<p>Was Herndon recently? What was the time to the top?</p>
<p>Sea Trials were yesterday. Today is the parade and tonight is the plebe recognition dinner. Herndon is tomorrow at 9:00 am followed by the plebe recognition ceremony at 2:00. Hard to believe it's finally here - thanks to everyone here who answered questions and helped us through the year.</p>
<p>A Baltimore TV station posted the following story on yesterday's Sea Trials.</p>
<p>You'll have to watch a short commercial before the video begins.</p>
<p>The reporter on the WBAL needs to do better research before she gets on camera!!</p>
<p>Plebes graduate after Sea Trials? You learn something new every day :-p</p>
<p>I think I know now why Herndon takes so long. After Sea Trials, I could barely move, and I'm still having trouble just taking off my socks. My whole body is sore, but I can't wait until 0900 tomorrow!</p>
<p>Less than a day left...</p>
<p>Naval Academy freshmen are put to the endurance test in the Sea Trials</p>
<p>Published in the BS:</p>
<p>
[quote]
It was sunup yesterday when Naval Academy freshmen began the gauntlet of physical tests known as Sea Trials. And for 14 hours they came one after the other: races, tugs of war, rope climbing, swimming and boating, all over the Yard and on the banks of the Severn River.</p>
<p>The event is considered the culmination of midshipmen's first year at the Annapolis academy. Obstacles are meant to challenge plebes in endurance, teamwork, problem-solving and teach leadership in times of stress....
[/quote]
</p>
<p>
[QUOTE]
Genetic similarity goes only so far. While Annapolis native Alison Disher groaned at the thought of running across the Naval Academy Bridge with a full pack, across the campus her newly mohawked twin, Brett, was all smiles as he started jogging with his battalion.</p>
<p>"We've got lunch waiting on the other side," classmate Fred LaMartin, who also grew up in Annapolis, said after slogging out of the Challenge Pit - a game of capture the flag played in a mud hole....
[/QUOTE]
</p>
<p>Just got back from the Plebe Parent Dinner. We 2010 parents are really being spoiled, since we were able to again visit our Plebe's rooms. Once upon a time the ONLY 2 times were Plebe Parent Weekend at the end of Plebe Summer and Firstie Parent Weekend in their senior year.</p>
<p>Oh, and if you are a 'legacy parent' - meaning you went USNA and then have a child attend - you do get all kinds of perks. Today hubby and I sat in the "Superintendant's canopy seating area"... translation: We got to sit in the shade with all kinds of special guests. So "membership does have it's priveleges" all these years later for a proud dad of the class of 1972 with a 2010 kiddo.</p>
<p>And for the record, the class of 1972 - which is the 1969 Herndon time has THE FASTEST RECORDED time for the climb.....</p>
<p>Will 2010 beat it???</p>
<p>we'll let you know tomorrow!</p>
<p>GO CLASS OF 2010
less than 24 hours till Plebes no more!!!!</p>
<p>Congratulations to the great class of 2010!</p>
<p>I am jealous because my mid just told me that '10 families were allowed in Bancroft Hall again! At first she was alarmed when she saw families in the Hall, but realized that someone must have authorized the "invasion" because there were so many people.
We'll see if 2010 can beat the record Herndon climb by the great class of 2009...Enjoy!</p>
<p>"INVASION"!<br>
I like that, USNA09 mom....I bet we did look like alien beings gawking all over and around those poor upperclass!</p>
<p>Annapolis, Md. (NNS) -- The U.S. Naval Academy Class of 2010 completed the daylong rite of passage known as Sea Trials on May 15. </p>
<p>Sea Trials, which begins well before dawn, consists of six phases lasting approximately an hour and a half each. </p>
<p>During these phases, the freshmen, or "plebes," are tested physically and mentally in a variety of challenging scenarios.</p>
<p>"It is a culminating point of a plebe's year," said Lt. Kurt Parsons, 9th Company officer and Sea Trials officer representative. "It brings them together in a trying situation, builds teamwork and camaraderie, and instills pride in themselves and the institution."</p>
<p>Under the supervision of upperclassmen, senior enlisted leaders and company officers, the midshipmen navigated challenging obstacle courses, confronted realistic damage control scenarios, and motivated each other through long-distance runs. Squads of midshipmen also tackled riverine training, zodiac boat drills, and endurance courses.</p>
<p>More than 1,000 plebes participated in the capstone event, modeled after the Navy's "Battle Stations" and Marine Corps' "Crucible."</p>
<p>Sea Trials was the 1998 brainchild of former Naval Academy Superintendent Adm. Charles R. Larson.</p>
<p>Story Number: NNS070515-21 - Release Date: 5/15/2007 5:05:00 PM
BYLINE: Mass Communication Specialist Seaman Christopher A. Lussier, U.S. Naval </p>
<p>Academy Public Affairs
Copyright 2007 Federal Information and News Dispatch, Inc.
Defense Department Documents and Publications
May 15, 2007</p>
<p>Women hope this is their year to reach top of monument first</p>
<p>Published in the BS:</p>
<p>
[quote]
Barbara Morris almost had it.</p>
<p>Standing on the shoulders of her male classmates on a humid spring day in 1977, she clung to the top of a 21-foot obelisk coated with lard and reached to pull off the hat perched on the top....</p>
<p>...Instead, with the prize literally within her grasp, she was yanked down by her classmates, an incident still remembered as emblematic of all the insults, abuse and derision the women had fought so hard to root out....
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Barbara Morris didn't almost have it. The "'dixie cup" was cut into numerous pieces and was adhered to Herndon with an epoxy concocted in the Chemistry Department by the Upperclass. The Upperclass went to this length to make sure that the cap would not be removed by a female midshipman. The Plebe who got the cap off Herndon, literally had to rip it off in pieces with his teeth.</p>
<p>
[quote]
...In the days before the 1977 climb, described in detail in the 1998 book First Class, by 1980 graduate Sharon Hanley Disher, seniors had printed and sold shirts with a picture of the statue and the acronym NGOH, which stood for "No Girls On Herndon."...
[/quote]
</p>
<p>I have one of those shirts. There had blue rims just like the official USNA shirts and looked like the real thing under the white works. The word was put out, that if anyone was caught wearing those shirts it was an automatic Class A offense.</p>
<p>so why do you have one?</p>
<p>From the Capital: <a href="http://www.hometownannapolis.com/cgi-bin/read/2007/05_17-65/NAV%5B/url%5D">http://www.hometownannapolis.com/cgi-bin/read/2007/05_17-65/NAV</a></p>
<p>Mike</p>
<p>
[quote]
so why do you have one?
[/quote]
</p>
<p>For the same reason members of the class of 1989, 1990, 1991, and 1992 jealously hoard their bootleg copies of PlayMid Magazine (if they were lucky enough to score one which, sadly, I wasn't). For the same reason so many of us still have our "Let Army beat us!" T-Shirts. Etc., etc.</p>
<p>And in my day, it was NWOH. I will not go into detail on the W. Not the place nor worth the time. Kinda foolish, really.</p>
<p>
[quote]
The Upperclass went to this length to make sure that the cap would not be removed by a female midshipman.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>And just how did these clairvoiant upperclassmen know it would be a woman to get up there first? Maybe they should be in the business of selling lottery numbers. :rolleyes:</p>
<p>They glued it up there that way for the same reason every class glues it up there as tightly as they can: because that's the whole damned point!</p>
<p>Sheesh. Some people will read their agenda into anything. :mad:</p>
<p>I want a t-shirt that says WAOH.</p>
<p>Women ALL OVER Herdon</p>
<p>Hehe....Freudian slip.....HERndon.</p>
<p>Well I can say I witnessed Herndon today....It was exhausting for we family members to cheer and groan and cheer again. I can only imagine what these tired, sore, but adreneline-pumped mids were experiencing!!</p>
<p>OK all you Plebes to be of 2011. It's YOUR turn to wear the white works, never take naps, never sit down, chop everywhere, know your rates and join the amazing Brigade of Midshipmen of the United States Naval Academy! Prepare for the adventure of your lives!! And this includes your parents!!</p>
<p>Congratulations to the great Class of 2010!! This proud mom was whistling and cheering for every one of you today.</p>
<p>So what was the time, finally?</p>
<p>ETA: Looks like 1 hour, 32 minutes.</p>
<p>Not bad.</p>