Graduation ceremony this morning....

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Maui1

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I watched a good deal of the graduation at the academy and I couldn't help but to imagine our plebes four years from now. It would have been really nice if the camera had been on the ensigns faces after they shook the president's hand; we could only see the back of them and some of their side. I watched it on msnbc.com. It would loved to have shared in their smiles and expressions.
 
I'm surprised they weren't photographed with the Prez, thus causing them to turn their faces. That was what happens at the CGA each year.
 
I watched in on the Pentagon channel and oh man it was VERY moving :) It was awesome to see and it's amazing to think we will be embarking on a journey along side all of those great people very soon! It was very humbling and exciting at the same time :)
 
so here is my question:

There was a large group of graduates called and given their diplomas before they started calling them up by company, why was this group honored separately?

I missed the very beginning of the ceremony(PotUS' speech etc), but watched it through to the end! Very inspiring!!
 
I beleive those were the top 100 in the class. They are recognized individually, and their families got preferential seating. All others were called up by company.
 
The first 25 I believe are the CNO Scholars, standing hightest in their class in order of merit (academic plus all other graded elements). The remainder are the rest of the top grads to 100. Their families are assigned seating on the stadium field.
Then it goes by companies, alphabetically within companies.
 
The first group called up to the stage graduate with distinction. Distinction is the top 10% of the class, which is normally about 100. I think for our class it was 103.

Within in the group being distinguished, they are ranked by their Overall Order of Merit (OOM).
 
FANTASTIC!!

What an incredible honor! It was pretty cool to watch, all in all. Even my 11 year old watched for a while.

We did have one other question...

Do the graduates choose which dress uniform they want to wear or is that significant also? (eg some were in blue jackets, some were in all white)
 
The graduates in the all white uniforms are all being commissioned as USN Ensigns. The ones in the dark jackets are being commissioned as Marine Corps 2nd Lts.
 
That is kind of what I was thinking, but I didn't want to tell my son that and be wrong... Thanks 2012mom!

Is it just me or were there a whole lot of Marines? I thought the number was usually fairly small...
 
Congrats to all the graduates :)

BlessedX4: I wrote the numbers down for my son. There were 1036 graduates all together, 267 of them Marines, 756 Navy. There was 1 Airforce and one Coast Guard graduate and 8 (?) from other countries.

navalacademy12: I don't think they will ever get their covers back. At the end of the ceremony there were a lot of little kids running around and collecting them. One little boy had a huge heap of them in his arms. Isn't it tradition for the graduates to put a note or money in them? Cute idea.
 
No, the graduates don't try to find their own cover again. They all have brand new covers with the insignia for an ensign/2nd Lt.

Yes, there is a tradition that each graduate leaves something inside the cover for the "finder." We spoke with a member of 2009 this week as he was drafting a letter to place inside his cover. Some grads do also put some money inside.
 
Online 2009 Grad photos

Would anyone know if there is an on-line site to purchase photos from the 2009 USNA graduation. We had a nephew to graduate and would like to get a photo. His mom do not order any and didn't know if on-line was available.
 
navalacademy12 said:
I just was wondering, how do the graduates find their covers after they threw them?
Click to expand...

My husband's cover was returned to him nearly twenty years later. It was pretty amazing to have it show up after all that time. My husband was deployed to Iraq at the time which made for interesting timing. I still have no idea where the cover resided for all of those years.
 
Yup, I actually met a 09 grad last night at the USNA AA dinner for the San Deigo 2013/2014 classes. She was really cool and said that President Obama shook every grads hand including hers! haha... Didn't ask her about her cover, but it looked like she had a brand spankin new one at the dinner.
 
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