Most people think of the Naval Academy’s annual Herndon climb as a hot, sweaty, smelly slog up a greased obelisk that can last for hours as mids climb up and tumble down. But it really depends on what kind of music you set it to. The Naval Academy put this video together of Monday’s climb, set to a jaunty instrumental number. The class of 2018 went from plebes to midshipmen after one hour and 38 minutes scrambling up the Herndon monument. In the end, Midshipman 4th Class Javarri Beachum, a 19-year-old Florida native, put an end to it all when he nudged a…
Browsing: graduation
Newly commissioned officers often share their first salute with close friends or family members who have served before them, so it’s not remarkable that Ensign Andrew Wondolowski, who graduated from the Naval Academy on Friday, received his first salute from his brother. What is remarkable is that the salute came from over 7,000 miles away, where Machinist’s Mate 2nd Class Philip Wondolowski is deployed on the carrier Dwight D. Eisenhower in 5th Fleet. “It’s a privilege to be his first salute,” the machinist’s mate said in a Navy release. “I was a first salute for one of my chiefs when…
Navy Times talked briefly to former Aviation Storekeeper 3rd Class Fred Stroman a few weeks back when we found out he’d be graduating high school — just a few years late. Stroman enlisted in the Navy in 1964 while in high school — young enough, he said, that his mother had to sign the paperwork. When he was told he’d be a half-credit short of graduation, he “was so upset that I left school that day and went to the reserve center and told them that I was ready to start my two years of service,” he said in a…
