400 had fought for the north and 95 for the south.
00:16:06Among the most outstanding were James I. Waddell, who commanded the Confederate raider Shenandoah.
00:16:13Waddell almost single-handedly destroyed the New England whaling fleet, capturing 38 vessels,
00:16:19and inflicting damages exceeding $1 million.
00:16:26Franklin Buchanan, the first superintendent of the Academy, was wounded commanding the mighty
00:16:31Confederate ironclad ram, Virginia, as it ravaged the Federal fleet before fighting to
00:16:37an historic standoff with the Union ironclad Monitor in the first battle between armored warships.
00:16:46The heroic skipper of the Monitor, Commodore John L. Worden, would go on to command the
00:16:51U.S. Naval Academy in his own right.
00:16:56In battles from Hampton Roads to New Orleans, from Yazoo Pass to Mobile Bay, 23 Academy graduates
00:17:03died in Civil War action.
00:17:06Sixteen fell for the Union, five for the Confederacy.
00:17:12At the war's end, Gideon Wells brushed aside the requests of Newport, Rhode Island, and
00:17:16Perth Amboy, New Jersey to become the Naval Academy's new home.
00:17:22He also ignored a call to abolish the present institution and break it into seven regional
00:17:27schools.
00:17:31The Union soldiers stationed at the Academy during the war had devastated the grounds and buildings.
00:17:37And angry superintendent David Dixon Porter wrote of appalling damage to ground once held sacred
00:17:46from the footprints of anyone.
00:17:52And he knew that there would be a lot more than the grounds to restore.
00:17:56Again, though, the fates would deliver.
00:18:07Rear Admiral David Dixon Porter's brilliance and audacity had seen him promoted over 80 senior
00:18:13captains and commodores to take command of the bombarding Union fleet in the Vicksburg Campaign.
00:18:18He would be no less impressive at the Naval Academy.
00:18:24Historians have marked the legacy of the great superintendents.
00:18:28The superintendents are a vital element of the Naval Academy.
00:18:31They set the tone for what goes on here.
00:18:33When you have a strong superintendent in power, the Naval Academy moves forward at great leaps
00:18:39and bounds.
00:18:40The Academy's been very fortunate in that at the most vital times in its history, it's had strong
00:18:44superintendents to lead the way.
00:18:47With Civil War legislation having raised the Academy's complement to 566, land had to be
00:18:53acquired and major building done.
00:18:57Superintendent Porter used his fame and influence to get funding and over 80 additional acres.
00:19:05Over the late 1860s, a new hospital, chapel, and midshipmen's quarters were built, along
00:19:11with an armory, a science building, and quarters for the new department of steam engineering.
00:19:19A formidable practice naval fleet was assembled on the Severn to provide practical experience
00:19:24to the midshipmen.
00:19:29Superintendent Porter carefully built student morale.
00:19:31He instituted the honor concept, in which midshipmen would not be spied upon, but have
00:19:37their statements accepted as the pure truth.
00:19:40The honor tradition continues as a burden and a glory of midshipmen.
00:19:46They need to understand that we want to develop graduates who have character, who understand
00:19:51the core values of the Navy, of courage, honor, and commitment, and who will do the right
00:19:57things in tough decision-making process, who will make the right decision, the tough decision,
00:20:04at the right time.
00:20:07Superintendent Porter established a basic discipline principle, writing,
00:20:11of course.
00:20:12I loosen or tighten the reins in accordance with how they conduct themselves.
00:20:16My rule is to bear with offending midshipmen, as long as I think there is anything in
00:20:21them to justify keeping them here.
00:20:24Their insubordination can be checked with punishment, their mischiefs with guard duty.
00:20:30As long as a boy is only mischievous and full of life and spirit, I stand up for him.
00:20:36Porter also encouraged social activities to bring a refinement to the future offices.
00:20:42Hops were held monthly in the gymnasium under an inscription gallantly reading, Dieu et les
00:20:50Danes, God and the Women.
00:20:52Although they had had balls and dances since the first year of the Academy, it wasn't until
00:21:00after the Civil War that a lot of social education was involved in developing the students too.
00:21:06And they were doing so much dancing, they nicknamed the school Porter's Dancing Academy.
00:21:12The establishment of a cadet officer's corps with remarkably ornate uniforms led to this midshipman's cartoon,
00:21:22in which a resplendent cadet lieutenant is asked by a furious superintendent Porter,
00:21:28What the devil do you mean, sir, by wearing more gold lace than me?
00:21:32What had been the world's largest navy soon became one of the smallest.
00:21:38With wartime commissions clogging the promotion pipeline, Academy graduates making lieutenant in 1872
00:21:45were likely still to be in that rank in 1893.
00:21:50The reconstruction of the South brought the appointment of three black cadets to the Academy,
00:21:55but illegal hazing and academic problems drove them all out.
00:21:59No other blacks would be admitted for 60 years.
00:22:05When Albert A. Michelson graduated with a scintillating academic record,
00:22:10Krusty Superintendent Worden told him,
00:22:13If in the future you'll give less attention to scientific matters and more your naval gunnery,
00:22:19there might come a time when you would know enough to be of some service to your country.
00:22:23Michelson would win a Nobel Prize in science.
00:22:29Rear Admiral C. R. P. Rogers arrived as superintendent in 1874
00:22:36and helped establish America's first course in mechanical engineering.
00:22:42He added upper-level mathematics, mechanics, physics, and chemistry,
00:22:46revolutionary changes that incensed the naval conservatives
00:22:50and won the school the French Medaille d'Or for the best education in the United States.
00:22:59The Naval Academy has long struggled with this battle between the academic side of things
00:23:03and the military side of things.
00:23:05The truth of the matter is that I think it succeeds well in both.
00:23:09Beginning in 1881, Academy graduates were permitted to enter the Marine Corps after graduation.
00:23:15Of the first 50 Marine graduates, five would rise to be Commandants of the Corps,
00:23:20including the mythic John Lejeune, the brilliant visionary of amphibious assault.
00:23:28Discipline had its early trials.
00:23:30The class of 1883 approached open mutiny
00:23:33when one of its members was demoted for posting the answers for a test being given.
00:23:39The cadets complained that the Academy was determined to crush every particle of spirit.
00:23:44The school's victory was only partial as many cadets took dismissal
00:23:51rather than deliver the required apology.
00:23:53When music came to a once austere Academy, it came with a vengeance.
00:24:01The drum major known as Old Denver looked like he had stepped out of Napoleon's Grand Armée.
00:24:07Academy football, having moved away from the old rugby rules
00:24:12to something resembling the present game, was growing to a rage.
00:24:18By 1886, the football season had expanded from one to six games
00:24:22and was taken very seriously.
00:24:26After losing to St. John's College, it was reported as follows.
00:24:30About a hundred cadets formed themselves into a solid phalanx and rushed at the college boys.
00:24:37A number of blows were passed and some of the smaller boys were picked up by the stalwart cadets
00:24:44and thrown head over heels into the struggling mass of their comrades.
00:24:49Still, Academy football did not become war without quarter until the first Army-Navy game in 1890 was won by Navy,
00:24:5724 to nothing.
00:24:59An Army officer complained about a Navy quick kick saying,
00:25:03It was clearly a false official statement for an officer and a gentleman
00:25:09to indicate that he was going to do one thing with the ball and then do something else with it.
00:25:17Every institution needs a legend among hell raisers
00:25:20and for the Academy, it was one Philo N. McGiffin.
00:25:25He rolled a decorative pyramid of cannonballs down a flight of Academy stairs
00:25:29with predictable destruction and fired midnight salutes from trophy cannons.
00:25:35McGiffin not only went on to teach at the Chinese Naval Academy
00:25:39but got into a war as an advisor on a Chinese battleship
00:25:43upon which he was grievously, gloriously wounded.
00:25:50Superintendent William T. Sampson added a major and permanent innovation,
00:25:56the aptitude for the service grade.
00:25:59This was computed to measure a midshipman's potential
00:26:02as a naval officer based purely on performance of military duties.
00:26:09Not all hazing was good-natured.
00:26:11A plebe might be made to eat soap or drink ink.
00:26:15He might be heaved through a transom,
00:26:17shaved with a blunt instrument,
00:26:19sandwiched between mattresses or trod upon
00:26:21by thumping hordes of upperclassmen.
00:26:25Those who most resented it
00:26:27often became the most ruthless hazers later on.
00:26:32Things brightened for the Academy
00:26:34with the succession of Theodore Roosevelt,
00:26:36a former assistant secretary of the Navy,
00:26:38to the presidency.
00:26:40But now a shattering event
00:26:42changed the world's naval equation.
00:26:45The American battleship Maine blew up in Havana Harbor,
00:26:48killing almost half her crew.
00:26:50While the cause of the blast was uncertain,
00:26:53the nation was soon sailing against Spain.
00:26:56It was to be the first modern naval war.
00:26:59Along with Academy graduate George Dewey's victory
00:27:02at the Battle of Manila Bay,
00:27:04former Superintendent William Sampson's triumph
00:27:07at the Battle of Santiago
00:27:08annihilated a hapless Spanish fleet
00:27:11and demonstrated the technological supremacy
00:27:14of the United States Navy
00:27:16and the superiority and training of its officers.
00:27:21In those courtlier days,
00:27:23the Academy was host to the open confinement
00:27:25of Spanish officers defeated at Santiago,
00:27:29who gave Spanish lessons to local bells
00:27:32and occasionally lamented,
00:27:34Oh, my beautiful ship.
00:27:39When the brief conflict with Spain ended,
00:27:41George Dewey was made Admiral of the Navy
00:27:44and became the greatest naval hero
00:27:46since John Paul Jones.
00:27:48The fleet became America's first
00:27:50and foremost pride and joy.
00:27:52And the Naval Academy was priming the men
00:27:55that would lead it thunderously
00:27:57into the next century.
00:28:03In 1907, 16 new all-steel American battleships
00:28:07formed the famous Great White Fleet
00:28:10that Teddy Roosevelt sent around the globe
00:28:12to show that American might
00:28:14could now reach everywhere on Earth.
00:28:17The Academy was again the mecca
00:28:19of the professional naval officer.
00:28:22So it was an appropriate time
00:28:24for the Congress to vote funds
00:28:26for a new Naval Academy.
00:28:29The group that recommended the school
00:28:32to the Secretary of the Navy
00:28:33or recommended the new plan
00:28:35had hired as their advisor
00:28:37an architect by the name of Ernest Flagg.
00:28:40The main buildings
00:28:41that were to form the heart of the Academy
00:28:43into the 20th century
00:28:44were now either in place or building.
00:28:47Great structures that would bear the great names
00:28:51Bancroft, McDonnell, Isherwood, Mayhem
00:28:57now sat in monumental French Renaissance style
00:29:01in a setting greatly expanded
00:29:03by sizable landfills
00:29:04along both the river and the harbor.
00:29:07The once diminutive Academy
00:29:10now occupied 111 acres.
00:29:13A soaring new chapel
00:29:16able to seat 1,200 worshipers
00:29:18would be built as well.
00:29:20Admiral Dewey set the cornerstone
00:29:23and the first services were held in 1908.
00:29:26The non-denominational chapel
00:29:31would be known as the Cathedral of the Navy
00:29:33and its dome would hold a special place
00:29:35in the memories of generations of midshipmen.
00:29:41It was to this chapel
00:29:42that the greatest Naval hero
00:29:44returned to his country
00:29:46and the heart of the Navy.
00:29:48After the remains of John Paul Jones
00:29:50were discovered in a Paris cemetery
00:29:52he was brought home
00:29:53with a cruiser squadron escort
00:29:55and later interred
00:29:56in a magnificent marble crypt
00:29:58beneath the academy chapel.
00:30:01Well the new chapel
00:30:02was still under construction
00:30:03so they put a little temporary
00:30:05brick vault across the street
00:30:06and it had an open door on it
00:30:09they put the casket inside
00:30:11on a sawhorse
00:30:12a sawhorse is draped with an American flag
00:30:14and had a sailor standing guard outside
00:30:17well we have a lot of squirrels
00:30:18at the Naval Academy
00:30:19we still do today
00:30:20and one of those squirrels
00:30:22snuck in that little vault
00:30:23without the sailor seeing him
00:30:25got up on top of the casket
00:30:27but under the flag
00:30:28and then started thrashing about
00:30:30well it was at that time
00:30:31that the sailor
00:30:32caught the movement
00:30:33out of the corner of his eye
00:30:34and they say he took off
00:30:35and they've never been able
00:30:36to find that sailor.
00:30:38An academy ditty would go in part
00:30:40everybody works
00:30:41but John Paul Jones
00:30:43he lies around all day
00:30:44body pickled in alcohol
00:30:46on a permanent jag they say
00:30:48With its success in the war with Spain
00:30:53the Navy now had global possessions
00:30:55to defend
00:30:56New battleships would be built in every year
00:30:59between 1898 and 1918
00:31:01and the Naval Academy was there to supply the officers
00:31:10Midshipman Chester Nimitz
00:31:12accepted an appointment to a Naval Academy
00:31:14he didn't know existed
00:31:15when none were available at West Point
00:31:19William F. Halsey Jr.'s father
00:31:21was an instructor at the Academy
00:31:23a master-at-arms assured young Halsey
00:31:25you'll never be as good a naval officer
00:31:27as your father
00:31:28Midshipman Raymond Spruance
00:31:31was said to have
00:31:32the innocent disposition
00:31:34of an ingenue
00:31:35a disposition that would win
00:31:37the Battle of Midway
00:31:38as it turned out
00:31:41The Academy paper called Mark Mitcher
00:31:43a true friend
00:31:44and a man on whom you can depend
00:31:46he would live up to that billing
00:31:48by turning on the lights of his carriers
00:31:50in the Battle of the Philippine Sea
00:31:52to keep his fuel short pilots
00:31:55from death in the darkened waters
00:31:57of the Pacific
00:31:59all of these men would be there
00:32:01to save the nation
00:32:02in the greatest naval war in history
00:32:07in 1912
00:32:08the Naval Academy student body
00:32:10was expanded from four companies
00:32:12to eight
00:32:13and transformed into
00:32:14what was now called
00:32:15the brigade
00:32:18Midshipman would require
00:32:19no additional sea duty
00:32:20to get their commissions
00:32:22and would now receive them
00:32:23upon graduation
00:32:26the class of 1912
00:32:27celebrated this
00:32:28by being the first
00:32:30to toss their caps
00:32:31into the air
00:32:32in jubilation
00:32:34Bandmaster Charles Zimmerman
00:32:35composed marching songs
00:32:37for each of the graduating classes
00:32:39the one he wrote
00:32:40for the class of 1907
00:32:42turned out to be
00:32:43remarkably special
00:32:44stirring words were added
00:32:46and the song became
00:32:48the Academy's
00:32:49and the Navy's anthem
00:32:50the inspiring
00:32:52anchors away
00:32:53the training had become cutting edge
00:32:57before the submarine
00:33:00had revealed itself
00:33:01as the decisive weapon
00:33:02it was to be
00:33:03midshipmen were diving
00:33:05beneath the severn
00:33:06in the USS Holland
00:33:07the Navy's very first submarine
00:33:09the summer cruises were now made
00:33:14in modern squadrons
00:33:15with midshipmen
00:33:16serving on the like
00:33:17of the battleship
00:33:18Texas
00:33:22the USS Santee
00:33:23an ancient frigate
00:33:24that had housed
00:33:25hundreds of midshipmen
00:33:26under disciplinary
00:33:27sentences
00:33:28sank
00:33:29at her dock
00:33:30in 1912
00:33:31her duties as a stationship
00:33:35were assumed
00:33:36by the USS
00:33:37Reyna Mercedes
00:33:38an almost equally
00:33:39anti-capture
00:33:40from the Spanish war
00:33:41that would serve
00:33:42until 1957
00:33:49now the war clouds
00:33:50that had enveloped Europe
00:33:51began to blow
00:33:52toward the United States
00:33:57Congress ordered a navy
00:33:58second to none
00:33:59and the Academy's brigade
00:34:00was authorized
00:34:01to increase to a thousand
00:34:02seven hundred and forty-six
00:34:06classes were accelerated
00:34:09while the Navy saw
00:34:10no significant battle action
00:34:12after the US entered
00:34:13the first world war
00:34:15the feat of escorting
00:34:16more than two million men
00:34:17to Europe
00:34:18through submarine filled
00:34:19waters
00:34:20made a great war record
00:34:21in itself
00:34:24the Academy's graduates
00:34:25formed a brilliant cadre
00:34:26that contributed hugely
00:34:28to the war effort
00:34:31the Navy
00:34:32when hostilities ended
00:34:33the Navy had 2,000 vessels
00:34:35in commission
00:34:36at the Washington Naval
00:34:39Conference of 1922
00:34:41the United States
00:34:42sacrificed its lead
00:34:43in naval construction
00:34:44for world stability
00:34:46ships new and building
00:34:49were scrapped
00:34:50and new naval construction
00:34:52virtually halted
00:34:55it fell to Rear Admiral
00:34:56Henry B. Wilson
00:34:57to keep the Academy
00:34:58progressing
00:34:59in an era
00:35:00of naval stagnation
00:35:01superintendent Wilson
00:35:04set out to make Academy
00:35:05life more livable
00:35:07Christmas and Easter
00:35:08leaves were granted
00:35:09for the first time
00:35:10clubs
00:35:12student magazine
00:35:13and newspaper subscriptions
00:35:14made their appearance
00:35:15an always uneasy policy
00:35:18on excessive hazing
00:35:19was made clear
00:35:21with these words
00:35:22there is no place
00:35:23for either brutality
00:35:24or ridicule
00:35:25within these walls
00:35:26but that tradition
00:35:29is slow to die
00:35:30there really is a fine line
00:35:33between hazing
00:35:34and just doing your job
00:35:35there is a necessary
00:35:37amount of stress
00:35:38that you need to place
00:35:39on plebs
00:35:40they need to understand
00:35:41that when they do
00:35:42something wrong
00:35:43that it is unacceptable
00:35:44they need to fix it
00:35:45but at the same time
00:35:46you don't want to go
00:35:47into it with an attitude
00:35:48of punishment
00:35:49or getting back
00:35:50for something that was
00:35:51done to you
00:35:52when you were a plebe
00:35:53that kind of attitude
00:35:54is not going to help anybody
00:35:55personally I've experienced
00:35:56something like that
00:35:57in my past
00:35:57and it just
00:35:58you know
00:35:59left memories on me
00:35:59of what not to do
00:36:00conscious of the public
00:36:03relations value
00:36:04of intercollegiate rivalries
00:36:05in the sports mad 20's
00:36:07Admiral Wilson
00:36:08encouraged Academy
00:36:09athletics
00:36:10in the national arena
00:36:11Navy's 1924 trip
00:36:14to the Rose Bowl
00:36:15to play Washington
00:36:16University
00:36:17ended in a tie
00:36:18that helped the Academy
00:36:19enter the national
00:36:20imagination
00:36:21the great leaders of the future
00:36:25were coming up
00:36:26faster than ever
00:36:27midshipman Arleigh Burke
00:36:29who would be chief
00:36:30of naval operations
00:36:31for a record tenure
00:36:32and Hyman G Rickover
00:36:34who would be the father
00:36:35of the nuclear Navy
00:36:37were graduated
00:36:38and when these men
00:36:40went off to graduate
00:36:41school
00:36:41they measured at the best
00:36:43they got degrees
00:36:44from Yale
00:36:45Harvard
00:36:46John Hopkins
00:36:47we never had to worry
00:36:48about how well they did
00:36:49in 1929 Academy Midshipmen
00:36:51won six of the country's
00:36:53Rhodes Scholarships
00:36:54the 1930s brought
00:36:57economic depression
00:36:58and retrenchment
00:36:59for both the country
00:37:00and the Naval Academy
00:37:02it was only after
00:37:04Franklin D. Roosevelt
00:37:05achieved the presidency
00:37:06in 1933
00:37:07that many harsh
00:37:09emergency restrictions
00:37:10on Academy
00:37:11commissionings
00:37:12were lifted
00:37:13Superintendent Rear Admiral
00:37:16Thomas C. Hart
00:37:17increasing the proportion
00:37:19of humanities
00:37:20in the curriculum
00:37:21was not looked upon
00:37:23kindly
00:37:23by his successor
00:37:25Rear Admiral
00:37:26David F. Sellers
00:37:27who said
00:37:28I can say
00:37:29without hesitation
00:37:30that in my opinion
00:37:32success or failure
00:37:33in battle
00:37:34with the fleet
00:37:34is in no way
00:37:35dependent
00:37:36upon a knowledge
00:37:37of biology
00:37:38geology
00:37:39ethics
00:37:39social science
00:37:40the literature
00:37:41of foreign languages
00:37:42or the fine arts
00:37:43that traditional view
00:37:46would never be silent
00:37:49we're not trying
00:37:50to build
00:37:51engineers
00:37:53we're not trying
00:37:54to build
00:37:55historical
00:37:56terrorists
00:37:56we are trying
00:37:57to build
00:37:57naval officers
00:37:58so a decision
00:37:59to go to the
00:37:59Naval Academy
00:38:00is not simply
00:38:00a decision
00:38:01to get a better
00:38:01education
00:38:02it is a decision
00:38:03to join the military
00:38:04and a decision
00:38:05to be a career
00:38:06naval officer
00:38:06as the 1940s dawned
00:38:12the issue of success
00:38:13or failure in battle
00:38:14was about to become
00:38:15critical in the lives
00:38:17of the men
00:38:18of the United States
00:38:19Naval Academy
00:38:24in the summer of 1940
00:38:26with world tensions
00:38:27headed for the breaking
00:38:28point
00:38:28the Naval Academy
00:38:29went on a wartime
00:38:30schedule
00:38:31with accelerated curricula
00:38:33in the Atlantic
00:38:36the Navy was already
00:38:37fighting an undeclared
00:38:38war with German
00:38:39submarines
00:38:40an oil embargo
00:38:44meant to curb
00:38:45Japanese Far East
00:38:46aggression
00:38:47brought the flashpoint
00:38:50on December 7th 1941
00:38:52the crisis
00:38:53for which the Naval Academy
00:38:54had been preparing
00:38:55for nearly a century
00:38:57exploded
00:38:58with the Japanese bombs
00:38:59on Pearl Harbor
00:39:00over the next four years
00:39:04Academy graduates
00:39:05formed the professional
00:39:06nucleus
00:39:07for the prodigious
00:39:08expansion
00:39:09of the United States Navy
00:39:10Admirals like Leahy
00:39:14King and Nimitz
00:39:15organized and led
00:39:16a great global strategy
00:39:18for history's
00:39:19most awesome Navy
00:39:21others like Halsey
00:39:24Spruance and Mitcher
00:39:25conducted epic sea battles
00:39:27from the North Atlantic
00:39:28to the Coral Sea
00:39:29Midway and Guadalcanal
00:39:32then on to the
00:39:34Philippine Sea
00:39:35and Lady Gulf
00:39:36where legendary
00:39:37naval engagements
00:39:38were won
00:39:39with tactics
00:39:40and character
00:39:41forged at the Academy
00:39:42in their traditional
00:39:45entwining
00:39:46with the Navy
00:39:47Marine graduates
00:39:48rewrote the glories
00:39:49of their Corps
00:39:50leading in the air
00:39:52and on the beaches
00:39:53from Guadalcanal
00:39:54to bloody Tarawa
00:39:55to the heights
00:39:56of Iwo Jima
00:39:57We are the Navy's
00:40:00amphibious arm
00:40:02we are the vehicle
00:40:04of the Navy
00:40:05that allows us
00:40:06to project our power
00:40:07forward from the sea
00:40:09to land
00:40:10The Allies' most critical
00:40:12invasions
00:40:13in the Pacific
00:40:14and Europe
00:40:15were carried out
00:40:16under a naval umbrella
00:40:17planned and polished
00:40:18under academy doctrines
00:40:21twenty-seven academy men
00:40:25won the medal of honor
00:40:26members of fifty-four classes
00:40:29fought in the war
00:40:30almost fifteen percent
00:40:33of the classes of
00:40:34nineteen thirty-four
00:40:35thirty-five
00:40:36and thirty-six
00:40:37died in action
00:40:39by war's end
00:40:42air power
00:40:43had been recognized
00:40:44as a keystone
00:40:45of naval power
00:40:46in nineteen forty-five
00:40:48vice admiral
00:40:49Aubrey W. Fitch
00:40:50became the first
00:40:51aviator
00:40:52to be appointed
00:40:53superintendent
00:40:54of the naval academy
00:40:55the teaching of the academy
00:40:57would begin building
00:40:58a new heritage
00:40:59also based
00:41:00in the skies
00:41:01I wanted to be an astronaut
00:41:03ever since I was ten years old
00:41:05and to this day
00:41:06I can still vividly remember
00:41:08sitting in front of that
00:41:09black and white television
00:41:10watching Neil Armstrong
00:41:11take those first steps
00:41:12on the moon
00:41:13and that's been
00:41:15the dream that has propelled
00:41:16me through many years
00:41:17and I've also had the dream
00:41:19of flying
00:41:20and I realized
00:41:21that the naval academy
00:41:22would be a place
00:41:23where both of those dreams
00:41:24could come true
00:41:25Over the years
00:41:27the naval academy
00:41:28has developed
00:41:29new generations of leaders
00:41:30midshipman
00:41:32James Earl Carter
00:41:34later President Carter
00:41:35was so proficient
00:41:37in his studies
00:41:38a student paper said
00:41:39the only times
00:41:40he opened his books
00:41:41were when his classmates
00:41:42desired help
00:41:43on problems
00:41:44At the end of World War II
00:41:47there was a great deal
00:41:48of turmoil
00:41:49in the armed forces
00:41:50and this trickled down
00:41:51to the academy level
00:41:52for the naval academy
00:41:53this translated to
00:41:54there was a plan
00:41:56to unify
00:41:57all of the academies
00:41:58into one
00:41:59there was also a plan
00:42:00to have two naval academies
00:42:02one on each coast
00:42:03and there was also
00:42:04and there was also a plan
00:42:05to put the naval academy
00:42:06in to make it a two-year
00:42:07institution
00:42:08postgraduate level
00:42:09institution
00:42:10instead of the four-year
00:42:11fortunately saner mines
00:42:12prevailed
00:42:13and the old four-year plan
00:42:15continued after the war
00:42:16The class of 1949
00:42:19included midshipman
00:42:20Wesley A. Brown
00:42:22who began
00:42:23a wonderful new tradition
00:42:25The fact that I graduated
00:42:28and was the first black graduate
00:42:30meant that
00:42:32there was a special challenge
00:42:35in my case
00:42:36to
00:42:37be successful
00:42:40and
00:42:42to accomplish
00:42:44what no one else
00:42:45had accomplished
00:42:46before me
00:42:47as an African American
00:42:49The outbreak of the war
00:42:52in Korea
00:42:53affected the academy
00:42:54in two important ways
00:42:56It served notice
00:42:57that the Cold War
00:42:58with the Soviet Union
00:42:59would remain
00:43:00a hazardous fact of life
00:43:01and that the advent
00:43:03of the strategic bomber
00:43:04had in no way
00:43:05cut the vital role
00:43:06of the Navy
00:43:07in combat
00:43:08The magnificent marine landing
00:43:12at Incheon
00:43:13was made possible
00:43:14only by the Navy's
00:43:15amphibious expertise
00:43:20After a fighting retreat
00:43:21from North Korea's
00:43:22Chosin Reservoir
00:43:23the evacuation
00:43:24of the marines
00:43:25from Hungnam
00:43:26was realized
00:43:27only with the Navy's
00:43:28coordination
00:43:29of the historic withdrawal
00:43:33Three academy graduates
00:43:34came out of the Korean conflict
00:43:36with the Medal of Honor
00:43:39By the 1960s
00:43:40the Naval Academy
00:43:41had entered the age
00:43:42of the media thunderstorm
00:43:43and athletic stars
00:43:46like Heisman Trophy winner
00:43:47Roger Staubach
00:43:48were instrumental
00:43:49in keeping the academy
00:43:50high
00:43:51in the public eye
00:43:52and esteem
00:43:55Even more so
00:43:56was the academy training
00:43:57conditioning
00:43:58and discipline
00:43:59that had graduate
00:44:00Alan Shepard
00:44:01chosen to ride
00:44:02the first manned
00:44:03American rocket
00:44:04into space
00:44:07Athletics
00:44:08joined science
00:44:09and mathematics
00:44:10in a new building
00:44:11master plan
00:44:12as Michelson
00:44:13and Chauvinet Halls
00:44:14joined the Halsey Fieldhouse
00:44:15in the yard
00:44:16The academy
00:44:18got its own
00:44:19small navy
00:44:20in its yard
00:44:21patrol fleet
00:44:22whose modern craft
00:44:23taught the fine points
00:44:24of powered seamanship
00:44:28As it did to all the services
00:44:29and their academies
00:44:30the Vietnam War
00:44:31brought both distinction
00:44:33and difficulty
00:44:34on the one hand
00:44:36the navy
00:44:37performed admirably
00:44:38providing air
00:44:39fire
00:44:40amphibious
00:44:41and logistical support
00:44:44and its rivering fleet
00:44:45kept the rivers open
00:44:46while its seals
00:44:47interdicted
00:44:48enemy operations
00:44:49everywhere
00:44:50but the long
00:44:53unpopular war
00:44:54that saw 112
00:44:55academy graduates
00:44:56killed in action
00:44:57took its toll
00:45:01the attrition rate
00:45:02of midshipmen
00:45:03reached 50%
00:45:04the class of 69
00:45:06began a steady
00:45:07downward curve
00:45:08in applications
00:45:09I knew what I was
00:45:11getting into
00:45:12when I came here
00:45:13straight out of high school
00:45:14I was here during
00:45:15in the late 60's
00:45:16which was a tough time
00:45:17to be in a service academy
00:45:18in a service related
00:45:19institution
00:45:20I think that
00:45:21caused a tighter bonding
00:45:23if it's possible
00:45:24between the guys
00:45:25that I went to school
00:45:26with here
00:45:27we're still very close
00:45:28The controversial battle
00:45:29to gain the right balance
00:45:30between mainstream
00:45:31academics
00:45:32and professional
00:45:33military courses
00:45:34seesawed
00:45:37In 1968
00:45:38Vice Admiral
00:45:39James Calvert
00:45:40became superintendent
00:45:41and came down
00:45:42on the professional side
00:45:43saying
00:45:44the balance
00:45:45between Sparta
00:45:46and Athens
00:45:47must be maintained
00:45:48He doubled
00:45:50the hours
00:45:51of professional subjects
00:45:52He began an overhaul
00:45:55of the curriculum
00:45:56to attract
00:45:57the more realistic
00:45:58and streetwise
00:45:59youth of the day
00:46:00We have to accept
00:46:01the fact
00:46:02that they do
00:46:03that they do come out
00:46:04of a different world
00:46:05their background
00:46:06is different
00:46:07different experiences
00:46:08and so they do not
00:46:09react the same
00:46:10but fortunately
00:46:11the nature of the Navy
00:46:12Navy makes best men
00:46:14I like to say
00:46:15we try to teach them
00:46:16the other three R's
00:46:17and that's reason
00:46:18respect and responsibility
00:46:20The majors
00:46:21were fixed at
00:46:22forty percent engineering
00:46:23thirty percent
00:46:24mathematics and sciences
00:46:25twenty percent
00:46:26humanities
00:46:27and ten percent
00:46:28management
00:46:29even an engineering major
00:46:32in something as rigorous
00:46:33as electrical engineering
00:46:35or systems engineering
00:46:36gets a minimum
00:46:37of thirty-two hours
00:46:38of semester credits
00:46:40in the humanities
00:46:41english
00:46:42literature
00:46:43art history
00:46:44philosophy
00:46:45ethics
00:46:46political science
00:46:48economics
00:46:49that can't help
00:46:50but make them
00:46:51a more effective officer
00:46:52the Academy at last
00:46:54got the world-class library
00:46:56it had long needed
00:46:57and named it
00:46:58after Admiral Nimitz
00:47:00the new engineering building
00:47:02was named Rickover Hall
00:47:04some not so hallowed traditions
00:47:07were falling
00:47:08Lieutenant Commander Georgia Clark
00:47:10became the Academy's first
00:47:12female professor
00:47:13beginning in nineteen seventy the number
00:47:18of midshipmen from minority groups
00:47:20increased rapidly
00:47:24between 1970
00:47:25and 1974
00:47:26such enrollment
00:47:27climbed from twenty-seven
00:47:28to one hundred and seventy-eight
00:47:33the defense appropriations bill
00:47:35that authorized the admission of women
00:47:37to all three service academies
00:47:39was signed into law
00:47:40by President Gerald Ford in 1975
00:47:45eighty-one women chosen from five hundred and thirty applicants
00:47:48were sworn into the class of 1980
00:47:52in a few short years
00:47:53midshipman Julian Galena
00:47:55would rise to become the first woman brigade commander
00:47:59pure leadership is one of the biggest challenges here
00:48:02and you have to definitely develop that respect
00:48:04and that integrity
00:48:05and that honor among you
00:48:06so that they just follow you
00:48:07because they trust you
00:48:08instead of the fact that you're a female or a male
00:48:11the 1980s saw the building of a vast officer needy modern navy
00:48:16to match the naval might being built by the Soviet Union
00:48:21it looked as though the years ahead would represent smooth sailing for the naval academy
00:48:26but as in the life of any great institution
00:48:29modern times would bring unexpected storms
00:48:39the challenge to the US Naval Academy after a hundred and fifty years
00:48:43is to maintain the century and a half of traditions
00:48:46not as a straitjacket
00:48:48but as a handing down of carefully cared for and valuable standards
00:48:52some traditions are glorious, some hilarious
00:48:56but all are hallowed as the spark, spirit and history of a storied institution
00:49:03I used the POW experience with midshipmen a lot
00:49:07because that is the one experience that convinced me of the true value of the service academy experience
00:49:16I never saw a service academy graduate not measure up in that environment
00:49:22in the very toughest crucible you can imagine for human beings
00:49:28even the oldest graduate carries in him always a vision of the naval academy
00:49:33sitting upon Chesapeake Bay on its 338 crisp acres of tree-lined walks and Beaux-Arts architecture
00:49:41every building is history living in the hearts of thousands
00:49:45Bancroft Hall, mother bee to all, is one of the largest dormitories in the world
00:49:53its five miles of corridor and 33 acres of floor space
00:49:57have been the home and center of life to thousands of midshipmen per year
00:50:02for more years than most of their grandfathers have lived
00:50:07Bancroft's 1873 rooms are the shared two to four person fortresses
00:50:14for study and sleep for the entire brigade for four years
00:50:22rooms that belong to academy medal of honor winners are special prizes
00:50:26old midshipmen can't think of the rooms without feeling exhaustion
00:50:31there are times in here at the naval academy especially during exams and things when things get hectic
00:50:37and you have to do without sleep and you have to do your job rather than sleep
00:50:41and the physical strain becomes fairly acute
00:50:44Bancroft's rooms have through history been among the most frequently inspected pieces of real estate on earth
00:50:51and a sock adrift can bring an earthquake
00:50:55the mess halls since the beginning have seated the entire brigade
00:50:59and served both meals and liberal helpings of lessons in discipline from upperclassmen
00:51:05the new lessons are not much different from the old
00:51:09I remember the first thing that King Hall struck me with was the noise
00:51:13it was just so loud people just yelling
00:51:15and most of the time I couldn't understand even what they were saying
00:51:17the plebes just screaming a mile a minute
00:51:19and all the upper class just in their faces just going off
00:51:23each of the yard's innumerable monuments
00:51:27stretches up the roots from the past
00:51:29and each has its own sometimes quirky story
00:51:35the monuments of the battleship Maine blown up in 1898
00:51:39consists of the old ship's foremast
00:51:41it is fondly known as the longest ship in the world
00:51:45since its mainmast stands at Arlington National Cemetery
00:51:49while commander William Lewis Herndon was a genuine hero
00:51:54of the hurricane sinking of his ship in 1857
00:51:58he is best remembered for his final act of bravura
00:52:02he went to his cabin and changed into his most brilliant dress uniform
00:52:06before returning to the bridge to die looking his officerly best
00:52:12the Civil War feat of Lieutenant William B. Cushing
00:52:16in blowing up the deadly Confederate ram Albemarle
00:52:19with a spar torpedo was so well known in its day
00:52:22that his monument needs only one word
00:52:25Albemarle
00:52:27the Navy says bluntly that the Naval Academy is not
00:52:31and is not supposed to be like any civilian institution of higher learning
00:52:35as the undergraduate college of the Navy the military environment is paramount
00:52:41the demands through history have not been for everyone
00:52:45the students that were
00:52:49that are coming to the Naval Academy today from our current society
00:52:53propose
00:52:55they pose somewhat of a challenge from the standpoint of
00:52:59the society is fairly liberal today
00:53:01and we're bringing them into a very structured environment
00:53:05of the eleven thousand or so who apply to the academy each year
00:53:11only about twelve hundred are admitted
00:53:13eighty percent of entering midshipmen were in the top twenty percent of their high school classes
00:53:19with valedictorians and class presidents abounding
00:53:22still only about twenty three percent of plebs will not make it through the graduation
00:53:28the fear of failure among midshipmen is definitely a driving force
00:53:32whether it's just a personal failure
00:53:34a B on a test instead of an A
00:53:36test that you studied so hard for
00:53:38or losing a sporting event that you really thought you'd win
00:53:42fear of failure is definitely what motivates
00:53:44and what drives people because they don't want to fail at all
00:53:46a decision to detach
00:53:48may be made without cost
00:53:50up to the end of the second year
00:53:52after that the student begins
00:53:54assuming responsibility for education
00:53:56previously received
00:53:58those who continue
00:54:00know that they will be constantly
00:54:02tested to the near limits of failure
00:54:04both physically and intellectually
00:54:06handling pressure
00:54:08has been for one hundred and fifty years
00:54:10what the academy is about
00:54:12only relentless stress testing
00:54:16will identify those able to handle
00:54:18the bedrock of military life
00:54:20how to perform correctly
00:54:22under intense strain
00:54:24some of the strain
00:54:32is in a light-hearted tradition
00:54:34like the endless litany of nonsense responses
00:54:36demanded at a moment's notice
00:54:38not at all light-hearted
00:54:46are the pressures of the academy's code of honor
00:54:48a midshipman is taught
00:54:50honor is a quality
00:54:52which renders a person unable to say anything less
00:54:54than the absolute truth
00:54:56in any situation regardless of the outcome
00:54:58it adds this rigorous twist
00:55:04a dishonorable act must not be excused
00:55:08because of classmate or unit loyalty
00:55:10this honorable insistence collides with an ethic
00:55:12where undergraduate teamwork
00:55:14is a priceless goal
00:55:16not bilging or undercutting a classmate is sacred
00:55:20the strain sometimes brings breakdowns
00:55:22that ends before the midshipman honor organization
00:55:26the honor concept is absolutely fundamental to everything that we do here
00:55:36you have to ask the question
00:55:38what do we do differently
00:55:40at the naval academy
00:55:42from the other commissioning sources
00:55:44what i do differently here that gives us our value added
00:55:46is our character development program
00:55:48the character building heritage starts in a condensed little pressure cooker called plebe summer
00:55:54the incoming class arrives in early july
00:55:58and begins seventeen hour days
00:56:00of what the academy euphemistically calls an intensive life experience
00:56:04these six hot and humid weeks
00:56:08these six hot and humid weeks
00:56:10a relentless and exhausting drum fire
00:56:12of taking orders
00:56:14marching, running, sailing
00:56:16manual of arms
00:56:18navy jargon
00:56:20and weapons instruction
00:56:22examine the metal of the new class
00:56:24as hard as it did the classes
00:56:26of dewey and mayhem
00:56:28being in the astronaut program
00:56:30i don't think i was ever exposed to anything
00:56:32that was intense
00:56:34as intense
00:56:36as my plebe summer
00:56:38or my plebe year here at the naval academy
00:56:40so i think anything that i could have done
00:56:42or will do in the future
00:56:44the naval academy more than prepared me for that
00:56:46plebes still learn to
00:56:48keep their eyes in the boat
00:56:50staring straight ahead
00:56:52unless addressing a superior
00:56:54to keep to the center of corridors
00:56:56and against the walls of staircases
00:56:58walls, staircases, ceilings
00:57:00and floors
00:57:02have become bulkheads, ladders, overheads
00:57:04and decks
00:57:06all socks will be folded in the standard
00:57:08with the start of regular classes
00:57:10the legendary demerit system is begun
00:57:12and the class begins a jealous loathing
00:57:14of M.T. Wardell
00:57:16class of 35
00:57:18the only midshipman
00:57:20to go through the academy
00:57:22is a real demerit
00:57:24he learns that the only acceptable answers
00:57:26to a reprimand
00:57:28are yes sir, no sir
00:57:30no excuses sir
00:57:32and i'll find out sir
00:57:34and there's an awful lot to find out
00:57:36although each plebe
00:57:38has been assigned an upper classman
00:57:40as a mentor to whom he can go
00:57:42to help him over rough spots
00:57:44it is tradition that the relationship
00:57:46remain rigidly impersonal
00:57:48with the upper classman
00:57:50never touching the hand of the plebe
00:57:52which would constitute recognition
00:57:56just take your medicine and learn from it
00:57:58and you don't need to
00:58:00need to be too worried about
00:58:02if the things that you're doing are wrong
00:58:04because the plebes need to understand
00:58:06that there's a time and place
00:58:08to fix yourself and this is it
00:58:10the plebes
00:58:12the plebes
00:58:14numbed by the ferocious volume
00:58:16and velocity of responsibilities
00:58:18need bright stars to steer by
00:58:20and they will find them plentifully
00:58:24in the lives and deaths
00:58:26of the story line
00:58:28that marched before them
00:58:30the somber reaches
00:58:36of Memorial Hall
00:58:38further traditions of the Navy's heroes
00:58:40who held duty above life
00:58:42keynoting it all
00:58:44is the flag under which Oliver Hazzard Perry
00:58:46fought in his victory at Lake Erie
00:58:48embodying the Navy's rallying cry
00:58:51don't give up the ship
00:58:54every sacrifice is remembered and poignant
00:58:58Charles Flint Putnam
00:59:00drifted alone out to sea
00:59:02on the ice in the Bering Straits
00:59:04unsung loveman Noah was ambushed
00:59:08by natives on the island of Samar
00:59:10in 1901
00:59:12William Devotee Billingsley
00:59:14became the first naval aviator
00:59:16to meet death in the performance
00:59:18of duty
00:59:20every captured color has its bloody story
00:59:24attached such as
00:59:26a sanguinary fight was maintained
00:59:30when after two hours the Macedonian
00:59:32losing her mizzenmast
00:59:34became unmanageable
00:59:36and with 104 casualties
00:59:38out of a total of 254
00:59:40and many of her guns disabled
00:59:42hauled down her colors
00:59:44the saddle made for Admiral Halsey
00:59:48after he expressed an interest
00:59:50in riding down the streets of Tokyo
00:59:52on the Emperor's white horse
00:59:54echoes both the dynamic admiral
00:59:56and the rhetoric of war
00:59:58the old mess table
01:00:00upon which the end of World War II
01:00:02was signed upon the decks
01:00:04of the USS Missouri
01:00:06bears humble witness
01:00:08to the Navy's and the nation's
01:00:10mightiest victory
01:00:12the Academy is searched
01:00:14relentlessly for merit
01:00:16each midshipman is examined
01:00:18for eventual advancement
01:00:20to the rank of class officer
01:00:22the Academy likes to say
01:00:24that it doesn't choose these officers
01:00:26but just keeps the records
01:00:28that promote them
01:00:30the class officers are made
01:00:32at all levels of command
01:00:34with a stripe system leading
01:00:36to the top of the brigade heap
01:00:38the six stripe brigade commander
01:00:40over time
01:00:42the honor has lost no luster
01:00:44being a brigade commander
01:00:46means that I'm the senior midshipman
01:00:47in the United States Naval Academy
01:00:48I lead the entire midshipman
01:00:50what's called the striper organization
01:00:52which is an entire chain
01:00:53of midshipman leaders
01:00:54that range from the brigade commander
01:00:55on down to company commanders
01:00:56in charge of a group of about
01:00:58the size of 100 to 120
01:01:00while striving upward
01:01:02the midshipman is afloat
01:01:04in the daily and everlasting traditions
01:01:06of the Academy
01:01:08the archway of the main gate
01:01:10where flunked out or bilged midshipmen
01:01:12exit forever
01:01:13is called bilgers gate
01:01:15and has been rigorously avoided
01:01:17since the 1800s
01:01:20the statue of Tecumseh
01:01:22on the other hand
01:01:23is good magic
01:01:25when pelted with coins
01:01:26the so-called God of 2.0
01:01:28has ensured that passing grade
01:01:32in various exotic garb
01:01:34he has swayed the odds
01:01:35in major academy sports events
01:01:37the Japanese bell
01:01:41handed down from the Navy's opening
01:01:43of Japan to the west
01:01:44and the enterprise bell
01:01:46from the great wartime carrier
01:01:48ring for military
01:01:49and athletic triumphs
01:01:51lingoing up with academy slang
01:01:54is ongoing
01:01:55and aqua rock is a non-swimmer
01:01:58attempting the 40 year swim
01:02:00the required 40 minute swimming marathon
01:02:04chemistry is skinny
01:02:06marine engineering is steam
01:02:08and crab town is Annapolis
01:02:11the gas factor is inverse
01:02:13to the happiness factor
01:02:15and a sand blower is a person
01:02:17of modest stature
01:02:19of the many glorious memorials
01:02:23in the yard
01:02:24the Herndon monument
01:02:25has supplied the most fun
01:02:27the finishing plebe classmen
01:02:29scramble up its greased shaft
01:02:31to replace a plebe's cap
01:02:32with a second classman's
01:02:34thus ending their year
01:02:36as sub-mortals
01:02:40a much sought oasis
01:02:41from the uproar of life
01:02:42in the yard
01:02:43remains the stunning cathedral
01:02:45of the Navy
01:02:46even its yew and lavender bushes
01:02:48are anchored in naval tradition
01:02:51they come from the rectory garden
01:02:53at Burnham Thorpe England
01:02:55the birthplace of Lord Nelson
01:02:56the dome soaring 210 feet
01:03:00above the Chesapeake and Severn
01:03:02has beckoned midshipmen
01:03:03from the dawn of the century
01:03:05among the majestic stained glass windows
01:03:09is one of Admiral David Glasgow Farragut
01:03:11damming the torpedoes at Mobile Bay
01:03:14the Galahad window calls for the ancient purity of ideals
01:03:20required of a naval officer
01:03:23and the warlike archangel Michael
01:03:26shares domain
01:03:27with the graceful angel of peace
01:03:29the chain to the past
01:03:32is kept unbroken
01:03:33at the crypt of John Paul Jones
01:03:35with its circling names
01:03:37of all the ships he commanded
01:03:38the superintendent
01:03:39the superintendent lays a wreath each year
01:03:41on the anniversary of Jones' hard-fought victory
01:03:44in the Bonhomme Richard
01:03:45over the English frigate Serapis
01:03:47if it's history-making men that mark the place
01:03:51the academy will be well marked
01:03:53we've produced 202 members of Congress
01:03:57three governors
01:03:59and leaders throughout our society
01:04:01including one president of the United States
01:04:03and one Nobel Prize winner
01:04:05a regular round of balls and social events
01:04:12is a custom that goes beyond recreation
01:04:14it reminds the young officer-to-be
01:04:17that he has entered not just a profession
01:04:19but a world of graceful social honors
01:04:22a goal to be treasured
01:04:24but nobody forgets that the keystone
01:04:26of all the traditions
01:04:28is the one that continuously reminds the nation
01:04:31that sadly peacetime
01:04:33is unlikely to be a permanent thing
01:04:36I think the role of the service academies
01:04:38and the role of the naval academy
01:04:39becomes even more critical
01:04:41in a post-Cold War environment
01:04:43in a time of downsizing
01:04:45in a time when the country doesn't sense
01:04:47a direct threat to our national survival
01:04:50and the reason I say this
01:04:51is because we need a core
01:04:54a cadre of professional officers out there
01:04:56who have these high standards of integrity
01:04:58and honor
01:05:00spanning back to the days of sale
01:05:02the second and first classes
01:05:04earned the plumb of summer cruises
01:05:06six weeks posting into the fleet
01:05:09here on actual United States Navy warships
01:05:12they stand the watches seamen have stood for centuries
01:05:15they man weapon systems
01:05:17and share duties on the bridge
01:05:19and in engine spaces
01:05:21the academy ring is the silent membership band
01:05:26linking the past and present
01:05:28the ring dance celebrates the end of the third year
01:05:31and the gaining of the coveted class ring
01:05:34the ring is still christened in waters of seven seas
01:05:38commissioning week is the culmination of the academy heritage
01:05:42midshipmen hear the same strains of navy blue and gold
01:05:46as did so many departed heroes before them
01:05:49as academy days wind down
01:05:52the memories and traditions
01:05:54are already binding this class
01:05:56to the ones before and the ones ahead
01:05:59the best company is forever recorded and honored as the color company
01:06:06its midshipman commander gets to choose the color honoree
01:06:11who gains the honor of appearing with the academy superintendent
01:06:14or the commandant while the brigade passes in review
01:06:18we all want to have the naval academy be the type of institution
01:06:23that when these young men and women go home or go out throughout the country
01:06:27and they meet people
01:06:28and people say to them
01:06:29where are you from
01:06:30and they say
01:06:31i'm from the united states naval academy
01:06:33we want the response to be
01:06:35wow
01:06:38on commissioning or graduation day
01:06:41the diploma with elegant simplicity
01:06:44declares the same short message handed down
01:06:47from the long line of presidents
01:06:49know ye that reposing special trust and confidence
01:06:53in the patriotism valor fidelity and abilities of the above named
01:06:58i have nominated him
01:07:00and by and with the advice and consent of the senate
01:07:03do appoint him an ensign in the navy
01:07:08and in one ecstatic eruption of exaltation
01:07:11four grueling golden years end in a personal victory
01:07:14that only a handful of men on earth have known over the past hundred and fifty years
01:07:20and in the fleet that has stretched from wood to steel
01:07:25from canvas to coal and wings and nuclear fires
01:07:30the history of the naval academy moves on to new trials
01:07:34new heroes
01:07:36and somewhere always in the graduates hearts
01:07:39will be a tradition shared across the last century and a half
01:07:43and reaching out eagerly to the challenges of the new millennium
01:07:48a u.s naval academy graduate
01:07:51arthur a adjutant wrote these words
01:07:54gazing shoreward i could identify the light atop the chapel dome
01:07:59and the massive light of bancroft hall
01:08:01softened to dreamy beauty the melody of taps
01:08:05drifted out to me over the still water
01:08:08one by one the lights of bancroft winked out
01:08:12and all was darkness there
01:08:15and he thought
01:08:17the mother sleeps in silent beauty
01:08:21drawing strength unto herself
01:08:24the trials of the morrow
01:08:27tea
01:08:31the
01:08:44the
01:08:45the
01:08:46the
Be the first to comment