The Naval and Coast Guard academies — as you might expect — aren’t the first colleges to consider when you’re looking for a party school. But alongside ranking high as a “stone-cold sober” school in this year’s Princeton Review rankings, the two academies got high marks for accessible professors, low marijuana use and “running like butter” (meaning administration works well). On the not-so-good end: The Naval Academy ranked seventh for “least happy students” of the 376 U.S. schools included in this year’s rankings and 14th for “dorms like dungeons.” The Coast Guard Academy placed similarly, ranking fourth for “least happy…
Browsing: Naval Academy
Naval Academy midshipmen captured top honors at the 11th International Submarine Race, held in late June, with their entry, S.S.H. 11 Mighty Mid. Mighty Mid, a two-man fiberglass sub built by the academy team, sported waving fins that can be powered by pedaling, which they adapted from use on some kayaks. Mighty Mid hit 6.1 knots underwater on the 100-meter course at the David Taylor Model Basin in West Bethesda, Md., besting a Canadian team who had previously held the title and record for non-propeller subs. “It felt great, just to represent the Navy,” Midshipman 2nd Class Cheng Han…
If your career seems rocky, consider this one: He was nearly booted from college, graduated in the bottom third of his class, and only a few years into his naval career, he struck a buoy with his ship. That lackluster start belongs to Adm. Mike Mullen, now the military’s top officer. Mullen recounted his early stumbles as a midshipman and junior officer to laughs and applause on the Late Show with David Letterman on June 13. In his first month as a senior at the Naval Academy, Mullen said he racked up 115 demerits; only 35 more and he would be…
A tip of the hat to the Navy and its Facebook notifications for the reminder that today marked the 50th anniversary of an event frozen in the minds of many Americans of a (ahem!) certain age: the day Navy Cmdr. Alan Shepard became the first American launched into space. His feat captivated the nation, and won back some American pride bruised by Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin beating him into space by 23 days. The Naval Academy grad and jet test pilot had in 1959 become one of the original Mercury astronauts — the guys with the “Right Stuff,” as Tom…
Something crashed a swim meet at the Naval Academy’s pool. More than 800 swimmers, ages 8 to 17, gathered there over the weekend for the Maryland Swimming Championship meet, held at Lejeune Hall on the academy’s campus when an intestinal bug struck, reports The Annapolis Capital. The pool soon became a sick ward, with enough swimmers vomiting that the meet had to be stopped for 15 minutes so the deck could be swabbed. One parent at the meet told The Annapolis Capital that she saw a swimmer hit the end of his lane, throw up, then flip and continue the race. “It…
A star high school baseball player from Maryland is accused of stealing bats, gloves, spikes and more from the Naval Academy baseball team this fall and turning around and selling it on eBay, according to court records released this week. The loot, allegedly stolen in mid-September from the locker room and coach’s office at Bishop Stadium around Sept. 16, reads like a start-up kit for a minor league team: a radar gun, a projector and projector screen, a catcher’s helmet, sunglasses, dozens of gloves, spikes, wooden bats and a can of pine tar. The alleged thief — whose eBay username was “qualityathleticgear” — was caught…
An Ohio-class ballistic submarine on strategic patrol in the Atlantic Ocean. // U.S. Navy Would you push the button and launch a nuclear missile, if ordered to? By the time Ensign Michael Izbicki was asked this question in a routine psychological screening at nuclear power school, he had had a religious awakening. He had read the book, Choosing Against War: A Christian View, and had embraced pacifistic Quaker beliefs after periods of intense study and reflection. Izbicki — a 24-year-old Naval Academy graduate, who holds a master’s degree in computer science from John Hopkins University — answered no, he wouldn’t…
It’s been another busy week for the Navy. Here are seven stories in seven minutes from the past seven days that are worthy of notice: 1. Defense Bill passes HASC. This bill has tons of important stuff – far too much to put in this blog. You can check Monday’s edition of Navy Times for the complete scoop. But among the highlights is this news that lawmakers bucked the Pentagon’s 1.4 percent pay raise request, and looks to instead give service members a 1.9 percent boost. In addition, the bill aligns the 30-year shipbuilding plan with the QDR, which bodes well…
Defense Secretary Robert Gates dropped the bomb of the week. In his first invitation to the Navy League’s Sea-Air-Space symposium, Gates suggested a need for cutting carriers, sinking SSBN(X) and eliminating Expeditionary Fighting Vehicles. You can read Gates’ speech here, and find out how this affects you in Monday’s edition of Navy Times. Speaking of amphibious operations, the personnel bubbas in Millington are starting to dry out. Two days of rain dumped more than 14 inches in the area. A levee couldn’t hold the water back and the base was flooded. This delayed one promotion board and threw many administrative matters into…
As further evidence that the Geek Squad provides the best pickings for tomorrow’s Navy, we turn to the latest news out of the Naval Academy. For the Class of 2015, cyberwarfare and cybersecurity will be right up there with the traditional instruction of all things nautical. This shouldn’t come as a surprise to the latest gaggle of plebes. Most spent their elementary recess periods pecking away on a computer, so they get it. For the older salts who are scratching their heads, realize that the Navy righly recognizes cyberwarfare is arguably the greatest threat facing the modern military. This understanding…
