Plebes Dropping Already

Do plebes still do uniform races?
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I've heard they do but only are allowed to require "real" uniforms. In our day, we had variations, the most famous and memorable of which was "White Works Batman." For anyone curious, it involved manipulation of our plastic raingear.

As an aside, uniform races are one of THE best things you learn PS in terms of life skills. Seriously.
 
My friends are still amazed at how fast I can shower and get dressed even in full business attire. Whenever I travel with buddies, and if we share a hotel room, they know they shower first. I will still be ready before them. As a basketball player my standard day of uniforms would be... wake up in whatever shorts and t shirt I wore, basketball gear for a morning workout, shower and change into working blues, change into basketball gear at lunch, back to blues, back to basketball practice gear after class, shower and back to blues for dinner, after dinner in jogging suit or whatever blue and gold gear I had clean to study. It is a constant in a Mid and Officer life at USNA. We have a uniform and rule for everything.
 
I am still grateful for my prior enlisted OCS roomie. She taught me all the skills. If DH and I get bogged down somewhere and have a social commitment, we know all we need is about 15 minutes to get out of the house, showered, shaved, puffed and fluffed. USNA, OCS, Great Lakes, Parris Island, wherever it’s learned, it’s a unifying skill.

He still eats 300% faster than I do, though, but I can accelerate if I think about it. I am still arranging my napkin, putting on salad dressing, cutting open a roll, and he is halfway through his plate.
 
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One of the main things I remember about PS and plebe year is dealing with inconvenience, and one of the biggest ways this showed up was uniform changes.

In PS you'd start with athletic shorts and T. Change to whiteworks echo with the blue rim and shorts for morning meal and training. Then WW alpha for afternoon P-rade. Transition to ac year, it was BDUs (it was a while ago) for AM training, then summer blues for chow call, formation and breakfast, whiteworks if you had PE in the morning, race back to room for summer blues for chow calls & noon formation & meal, race back to room for summer whites for inspection, back to summer blues for PM classes, athletic gear for PM sports period, summer blues for EMF and dinner, and finally athletic again for ESP. So many changes of clothes!

It's been said that plebe year is not hard, per se, but it it inconvenient. One of the major sources of inconvenience comes from all those uniform changes, but reading @Capt MJ's account of life as a BattO puts it all in perspective.

ETA: I can still get in and out of a rest area bathroom way faster than DH, and it drives him mad. "You didn't wash your hands. You didn't really have to go." Oh yes, my good man, I did and I did. I just know how to handle this stuff efficiently.
 
Yes, it turned out to be a great event! Congratulation on class of 2024 plebes, detaillers and USNA as a whole.
Just a little bit concern about social distancing. Not like those in USAFA and USMA, the event was pretty crowded there...
 
By the way, one thing that I did not realize until recently, is that Plebe Summer is very difficult and stressful for the detailers as well. There is so much going on behind the scenes to ensure that the training schedule is carried out and all the Plebes’ needs are being attended. Not to mention the fact that they must wake up before the Plebes and go to bed long after them. Can’t say it’s more or less hard. Just a different hard. Definitely feels like a better hard too! Both sides are very important and impactful experiences.
 
Kierkegaard said:
By the way, one thing that I did not realize until recently, is that Plebe Summer is very difficult and stressful for the detailers as well. There is so much going on behind the scenes to ensure that the training schedule is carried out and all the Plebes’ needs are being attended. Not to mention the fact that they must wake up before the Plebes and go to bed long after them. Can’t say it’s more or less hard. Just a different hard. Definitely a better hard too!
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Appreciate your mid’s-eye view live and fresh from PS. This is a great leadership development experience for all the detailers, especially the rubber-meets-road positions. You are under-slept, your voice is raw, the admin goes on long after the plebes are tucked in, their thoughts of the day can drive you crazy, they won’t do what you ask them to do, you’ve got your class clowns and too-cool-for-school eye-rollers, and oh yeah, throw in all that COVID stuff and an all-new pattern to everything since last March.

BZ to you, press on, and remember there is a saying in the Fleet, you’re only “one 17-year-old away from getting fired at any point in time.” You’re getting a taste of that, plus some good all-purpose cat-herding too.

Look after yourself, and savor the good moments when they show progress.
 
Last year at one of our parent group meetings, I was talking to a dad whose son was a detailer last summer (which was my son's plebe summer). He told me that his son said that being a detailer during plebe summer was much more difficult than being a plebe during plebe summer. And he loved every second of it.
 
I have said it before that Plebe Summer is more about giving the Detailers their first leadership opportunity with established goals, and seeing if they sink or swim. Plebes can make it easier on themselves and help the Detailers excel, by just doing what they're told. It's easy being a Plebe during Plebe Summer. You just do what they tell you to do, when they tell you to do it. Eat, sleep, chop, run, repeat. You can ask any upperclass and they'll tell you that the simplicity of not having to make any decisions and just fall in line, is something that they look back on and say "That was easy."

Now, during the AC year, being a Plebe can be a lot more difficult.

Here's what I heard from the upperclass we just broke out this past weekend: Class of 2023 is being referred to as "Plebe Upper Half" (because they haven't done their Youngster cruise, nor have they climbed Herndon) and class of 2024 is "Plebe Lower Half".

Let the fireworks begin. :biggrin:
 
THParent said:
Here's what I heard from the upperclass we just broke out this past weekend: Class of 2023 is being referred to as "Plebe Upper Half" (because they haven't done their Youngster cruise, nor have they climbed Herndon) and class of 2024 is "Plebe Lower Half".
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Certainly no fault of their own making, but the division is going to continue if they are separated out and continue with online classes from home this fall. It is going to be interesting to see how what happens in the next few months --- there are so many tough decisions and contingency plans for the Supe and his staff to make. These are certainly trying times.
 
My son (youngster) is a bit worried. He's not seen the Fleet yet and he is genuinely worried that PROTRAMID will be cancelled again next summer or greatly diminished. He thinks they will wind up spending the whole summer on a YP. He has multiple possible warfare communities he is weighing but not much direct exposure to any of them (like, "how do I know if I can even stand being in a sub?"). He is wondering if, going forward after commissioning, if his class will always be looked upon as insufficiently trained ("not quite ripe" is how he puts it). Some of his fellow company mates are asking each other the same questions and wondering if they will be ready to sign a 2-for-7 next year, having spent more time in their parents' basement than at the Yard. Also, he says that on-line classes are ridiculously easy and super boring. He;s tried to get his course load increased to 21 for the fall but two of the classes he tried to get are going to be unavailable. It's not USNA's fault - it's the virus'. As much as he would hate it, he wonders if his class shouldn't have a fifth year (he knows that's not possible). Maybe two Class of 2024's. He and many of his cohorts seems to understand that they are going to still be plebes in the eyes of the upper classmen (and they kind of are, given their circumstances).
 
Capt MJ said:
Appreciate your mid’s-eye view live and fresh from PS. This is a great leadership development experience for all the detailers, especially the rubber-meets-road positions. You are under-slept, your voice is raw, the admin goes on long after the plebes are tucked in, their thoughts of the day can drive you crazy, they won’t do what you ask them to do, you’ve got your class clowns and too-cool-for-school eye-rollers, and oh yeah, throw in all that COVID stuff and an all-new pattern to everything since last March.

BZ to you, press on, and remember there is a saying in the Fleet, you’re only “one 17-year-old away from getting fired at any point in time.” You’re getting a taste of that, plus some good all-purpose cat-herding too.

Look after yourself, and savor the good moments when they show progress.
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Thank you, that is exactly right. It really is way more than just being a leader/mentor/motivator too. Personal time management, discipline, and thick skin are all tested. Throughout the entire day the detailers all barraged with dozens and dozens of tasks, each of which is ostensibly the most pressing matter. Thinking this is little taste of what working at a high operational tempo will be like.
 
usna1985 said:
Being a leader is always more difficult than being a follower -- something you don't appreciate until you've been both.
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Well, Follower has morphed into Contributor, and that role has become much more difficult .... Every year for the past 10 years or so, I have heard in every one of my performance reviews that the Bar keeps getting Higher

My bosses job wasn’t any harder in saying that.
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Kierkegaard said:
Thank you, that is exactly right. It really is way more than just being a leader/mentor/motivator too. Personal time management, discipline, and thick skin are all tested. Throughout the entire day the detailers all barraged with dozens and dozens of tasks, each of which is ostensibly the most pressing matter. Thinking this is little taste of what working at a high operational tempo will be like.
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Yes, it is.

This is everyday, operational, real-time deck plate leadership, triaging the tasks to be done, moving your people through and to it. It’s not always lofty, shiny leadership speeches and brilliant tactical maneuvers, it’s sustaining your composure, communicating clearly, listening actively, driving toward the goal, keeping the game face on, powering through minutiae, putting up with the crap, laughing when you can.

When you can, pop your head out of the foxhole and watch the officers and senior enlisted, see what approaches seem to work, what tools you can put in your own toolkit. Ditto for anything you see that doesn’t work, or you realize can be done better. The Supe and the entire USNA leadership structure are engaged in a massive struggle to forge a path through the COVID challenge.

Another Fleet truism: 20% of your people will take 80% of your time. No doubt you are starting to figure out which of your plebes is That Plebe, who seems to suck all of your time and patience into a black hole. Great training for your future JO self.
 
ders_dad said:
He is wondering if, going forward after commissioning, if his class will always be looked upon as insufficiently trained ("not quite ripe" is how he puts it). Some of his fellow company mates are asking each other the same questions and wondering if they will be ready to sign a 2-for-7 next year, having spent more time in their parents' basement than at the Yard.
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Interesting perspective, and I am confident that USNA will make every effort to focus on the training and exposure to the Fleet before graduation. That is an important part of the program, and IMHO more important than the academic side.
 
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