Glasses during plebe summer

Ricer

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I was curious because you see plebes with the dark rimmed glasses on. If your DD wears contacts are they allowed to wear them during plebe summer?
 
It is my understanding that contacts are not allowed during plebe summer. Only glasses.
 
How would they obtain these with their scrip and have them right away for I day?
 
They are issued glasses on Iday that fit their perscription. They are nicknamed BCGs or Birth Control Glasses. Yes, they are ugly. Yes, you have to wear them for all of plebe summer. You get your regular contacts and glasses back once plebe summer ends.
 
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Once you accept your appointment there will be a large packet of paperwork to fill out. Some is online and some hard copy. In there will be a form for BCGs that you will fill out with your eye prescription and then you will have two pairs waiting on I-day.

Stealth_81
 
jculligan is spot on. No contacts until the end of Plebe Summer and they issue glasses. Permit to report package will cover how to get the glasses that will await you on so I Day.
 
Everything about PS is ugly and clunky, everything. The glasses (a BIG improvement over my own Age of Dinosaurs), the haircuts, both men and women. Everyone's faces break out in the heat and humidity and stress of the Annapolis summer. You can wear your own running shoes most of the time that you run now, but you sometimes have to wear the issued ugly "go-fasters." How they manage, year after year, to choose the style most likely to be favored by the wearer's grandparents is a mystery that still fills me with awe. The underwear is ugly. Women can't wear makeup, and if tradition holds, most women give up shaving their legs (during PS) because it just takes too much time when you literally have 30 seconds to 1 minute to shower. Priorities. As for the glasses and underwear and ugly shoes, the Navy does not have an unlimited budget - they, too, are at least partly under the lowest-bidder gun.

But here's the thing too. Every new class of plebes (and new recruits at RTC) comes in thinking that looks matter a lot. When you're 17 or 18 or 19, looks are everything. You're constantly looking other people over, and you know they're looking you over too. I would not be at all surprised if part of the function of the ugly glasses, underwear, not enough time to shave your hairy legs etc. is an important part of training. It teaches people priorities, and most people quickly learn that superficial looks do not matter nearly as much as they thought. It teaches plebes and recruits that their mission in the Navy is different from anything in the civilian world. In the Navy, you look out for your shipmates and get the job done, period. No one cares (then) if your glasses or haircut are ugly - do the job and accomplish the mission, and you value shipmates who behave the same ways.
 
And BCG is a good description. They are big and ugly (unless they have changed the design). Contacts and longer hair back on at end of Plebe Summer. Mud is tough on glasses. They do get free Lasik if qualified later on at Bathesda so the problem disappears.
 
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We all secretly wanted BCGs, just as a prop... But only people who needed glasses could get them.
 
Be sure to save a pair from your DD. We love any mementos we can get from our Pleb. One of his dixie cups from PS sits on a book shelf at our place.
 
Never got a chance for BCG's. She threw them away first chance she got at the end of Plebe Summer. Do have two Dixie Cups from Plebe Summer. The reason they issue BCG's is that they are all safety glass and "supposedly" unbreakable and everyone gets the same. Just remember that at the end of Plebe Summer you will need a large SUV with a top rack or a U-Hall to take all their issued stuff home. It is a ton and it will not fit in a car. After that they can bring and transfer what they need for each season at USNA. Regarding haircuts for women, get it done beforehand. Yes you will have to sit in the chair at USNA but if within regulations they will probably snip snip over your head and let you go. Better a hair dresser than a USNA barber. Look into Locks For Love.
 
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Everything about PS is ugly and clunky, everything. The glasses (a BIG improvement over my own Age of Dinosaurs), the haircuts, both men and women. Everyone's faces break out in the heat and humidity and stress of the Annapolis summer. You can wear your own running shoes most of the time that you run now, but you sometimes have to wear the issued ugly "go-fasters." How they manage, year after year, to choose the style most likely to be favored by the wearer's grandparents is a mystery that still fills me with awe. The underwear is ugly. Women can't wear makeup, and if tradition holds, most women give up shaving their legs (during PS) because it just takes too much time when you literally have 30 seconds to 1 minute to shower. Priorities. As for the glasses and underwear and ugly shoes, the Navy does not have an unlimited budget - they, too, are at least partly under the lowest-bidder gun.

But here's the thing too. Every new class of plebes (and new recruits at RTC) comes in thinking that looks matter a lot. When you're 17 or 18 or 19, looks are everything. You're constantly looking other people over, and you know they're looking you over too. I would not be at all surprised if part of the function of the ugly glasses, underwear, not enough time to shave your hairy legs etc. is an important part of training. It teaches people priorities, and most people quickly learn that superficial looks do not matter nearly as much as they thought. It teaches plebes and recruits that their mission in the Navy is different from anything in the civilian world. In the Navy, you look out for your shipmates and get the job done, period. No one cares (then) if your glasses or haircut are ugly - do the job and accomplish the mission, and you value shipmates who behave the same ways.

They're actually getting rid of the go fasters because virtually everyone comes with their own shoes now. The glasses are ugly, they always will be. We only received one pair.
 
They're actually getting rid of the go fasters because virtually everyone comes with their own shoes now. The glasses are ugly, they always will be. We only received one pair.

Yet another sign that the last real plebe summer was the summer of 1989! :cool:

If memory serves, our go-fasters were Puma Clydes. They were heavy, clunky, and they did NOT make me want to go faster. Our socks were mid-calf, with a single blue stripe and a single gold stripe at the top, VERY attractive and stylish. I LOVED striped socks! -- when I was SEVEN!
 
My class was one of the last to wear Go Fasters for PEP daily. Actually letting new Plebes wear their own shoes cut down on shin splint and stress fractures by over 50% when they made that move. Ours were New Balance horrible ones. They were gray and clunky. For some reason they seem to be a hit with college frat boys. I see kids wearing them and cringe! So do all my classmates. We also wore the mid calf socks pulled up (I believe Plebes still do). They had just gotten rid of the stripped ones when I got there!
 
My class was one of the last to wear Go Fasters for PEP daily. Actually letting new Plebes wear their own shoes cut down on shin splint and stress fractures by over 50% when they made that move. Ours were New Balance horrible ones. They were gray and clunky. For some reason they seem to be a hit with college frat boys. I see kids wearing them and cringe! So do all my classmates. We also wore the mid calf socks pulled up (I believe Plebes still do). They had just gotten rid of the stripped ones when I got there!


What?! You didn't feel special with "motivated" socks? Nothing like Moto Sox to lift the spirits.
 
There's a smell associated with the summer that I was nose-blind to as a swab. Man was it painful as a cadre though. No AC makes for smelly kids!
 
LITS you are so correct. 1200 kids all using the same detergent, soap, shampoo, deodorant mixed with sweat. You don't realize it as a Plebe, but as Cadee or just passing them on the yard for other stuff there is no mistake. I used to Febreeze them every once in awhile! It is a smell none of us can ever forget.
 
From Plebe Summer I remember very little, but I'll never forget it. I can count my vivid memories on fewer than five fingers. One of them is the mixture of smells: the whiteworks mixed with man-sweat mixed with the smell of Prell (issued shampoo) mixed with tinges of Right Guard (issued deodorant) and new-shoe, fresh-rubber scents. As summer wore on, PEP had a particular scent too - because we all wore smelly used blue rims and gym shorts to PEP and saved the clean(er) blue rims for daily wear. I can replicate that smell now by leaving a pair of sweaty gym shoes and socks in my workout bag in my car for a week. Just like that.
 
Our DD is due for her yearly eye exam. What do you recommend ? Should we go ahead and get it. Or wait closer to June?
 
Getting even further off topic here, just bought DS new ASIC running shoes for track. Is there a color requirement?

I know back when I ran I used to throw out shoes fairly often as they lost cushion. Any recommendations on how often they'll need replaced, I should add that I got shin splints pretty bad.
 
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