shudder
Alpha Inspection, back in the day, usually happened right before Navy-Army in December. It was the white glove/black sock inspection that went with company zone inspections. It will surprise no one that plebes had much of the responsibility for scrubbing, cleaning, polishing, sweeping, polishing, cleaning and polishing some more. Obviously there was the room inspection component, but we were also responsible for the p-ways and company wardroom.
I believe what you're blocking out, Mongo, is that it was toward the end of the semester, e.g. crunch time with academics: papers due, presentations to prep, exams to study for on top of the normal academic crush; plus there was Navy-Army prep to do; plus if your company's IM team was in playoffs you still have that commitment; and oh by the way in your spare time, clean every square inch of your company's space - decks, bulkheads, heads, wardroom, boards etc. usually multiple times. I was so worried about upcoming Alpha Inspection over Tgiving leave that I barely ate and didn't enjoy my family. (In hindsight, the great lesson here was, deal with the fire that's burning your feet and let the other ones burn until you get to them. Like many USNA experiences, I hated learning this lesson and am eternally, deeply grateful for it.)
The real PITA was, in early December, there is a staggering amount of dust in Bancroft. No matter how often we cleaned and dusted, literally moments later it could be unsat. I don't know whether it's still the case, but a single unsat in one area (e.g. one's room, the wardroom) rendered the entire area unsat. The scores for Alpha Inspection went to Color Company competition scores.