<p>Just wondering if anyone on here has an online blog. I have xanga: travestyReigns and livejournal: mistaken<em>for</em>me. Look me up if you have one.</p>
<p>Also, I had an idea. I know Plebe Summer will be taxing on everyone's time management. Many people will be expecting letters from us. Instead of sending a large amount of impersonal letters I am planning on writing in depth letters that I will send to one person. They will be posted on an online blog with the sole purpose of posting my letters and receiving comments. The comments will be written back to me in letter form, and everyone can also send their own letters with news. A useful thing to be sent woud be jokes.</p>
<p>Also, in your first care package make sure you receive a small American flag. This will save you a lot of trouble with upperclassmen in the long run. (If there are too many Plebes in one room the upperclassmen cannot declare "mutiny".</p>
<p>Also, if you are one of the unfortunate people who call a ma'am a sir or a sir a ma'am and they ask you to explain the difference it may save a load of embarrassment to simply say that a female has two X chromosomes and a male has an X and a Y.</p>
<p>plebes have 20 minutes of personal time at the end of the day during the summer in which to write letters, shower, learn rates--few have time to write lengthy letters. Clever ideas though.</p>
<p>Yeah, I just know that many people will be expecting letters, and it is unrealistic to assume I will be able to write them. One longer letter once a week seems much more realistic and purposeful. Thanks, but the second idea came from this site: <a href="http://www.navy-usna.org/%5B/url%5D">http://www.navy-usna.org/</a> ... which I recommend to all parents and prospective Midshipmen.</p>
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Also, in your first care package make sure you receive a small American flag. This will save you a lot of trouble with upperclassmen in the long run. (If there are too many Plebes in one room the upperclassmen cannot declare "mutiny".
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<p>What does the American Flag have to do with it?</p>
<p>Put your cover on the deck outside your room, elsewise mutiny. Has the rule changed?</p>
<p>Zaphod: there are several postings on the parent's sites (as well as in Smallwood's "gudie") addressing the issue of mutany. Apparently the number of plebes in a given room in Bancroft cannot exceed the number of racks- the result, if found, is a mutany. The charge cannot be made if there is an American Flag on display- hence, the suggestion it be sent in the first care package. I know the gift shop sells a small flag, as well as a small plastic stand, for $2.... perhaps a current mid can verify if this is still the practice!</p>
<p>This might be an idea for those of you going to academies. When my kid went through Indoc at USMMA, I thought he had vanished completely until one day we received this huge letter. 13 pages. He'd written a journal style letter, writing alittle each night about the events of the day. It was too great to read all together like that. He did it more for himself, I believe, so that he wouldn't leave anything out and it makes a great keepsake for the later years when he reflects back. Every day is detailed. Sometimes he would write a few lines early in the morning then late at night he would continue. Just a thought for you guys.</p>
<p>jamzmom, What a treasure that 13-page letter must be! One of the few times my mid actually wrote was when she was on medical chit for heat exhaustion--the letter opened with "I don't want you to worry because I'm feeling much better now...after receiving IV fluids..." Sometimes no news is good news!<br>
The small American flag is mandatory. Dear friends of ours gave my daughter a nice little set with three flags on a stand: Stars and Stripes, US Navy flag, US Marine flag.</p>
<p>usna09mom: our son got the same thing in his Christmas stocking this year- with the snake "do not tread on me" flag (is that the marine flag?) anyway, his comment: "and what exactly do I do with these?" I guess he skipped that chapter in the book!</p>
<p>navy2010,
The red and white striped flag with the snake is the Navy Jack. Here's some info:</p>
<p>"The First Navy Jack is enjoying renewed popularity these days thanks to an order from the Secretary of the Navy that directs all U.S. Navy ships to fly the First Navy Jack for the duration of the War on Terrorism."</p>
<p>DBH - The idea of the blog is great! If you were able to catch my posting several days ago called "Interesing Reading" I posted several blogs from current candidates and some blog rings. But, I am asuming the CC did not like that. If anyone can tell me why that might be offensive please let me know.</p>
<p>From what I have read, time management is a big part at the academies. Logging into a Blog, stating your comments, and getting off seems much more efficient than writing on a piece of paper, addressing an envelope, finding a stamp, getting it mailed. </p>
<p>Good Luck</p>
<p>No wonder! Thanks for the information! "don't tread on me" seems to fit the occassion perfectly- loud and clear!</p>
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Apparently the number of plebes in a given room in Bancroft cannot exceed the number of racks- the result, if found, is a mutany.
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<p>I don't remember the exact number in my day. It was pretty loose.</p>
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The charge cannot be made if there is an American Flag on display.
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<p>That's a new one. In my day, you had to put one cover on the deck outside the door of the room.</p>
<p>All that said, even if you DID get caught in a mutiny, the most you got was some chow calls or an extra come-around, or maybe made to do something silly. It was hardly anything serious. Just one of those fun Plebe-Year things.</p>
<p>Haha, but too many of those "Plebe Year things" can become very tiresome, I'm imagining. You will have so many in the first place avoiding just a few might allow in some sanity.</p>
<p>Yeah, I'm pretty sure the flag thing is current. I've seen it multiple places.</p>
<p>Marine, there will be no computers available to do the blogs ourselves during Plebe Summer. A letter will have to be sent. Someone else will have to post it on a blog.</p>
<p>A suggestion: as usna09mom noted, your time during Plebe summer will be structured beyond anything you can possibly imagine, so it might be best if you don't make any commitments to those "on the outside" that you will write, and then let them be surprised and delighted if and when you do.</p>
<p>A caution about going with a blog: if you do have the chance to write, it is possible that what you say will be very intense. The drive to write to those who love you best is apparently highest when you are having a bad day and need to vent. A short time later, you'll be busy with other things and probably be feeling much better, but the ones reading your letter won't know that. Your parents will have a support structure (the plebe parents email list) that makes it possible to survive the trauma -- so don't worry about them, and don't avoid using them to vent to if you need it. That's our job.</p>
<p>However, I would suggest you be very cautious about going "public" in a blog. At best, you will find yourself "editing" out the stuff that you don't want the whole world to see, and at worst, you'll be humiliated come fall when your classmates find out what you said. </p>
<p>IMPORTANT: The Academy has VERY strict rules about saying anything in a public forum about USNA, particularly on the web. Think about it -- a reporter gets hold of a rant you write in a fit of frustration and splashes it all over the news! Even the ordinary plebe summer stuff can sound like "hazing" to someone who is looking for evidence of such. During plebe summer you will get briefings on this kind of thing.</p>
<p>My advice: (only worth about 2 cents, but still...) If you have time to write home, write from the heart, but only to the people you trust to use the information you share with them discretely.</p>
<p>wise words, oiixxg. Thank you for writing in such a thoughtful manner. Our service academies prepare midshipmen/cadets to be professional military officers. In this situation, mids/cadets represent the institution and the respective branch of the military, and must conduct themselves accordingly in public forums. As oiixxg stated, you will receive briefings on these matters.</p>
<p>"with the snake "do not tread on me" flag (is that the marine flag?) "</p>
<p>The don't tread on me flag is/was a pre-revolution flag. Te snake was divided into 13 parts (for the 13 colonies) and was pre war propaganda against the British, who were apparently "treading" on them. I know because my history teacher has a huge one in his room.</p>
<p>Benjamin Franklin sketched, carved, and published the first known political cartoon in an American newspaper. It was the image of a snake cut into eight sections. The sections represented the individual colonies and the curves of the snake suggested the coastline. New England was combined into one section as the head of the snake. South Carolina was at the tail. Beneath the snake were the ominous words "Join, or Die."</p>
<p>This had nothing to do with independence from Britain. It was a plea for unity in defending the colonies during the French and Indian War. It played off a common superstition of the time: a snake that had been cut into pieces could come back to life if you joined the sections together before sunset.</p>
<p> Franklin's snake wiggled its way into American culture as an early symbol of a shared national identity.</p>
<p>The U.S. Navy Jack with a rattlesnake (not cut into eight sections) has another story behind it altogether: <a href="http://www.navyjack.info/history.html%5B/url%5D">http://www.navyjack.info/history.html</a>
The rattlesnake was also an early symbol used by the Marine Corps, but it's on a yellow background.
I am a history teacher :)</p>