The Naval Academy

                                                                                 By Ethan V.

                                                                                    8-12-21

    Today we decided to go to Annapolis, Maryland to see the Naval Academy. The Naval academy is a college that leads into the US Navy, and where Koko went to school.

    At the start of our day my mom left to go to a wedding in Pennsylvania, so Koko, Izzy and I had to find something to do. We chose to go to the Naval Academy, which is about a 45 minute drive from Koko’s house. The Naval Academy is in Annapolis, Maryland, which is the capitol of Maryland. The Naval Academy was founded in 1845, 70 years after the Navy was founded.

    The Naval Academy is free to go to, but if you go to school there for over 2 years you are required to serve 5 years in the Navy after you finish school. When we got there, it was extremely hot like it has been all week, and at one point it got to 99 degrees! Anyway, we were walking around the campus and Koko was explaining all the traditions of the school to us. Some of them were that it is required that every student must go to every football game, and they have to march there.

    Another tradition is Plebe summer. A plebe was what the ancient Romans called the common people, and now plebe is used as a name for freshman at the Naval Academy. Plebe summer is the summer before school starts officially for the plebes, so they are tested to see if they will drop out before. Somethings Koko was telling us the upperclassmen (Sophmores, Juniors, Seniors, anybody above that like captains, etc.) would yell at the plebes. The plebes also have no rights. The plebes can’t have a phone or car, and they have to stay in rooms that aren’t air conditioned which seems terrible in the heat we were in. Also, they have smaller rules for them like how they can’t walk on curved paths and you cant walk on the grass and they can only sleep between 9 PM and 6:30 AM.

    While we were walking around the campus, we went into the swimming building that had a diving pool and a very long swimming pool. We also saw the tomb of the creator of the US Navy, John Paul Jones, who also created the Russian Navy. We then made our way to one of the stores, where I got a stuffed animal of Bill the goat, who is the mascot of Navy. They had pictures of the different Bills over the years, which was cool to see because they have had a goat as their mascot since the early 1900s. 

    One of the cooler things I saw at the Naval Academy was the Herndon Monument, mostly because if the tradition about it. The tradition around this monument is that they cover it with grease, and then all the plebes in that years class have to work together as a team to climb up to the top and then rip off a hat at the top that is taped and replace it. Once they do this all the plebes have officially “graduated” from being a plebe and can no longer be called it.