plebe summer

During plebe summer do you get any (or much) time on the weekends to go into the town or even just to relax?

No.

thanks

It's ok, it will feel that much better when that is a possibility. Take advantage of the sponsor family program. I did at CGA and it was a LIFE SAVER, especially that first year.

Although LITS had the best response, I must weigh in, even as the laughter makes hitting the keys a bit iffy.

Plebe summer is HARD. Your intro to the concept of SERVICE leaves you with privileges that you EARN, eventually. No cokes, no radio, no phones. No liberty, no dating, no nothing. When you get your rates (required knowledge) down, and a few weeks go by, then maybe you get to hit the coke machine. Once.
You will, after several MONTHS, get 12 hours on the weekends, Noon to midnight. But not EVERY weekend, and no civilian clothes, or cars. Did we mention no DATING?

I understand you are a junior, and this is like no other school you will apply to from HS, but if your priorities are surfing and weekends, you may want to look into ROTC.

This is not an insult and not a critique. It is just that your questions indicate where your attention is focused. If you assume you have no liberty the first year, and very little the next three, you'll start to get the idea of what you have to trade for admission to one of the finest schools in the world.
You'll never hear a Grad say the tuition is free...

Again, this is not an insult. If someone asked if swimming was important to a Navy SEAL, you would have a certain response.
Asking about kicking back on any weekend of Plebe Summer is about the same level of dis-connect.
If you think about the hardest thing you have ever done, and then make it happen every day for a year, you might get a feel for what it can be like, (and how much you don't want to get up in the morning).
Hope this site continues to be of some help.
And again, LITS had the best response...
Fair Winds!

ya, i figured as much. My priorities aren't so much kicking back as getting in right now. but i was wondering because I know some of my friends are going to go on a cross country road trip that summer and i was wondering if i'd be able to see them, but if i get in to the academy I guess I won't plan on seeing them until xmas, hopefully...

The only chance to see friends would be if they can time the road trip to be there in Annapolis on Parent's Weekend (and it is sort of Crazy there for that weekend). And then they would be competing with your Parents for face time, which makes it kind of awkward. The only time you can really be seen is when you get sworn in (day 1) and Parent's Weekend, at least before the Brigade returns.
If anyone else knows of a day where you can be seen, or can figure your earliest liberty, this forum would be the place to get that information.
Good Luck
(it's nice to have friends, though)

A little moderation on the above:

Relaxing time during Plebe summer - Sunday morning during Church time. You can decide if you want to attend either of the services (Catholic or Protestant) Both have a social time following the service. Donuts etc. If you choose not to go you can hang in your room - not in bed though - and scribble off a few letters, study rates, read newspaper for current events etc.

After Reform - noon to 10pm, possibly midnight, is what you rate. However all military obligations do come first, so if you have boards you will not be released until your squad leader releases you. SMT can run longer and delay you liberty. And if you are on duty you get no off yard liberty. Football games are at 3Pm so you will typically not have liberty until after the game. Parents must be aware of this that even the best laid plans to visit with you Plebe can have wrenches thrown into the plans.

Dating? Plebes can date other Plebes - just not in your company and no upper class. Many take the bus sat to the mall to see movies or just to catch a bite to eat. Mine had a gf from high school and they were able to see one another a few times durning Plebe year. She came up in fall and in the spring was his date for the I-Ball.

Also keep in mind that many things are dictated by your company and may be different from another company.

I don't think there has been free time during plebe summer well . . . since forever.

Seriously, things are more stringent today than when I was a mid -- we were allowed to meet friends/parents at church; now that is prohibited. [You can attend church, your parents can attend, but you aren't supposed to meet/talk].

Fact is that you're so busy plebe summer that going into town wouldn't be a real option. During ac year, you do have freedom to go into town on Saturdays. You typically don't get overnights until T-giving; in some rare cases, plebes may get WEs after a football victory. However, this varies with the current administration (Supe/Dant).

Today there is a lot more discretion at the company level that didn't exist in my day.

I'm just curious, what exactly would plebes be required to do during the weekends?

navy1314 said:

I'm just curious, what exactly would plebes be required to do during the weekends?

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In the fall, plebes are required to attend (with the whole brigade) all home football games. That's almost an all-day endeavor, although there *may* be some liberty time for a bit after the game.

On Saturday mornings, there is often SMT--Saturday Morning Training. That can last anywhere from an hour or two, to half the day.

These are assuming you don't have other obligations: Drum & Bugle Corps has commitments, Glee Club has commitments, and don't forget there are multiple other sports besides football! Everyone participates in SOME sort of extra curricular activity (ECA)--and each one has its own obligations. Some have tons of weekend obligations. Some have NO weekend obligations.

Sundays are more free--unless of course you're in an ECA that travels, or practices or has some other performance or commitment.

My plebe has had most Sundays free. But there's only "yard liberty" for plebes on Sunday--which means you can go anywhere on the yard you need to go, but can't leave the yard. Our plebe has used Saturdays to try to decompress from the week, and Sundays to prepare for the week ahead.

Not alot of free minutes in plebe year.

What do you do on the weekends during plebe summer? Is it like the week never ends except for time for Church on Sunday?

More details

Hi HuskiesMama,

What does your mid do to decompress on Saturdays? And how does he prepare for the week ahead?

NavyMom2008 said:

Hi HuskiesMama,

What does your mid do to decompress on Saturdays? And how does he prepare for the week ahead?

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Hm. Both of those depend on the day and the week. In the fall, Saturdays were spent at SMT, football games and some town liberty. He loved the football games, all those pushups the plebes do, the comraderie, the food--it's a good time! He enjoyed some town liberty, hanging out with other plebes from his company, and/or some other plebe-friends from before the academy. Truthfully, he really (usually!!) enjoys SMT. Sometimes it's intense!! Those days are just good to give the weary brain a rest, and to chill out from the intensity of the week before. In the spring semester, it's more of a challenge without the excitement of football season. "The Dark Ages" are rough. He'd often go to his sponsor's house and play on the Wii, eat or just nap. My best answer to what he did to decompress is "Whatever!" Anything...or nothing at all!!

Sundays are fairly busy--often largely in his room. We are a faith-filled family, so church has always been a part of our Sunday agenda. Now, our plebe finds more solace in church than ever! He never misses that opportunity. The rest of the day is spent cleaning shoes, fixing up uniforms, cleaning the room, studying, writing papers, studying, and hanging out with plebe-friends. Trust me, they find fun together! By Monday, it's back to the same routine.

Weekends are a blessing, for sure! Every one is different--but that's a good general description of his.

One thing you learn as a mid, and especially as a plebe, is to enjoy the "simple things" of life -- things you took for granted b4 USNA and that now seem heavenly.

For women mids, having time actually to put on makeup and/or do something with your hair. Taking a walk by yourself. Watching TV (at your sponsor's house). Eating at McDonalds. Taking an afternoon nap. It's hard to explain to someone who hasn't been through it, but when every minute of your day is filled with activities, the thought of doing nothing at all is sheer bliss. Of course, most mids can only handle "nothing" for a short period before becoming "itchy" to do something.

For many plebes, WEs also provide a chance for studying. If you're not sat (less than 2.0 GPA and/or D or F in any subject -- at least this was the standard in my day), studying a certain number of hours on WEs is probably mandatory. Others use the time to catch up on reading, do extra practice, research for papers, etc.

usnahopeful said:

What do you do on the weekends during plebe summer? Is it like the week never ends except for time for Church on Sunday?

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I got this impression from son. In one of his few letters home, he told us that it is true that they live for Sunday. They had a few hours in the morning to relax (in a plebe summer kind of way). Those hours became something to look forward to. All of our phone calls came on Sunday afternoon. Parents will get the schedule for phone calls.

Our son has enjoyed SMT during the AC year as well. He has done a variety of activities. He visited Holocaust Museum in Washington, the Marine Museum in Quantico, did some paintballing, visited various types of ships, worked on Habitat for Humanity house in Baltimore, Sea Trial prep and his last SMT this year was some flying time in a Cessna. There were a lot of briefs, some more interesting than others. These are just the ones that we have heard about. Training varies somewhat by company.

Here's a sponsor family's view of "what plebes do on Saturdays during ac year." After having coordinated pick-up sked via email on Thursday and Friday, we do a drive-by at the Mid Store around noon or whenever the plebes get released. Lots of last-minute jockeying as plebes fail to come up to scratch in company and don't get cut loose until they get done what they were supposed to do, maybe 3 hours later. Some days we might make 3 pick-up trips, especially if varsity athletes have practice or a meet.

Maybe drop them at the mall for a movie, go pick up later to bring back to house for dinner. Usually, it's straight to the house and change into "reg P.E. gear," of which we have drawerfuls passed down by previous members of the sponsor family. Kind of fun to wear vintage '98 blue rim T-shirt. Then, it's right to the designated snack cabinets and refrigerator for food, EZ mac, ice cream, etc., then down to the TV room for movies...but within 30 minutes after eating, we'll have a handful of plebes face down on the sofas, napping for 3 hours straight. For the extroverts, it's a chance to re-charge with swapping stories with sponsor brothers and sisters, watch movies, play with the 3 dogs, hit the pool, relax with no one yelling. For the introverts, it's a chance to go elsewhere in the house to be blessedly alone and gather their thoughts.

It's usually dinner for 10-12 at our table on Saturday night, a mix of plebes and upperclass brothers and sisters who mentor them with humor and patience, observing wardroom etiquette within the sponsor family. Youngsters dish the ice cream while the 1/C and 2/C direct leftovers stowage and loading dishwasher. Plebes are excused with their bowls of ice cream to enjoy the few hours of liberty left. Presto change-o, back into the uni of the day, and they get hauled back to Mother B in plenty of time to check-in.

Many plebes haul books and work over to do on Saturday, but end up falling asleep or mentally checking out. The rhythm they usually fall into is maybe bringing just 1 problem set to do, the 200 pages they have to read, or the 5 page paper to outline, on Saturday. Sundays are usually the days most plebes devote to getting organized for the week (academics, pro quizzes, uniforms, room titivation).

Note, all of the above occurs on Saturdays when a plebe has town liberty. There's plenty of duty weekends and "mandatory fun" when liberty is either non-existent or minimal.

Ha, that sounded like my time as a sponsor cadet, minus the large dinner numbers. We usually had three of the sponsor cadets over and sometimes a guest. Things got a little "weird" 3/c as my sponsor brother classmates began to date our sponsor sister (who was a year ahead of us).

Awesome times, really good to just relax. I still talk to my sponsor family from time to time.

Capt MJ, I just want to say that you and all the other sponsors are incredibly special people.

Reading what you do for these young men and women is very heartwarming and it's so reassuring to know that you provide a little safe haven for a few hours every week.

Capt MJ: You must be a mid's dream sponsor family! I am surprised you don't have a hundred for supper!

You sponsor families are so special. I hope my plebe-to-be scores an awesome family!