Honestly curious on how much training in boot camp or beyond our Sailors get on avoiding partisanship compared to mids at USNA/NROTC. I started NROTC in fall 2004 and being an election year within the first weeks of school it was beaten into our heads to avoid partisan associations as a midshipman. We were encouraged to go to talks on campus, join College Republicans/Democrats as we desired, but to make sure we were clean on the break. A couple weeks into the semester I and a bunch of mids went to a speaker and it happened to be on a day we were in uniform. I can’t remember the topic, it was political in nature but not explicitly partisan, however at one point the speaker basically polled the audience by show of hands on support. My buddies and I did not participate and the speaker actually recognized and applauded how we did not participate. I contrast that to what I saw today.