<p>The USNA Open House was great this year. LT Bobby Jones presented an updated admissions brief. Unfortunately, there was only one midshipman present because of the three-day weekend. Last year they had a panel of five midshipmen.</p>
<p>I am definitely throwing the BS flag on "there was only one midshipman present because of the three-day weekend." How about USNA Admissions didn't send anything through the Regimental/Brigade Ops. Officers??? Apparently they did this last year because that's how I found out and attended.</p>
<p>This is really annoying because I personally emailed admissions over a month ago, asking to attend both weekends (this one and last weekend). The only response I got was "how did you find out about this event?" So I replied, and I never heard anything from admissions thereafter.</p>
<p>Furthermore, since you can't leave the Academy while on duty, wouldn't it make sense to ask MIDN (on duty) to go, as it is a chance to leave USNA? Then I have to remind myself, this is USNA, if we did anything that made sense, gosh help us!</p>
<p>LT Jones is great...he is very funny.</p>
<p>It was a wonderful presentation that only further solidified my drive to attend. Great American, i'm assuming you were there? We probably saw eachother and didn't even know it.</p>
<p>Cost: The value of the USNA education was $315,000 for the Class of 2006. One of the things that irked me at the briefing was some of the BGO's saying that the Naval Academy is a free education. In the words of Walter Williams: "There is no such thing as free." Something might have no cost but nothing in life is free. Guys and gals -- there is NO FREE LUNCH!</p>
<p>Attrition: The academy lost 31 out of 1215 plebes this past summer. They are at the bottom of the Severn River. Just kidding. :D That works out to an attrition rate of 2.6 percent, the lowest rate in the past 20-30 years. BZ to the Class of 2010!</p>
<p>^^^ and now the true test comes: the rigors of the academic schedule, sprinkled with professional knowledge and peppered with sports...<br>
up at 5 and down at 1...both am of course....
not for the faint of heart!</p>
<p>"wakey-wakey...what time is it? 0500- get your butt out of bed....cause YOU, plebe, have boxing in 30 ticks and you better get moving!
Boxing????
I haven't even rolled over yet!" :eek:</p>
<p>oh my!!!</p>
<p>
[quote]
One of the things that irked me at the briefing was some of the BGO's saying that the Naval Academy is a free education.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Uh-huh. right. </p>
<p>More like a $315K education rammed up your tailpipe one nickle at a time.</p>
<p>Worth every penny, but not always fun while getting it. ;)</p>
<p>Hey GA, I heard air conditioning was added to Bancroft to mitigate attrition. Or maybe they're just doing a better job selecting potential mids.</p>
<p>^^^^
Or maybe they didn't have a REAL plebe summer. :D</p>
<p>During Saturday's Open House the Director of Candidate Guidance stated that all surgical or mechanical procedures (e.g. PRK, LASIK, orthokeratology, intra-corneal ring implants, etc.) performed to correct visual acuity are disqualifying. Requests for waivers are not normally considered. The Naval Academys eligibility criteria for refractive surgery are very rigidly limited.
Some warfare service selections may not be possible following refractive surgery.</p>
<p>DO NOT HAVE ANY LASER SURGERY TO CORRECT YOUR VISION OR YOU WILL BE MEDICALLY DISQUALIFIED.</p>
<p>If you need eye surgery, the Navy will perform the surgery after you complete your Sophmore year and incur a service obligation.</p>
<p>For more information read the following article published in the New York Crimes:</p>
<p>Perfect Vision Is Helping and Hurting Navy</p>
<p>By DAVID S. CLOUD
Published: June 20, 2006</p>
<p>BETHESDA, Md., June 17 Almost every Thursday during the academic year, a bus carrying a dozen or so Naval Academy midshipmen leaves Annapolis for the 45-minute drive to Bethesda, where Navy doctors perform laser eye surgery on them, one after another, with assembly-line efficiency.</p>
<p>Nearly a third of every 1,000-member Naval Academy class now undergoes the procedure, part of a booming trend among military personnel with poor vision. Unlike in the civilian world, where eye surgery is still largely done for convenience or vanity, the procedure's popularity in the armed forces is transforming career choices and daily life in subtle but far-reaching ways.</p>
<p>Aging fighter pilots can now remain in the cockpit longer, reducing annual recruiting needs. And recruits whose bad vision once would have disqualified them from the special forces are now eligible, making the competition for these coveted slots even tougher. </p>
<p>But the surgery is also causing the military some unexpected difficulties. By shrinking the pool of people who used to be routinely available for jobs that do not require perfect eyesight, it has made it harder to fill some of those assignments with top-notch personnel, officers say.</p>
<p>When Ensign Michael Shaughnessy had the surgery in his junior year at the Naval Academy, his new 20-20 vision qualified him for flight school. And that is where he decided to go after graduating last month ranked in the top 10 percent of his class, rather than pursuing a career as a submarine officer. </p>
<p>"The cramped environment in submarines is something that turned me off," Ensign Shaughnessy, 22, said.</p>
<p>For generations, Academy graduates with high grades and bad eyes were funneled into the submarine service. But in the five years since the Naval Academy began offering free eye surgery to all midshipmen, it has missed its annual quota for supplying the Navy with submarine officers every year.</p>
<p>Officers involved say the failure to meet the quota is due to many factors, including the perception that submarines no longer play as vital a national security role as they once did. But the availability of eye surgery to any midshipman who wants it is also routinely cited. </p>
<p>"Some of the guys with glasses who would have gone to submarines or become navigators are getting the chance to do something they'd rather do, and the communities that are losing the people are not as happy about it as the aviation community, which is gaining better candidates," said Cmdr. Joseph Pasternak, the ophthalmologist who oversees the program at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda.</p>
<p>In the Naval Academy's class of 2006, 349 of the 993 midshipmen had the surgery, up from 50 five years ago, according to Naval Academy records. Fewer than 30 percent of the academy students whose eyes qualify for the surgery choose not to get it, and the number of holdouts is dropping every year, Commander Pasternak said.</p>
<p>Last week, a little after 10:40 a.m., Colin Carroll, a 21-year-old midshipman from Olney, Md., put anesthetic drops in his eyes and lay down under the laser as Capt. Kerry Hunt, a Navy doctor, and two assistants prepared to begin. "We're locking the laser on now," Captain Hunt told him.</p>
<p>Midshipman Carroll had originally hoped to enter flight school but discovered not only that his eyes were not good enough, but also that he was prone to kidney stones, ruling him out of aviation entirely. He said he was "resigned" to entering the Marine Corps or becoming an officer on a surface ship, neither an assignment requiring perfect vision.</p>
<p>But he decided to get the surgery anyway.</p>
<p>By 10:49, both eyes were done, though extremely bloodshot, and Mr. Carroll walked out wearing sunglasses, declaring he could already see better.</p>
<p>The procedure used by the Navy, photorefractive keratectomy, or PRK, is different from the one used on most civilians. That approach, known as laser-in situ keratomileusis, or Lasik, requires cutting a flap in the surface of the cornea and then using a laser to reshape the cornea. But military doctors worry that the flap could come loose during combat, especially in a supersonic fighter.</p>
<p>So rather than slicing into the cornea covering, Navy doctors grind it away. The approach requires a longer recovery as the covering re-forms but leaves the eye more stable....</p>
<p>
[quote]
Or maybe they didn't have a REAL plebe summer.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>that's what they all say.....!</p>
<p>maybe just a better bunch! :)
Go 2010!!!</p>
<p>That's the spirit, 2010! Don't let the old guys tell us about how tuff it was in there day when they had to walk 5 miles to the chow hall, study by candle light, etc. It's called dementia. ;)</p>
<p>And not one of them had a pony, either! :eek:</p>
<p>
[quote]
That's the spirit, 2010! Don't let the old guys tell us about how tuff it was in there day when they had to walk 5 miles to the chow hall, study by candle light, etc. It's called dementia.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>you mean they still don't do that??? </p>
<p>The thorpedo says the treck from his wing to anywhere is just about 5 miles- (at least it feels that way!) and while he may not be burning those candles, I have gotten several requests for "AA batteries"..... :rolleyes:</p>
<p>if anything, they have about 20 more years of history to study- not to mention all the new ships, planes, artillary, battle facts etc, etc, etc, that has to be memorized! Seems to me things might have been a bit "easier" back "in the good ole days" when all they had were a few ironclads and some pistols! :rolleyes: </p>
<p>(only kidding....you grads ALL have my utmost respect! :) )</p>