<p>What exactly is a "comearound"?</p>
<p>"come around"... an invitation to trouble!</p>
<p>you may be requested to report to your upperclass / cadre for a variety of reasons- mostly used for "remediation" of any deficiencies.<br>
Another good reason to fly under the radar.</p>
<p>Comearounds aren't always trouble....in fact, most of the time it is referring to the review that plebes must seek from upperclass for professional knowledge. At comearounds, the plebes are usually quizzed on the pro-topic, in order to obtain the signature/trust of the upperclassmen (which is required prior to taking the pro-quiz for that week).</p>
<p>Things certainly have changed. We used to just hang around and listen to music.</p>
<p>From what I gathered from my CVW, there are 2 come-arounds a week. 1 with a 1/c and one with a 2/c. They quiz you on that weeks professional knowledge.</p>
<p>I assume it would be different during PS and early in the year, but the 2/c that quizzed my plebe was very nice and actually helped him memorize stuff for the coming pro-quiz.</p>
<p>It's generally a 1 on 1 thing in the P-way. May be exceptions to that sometimes though.</p>
<p>USNA69 - LOL. I happen to be reading A Sense of Honor right now. "Hanging around" sounds brutal, but I don't think they do that anymore...</p>
<p>haha. Was hoping that someone would get it. Never suspected it would be a candidate from reading a book. Good on ya.</p>
<p>It has been a while since I read the book. Does he mention hanging around in SDBs with rain gear?? Amd with the shower on full hot??</p>
<p>^^^ if I recall correctly, it does- but I don't think they are allowed to do that anymore either. </p>
<p>hersheybear- when you finish that one and want something on a lighter note, try "dink gadink".... wonderful description of those hot showers!!!!</p>
<p>Jadler is pretty much on the mark here. A plebe is required to get 3 signatures from 3 upperlclass in his squad prior to taking the pro-quiz (One 3/c, one 2/c and one firstie). Very seldom will someone not sign a plebe off if he or she does not know the knowledge at the comearound, but me being a training corporal, I have told plebes to come back when they know more. The upperclass is signing the pro-book saying that his/her plebe has mastered the material that he or she is signing off for. Most often this is not the case, but we sign most of the time anyway. Nowadays, upperclass can be punished if the plebe they sign off fails more than one pro-quiz, that's how it is in my company. Punishments include taking the pro-quiz with the plebes the following Friday, or loss of liberty... In our company, if a plebe fails 4 pro-quizzes, the entire squad loses liberty. It is in the plebe's and the squad's best interest to make sure that the 4/c know what they are doing before they take the quiz to prevent doing poorly. I'd say on the average, there are about 2 or 3 failures per every company each week. Most people fail at least one while they are here. I failed one first semester last year on "Air Warfare"...</p>
<p>those books sound like interesting reads, but just in the mean time can someone explain what "hanging around" is?</p>
<p>Correct me if I am wrong, but it was when you had to hang onto the top of a door for quite a while- sounded extremely painful and difficult.</p>
<p>yep - hanging on the door. in the book it talks about the main character (a super tough guy) sobbing when he did it as a plebe.</p>
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<p>Either from the door as stated, or more common, each room has a shower, so hanging from the shower bar. Comearounds lasted from 1/2 hr before the meal formation until usually the 5 min call. Often the water was turned on. Occassionally, the uniform was sweat gear over a uniform, and then rain gear over that. Often the shower was turned on for the duration to the full hot position. And more than likely a few pull ups every few minutes to break the monotony. Needless to say, the uniform under the sweat gear was not acceptable for meal formation.</p>
<p>In response to an earlier post, there are no comearounds over Plebe Summer. From what I understand they have tried to preserve the idea of the comearound by incorporating it with pro knowledge. It is absolutely nothing compared to what USNA69 had to go through.</p>
<p>Comearounds aren't usually bad. 3/c tell you what's on it and if they're a flamer to be than they'll ask questions. 2/c usually ask a lot of questions and after a few really good grades on pro-quizzes they would just sign you off ( we used to have to get 2 of these). and firsties will usually just sign you off as the 2/c should have done the rating. they last anywhere from 10 seconds up to 45 minutes and with just yourself but usually you do them with a lot of people so that way you can cover all of the materail even if you hadn't learned it all.
Pro-knowledge sucks. So does learning 18 platforms for one quiz. I can't wait until it's over. haha</p>
<p>Somewhere b/t USNA69's experience and today's, there were comearounds in the 1980s. We had them 3x/day. We went to our 3/C before morning meal, our 2/C before noon meal, and our 1/C squad leader before evening meal. </p>
<p>Comearound typically consisted of uniform inspection (making sure you looked good for formation) and review of rates -- everything from meals to professional knowledge. The 3/C comearound would usually (depending on how much of a flamer the 3/C was) be designed to "help" the plebe by going over things he/she was supposed to know and making sure the uniform was squared away. However, overall, the pain of comearounds (mental, not physical in my day) depended largely on the intensity of your upper class.</p>
<p>Ours were all physical, twice a day. Usually while doing pushups or something similiar, in the AM, we would be asked what was on the front page of the paper. We ALWAYS had them. To the point that if we didn;t, we would go to our squad leader voluntarily just so as not to be caught in our rooms loafing during the comearound period. If the upperclass didn't want to mess with us, they typically would send us to the far corners of Mother B to ask a friend of theirs some inane question. Really just an excuse for the friend to give us a comearound. Invaribly on returning to our company, the original source of our comearound would be alive and awake and would give us an impromptu comearound for taking too long to visit his friend. We were then excused at the 5 min call, sometimes 4 or 3, to get to our rooms, take a shower, and get dressed, and make it to formation on time. Comearounds were usually self perpuating in that we seldom got to formation on time, causing additional comearounds.</p>
<p>JackTraveler it is never over. You will just find yourself having to memorize different things. As a SWO or submariner it will run the entire range from shipboard piping systems to engineering casuslaty response from navigational aides to man overboard drills from weapons systems to (here you go again) platforms, I will let USNA69 talk about the aviators, but I am sure they memorize alot more.</p>
<p>Seemingly unimportant trivia - until you have a fire on the airplane, and then all of the memorization and experience of remembering it under pressure comes through. Fire out, airplane and crew saved. Easy-peasy. You don't necessarily remember MIDN 2/C Bagadonuts who grilled you mercilessly at comearound, but someday, you'll connect the dots...</p>
<p>I'm not saying that's a problem, I'm saying pro-knowledge when you have to learn 18 platforms in 2 days for a quiz when I'm not going aviation, or all of the weapons fore to aft on a ddg or fill in the blank here. I understand that it's learning, we've gone over this before. I just don't want to do it for a friday night pro-quiz when I'm honestly not even going to go aviation or marine corps. Whatever though, it's only one year, and it's the only thing to do is to ***** about it. haha</p>