Can't tell if that's sarcasm or not but all my point is that it seemed (hell, it always seems) that the administration tries to say they're making it more "Fleet like" but will arbitrarily pick and choose what qualifies and what doesn't.
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Interesting NPR story on USS Bancroft
- Thread starter trogdor
- Start date
Can't tell if that's sarcasm or not but all my point is that it seemed (hell, it always seems) that the administration tries to say they're making it more "Fleet like" but will arbitrarily pick and choose what qualifies and what doesn't.
phrogpilot73
Well-Known Member
It was sarcasm, because I agree with you wholeheartedly. When you really think about it, if they want to make it like the fleet, then they should scrap classes (or move them to the end of the day after a 14 hours on a YP).
Ah, ok gotcha....damn interwebs....!
Actually, that's one thing the Supe has done -- there are signifigantly less parades this year than last. Can't say how many there were in years past before that, but yeah, definitely less parades.
The chopping argument has been made and raised by MIDN too with the tone of sarcasm as well.
The chopping argument has been made and raised by MIDN too with the tone of sarcasm as well.
You know what, I agree with the administration. Herndon has no application in the fleet. It only promotes teamwork, leadership, tradition, and the pride of accomplishing something together.
Herndon has always been a big deal. It really strikes me that someone would say it is/wasn't.
That's the party line, plain and simple. When I was there they tried to revamp hundreds night and make it a moment of reflection and preparation. It was sold to us by the then Dant explaining when he graduated there was no hundreds night shenanigans and plebe/firstie role reversals; that stuff was a new and nasty tradition. My sponser is a '64 grad and I asked him about his hundreds night. Guess what? It was plebes messing with firsties. No leadership laboratory lecture.
Herndon has always been a big deal. It really strikes me that someone would say it is/wasn't.
Exactly. I'm firmly convinced that the Academy goes through cycles every 20 years- all based on "what it was like when I was here" by whoever the Dant/Sup is.
most people remember herndon as one of the few days that they looked forward to, and one of the few days that was fun. i emphasize few. everyone knows that fun was seriously limited (intentionally or otherwise), so to rob people of that opportunity to make a memory and possibly be that guy to break the record, in the name of making the place "more like the fleet," sounds pretty asinine to me. if they really wanted to make that place "like the fleet," than a MAJOR overhaul would be needed, not just one thing here, one thing there. i.e. get rid of parades, change the prt standards, let everyone drive on the yard, etc. i don't think too many sailors chop in the fleet either.
what's next, "allow" them to climb the mexican monument? after all, it would be "safe." its shorter and has shelves...
Pure sadness. Every year something that connects us all gets eradicated in the name of some BS standard. It's like these people never went there themselves. Can't F-ing believe it. What's next? Class Rings. Wouldn't want to come off as arrogant or different. Can't climb H but we can jump of the 10 M board. Anybody got injury stats on that to compare. I know someone who snapped a femur.
Just wait another 5 years and the pendulum will swing the other way.
Then again, no one wants to be the guy to take away a "safety" control.
Then again, no one wants to be the guy to take away a "safety" control.
Mid here, banging head against wall...stopped just long enough to read and post.
I (unfortunately, maybe?) had some decent stripage last semester and some of the things you hear from the senior leadership here is, for lack of a better term, scary.
I can vouch for C-Fam there.
I've always thought that 'safety' was a pretty convenient code for 'I don't want to get yelled at if this goes south'. Truth is we (the mids) are not the fragile little darlings the school seems to think we are. Everyone I know here WANTS to be tried, we want to do the hard things and we're very very tired of being coddled. But still, we constantly hear the old cop out 'just don't be like that when you're an officer.'
I have often wondered who is responsible for looking out for the mids; funny story, it's no one! The biggest disconnect here seems to be that no one realizes that the mids LIVE in the hall. We cannot leave. Ever. And so when the company officers/ SELs come in the next day, reasonably refreshed, the mids are still as worn out as ever.
If you take some of the smartest, most self-starting people around and then keep them locked down for a semester, deny all their initiatives and condescend to them constantly, you should expect some dissention. The commandant is just...wow. Anyone heard her series of speeches where she insults priors and then 'apologizes' (read:insults them again)?
As far as Herndon goes, I really feel badly for the plebes. We've been working with them since plebe summer and to see them come this far and have (potentially) little or nothing to hope for in the way of a culminating event is awful.
Completely agree about the 'stripers = good future hinges' comment earlier. Glad I got in and out before it fried too much of my brain.
Thanks for letting me vent, take care out there.
I (unfortunately, maybe?) had some decent stripage last semester and some of the things you hear from the senior leadership here is, for lack of a better term, scary.
I can vouch for C-Fam there.
I've always thought that 'safety' was a pretty convenient code for 'I don't want to get yelled at if this goes south'. Truth is we (the mids) are not the fragile little darlings the school seems to think we are. Everyone I know here WANTS to be tried, we want to do the hard things and we're very very tired of being coddled. But still, we constantly hear the old cop out 'just don't be like that when you're an officer.'
I have often wondered who is responsible for looking out for the mids; funny story, it's no one! The biggest disconnect here seems to be that no one realizes that the mids LIVE in the hall. We cannot leave. Ever. And so when the company officers/ SELs come in the next day, reasonably refreshed, the mids are still as worn out as ever.
If you take some of the smartest, most self-starting people around and then keep them locked down for a semester, deny all their initiatives and condescend to them constantly, you should expect some dissention. The commandant is just...wow. Anyone heard her series of speeches where she insults priors and then 'apologizes' (read:insults them again)?
As far as Herndon goes, I really feel badly for the plebes. We've been working with them since plebe summer and to see them come this far and have (potentially) little or nothing to hope for in the way of a culminating event is awful.
Completely agree about the 'stripers = good future hinges' comment earlier. Glad I got in and out before it fried too much of my brain.
Thanks for letting me vent, take care out there.
phrogpilot73
Well-Known Member
I meant to reply to this earlier, but forgot. For the great class of 98, the guy who made it to the top was a former Navy SEAL. Pulled himself up and perched on top of the monument to start working on breaking through the packing tape that was used to hold the dixie cup down. He fell off the top of the monument (backwards). Corpsman came and grabbed him and tried to tell him he was done. F-that is pretty much what he said. 5-10 minutes later he was pulling himself back up on to the top of the monument.
He's acquired a near-legend status here now. I've heard so many stories about things he supposedly did while he was here. Glad to know he actually existed.
@ phrog: any good stories about him?
phrogpilot73
Well-Known Member
One that comes to mind are the "thoughts of the day" he wrote during plebe summer. He never really stressed about plebe summer (for obvious reasons), so he got some entertainment through his thoughts of the day. One was: "It burns when I pee. Is this bad?"
Also during plebe summer, he used to chop through our company area on his way to color guard practice. One day, one of the detailers decided to chew his ass. He goes up one side, down the other and for some reason asked him what he wanted to service select. "SEALs Sir." Detailer starts going up one side and down the other again about how he doesn't have what it takes... Fast forward to the Orioles game, and he chops through to go to color guard, this time in summer whites with his Trident showing all its glory. The detailer just watched him chop by, mouth agape and didn't say a word.
I don't know many other stories, because he wasn't in my company. I did run into him in the fleet. I had just checked into my squadron and was walking into the hangar as he was walking out. He was there to do some coordination since he was going out with the 24 MEU...