Just_A_Mom said:
I couldn't agree with you more - you missed my point. I am talking about the Culture in and around Annapolis. There is no doubt in my mind that plenty of bad behavior takes place on both sides. In order to change the bad behavior - one must change the culture.
Take any hardworking, self sacrificing kid and put them in Annapolis where they are subject to tourist gawking at them everyday and a town that reveres midshipmen because they add so much to the ecomony - it isn't hard to see that once the behavior gets over the top it becomes big news.
Make that kid a star athlete and heads roll.
I don't think I missed your point at all. Maybe I just didn't explain myself as well as I should.
The Academy does just the opposite. It takes 1250 +/- prima donnas each year, the cream of their high schools, the best of their athletes, and turns them into what most think, at least some of the time, is a below average midshipman. For the first time in their life they will have to choose what it important, be it academics, professional bearing, or athletics.
So far as the townies and the business establishments, most don't see the economic advantage, just the fact that they are everywhere and a bother. Never saw any "Dogs and Midshipmen stay off the grass" signs but would not have been surprised and the reference was made repeatedly in the Academy humor magazine. Most midshipment cannot wait to get out of town and into civilian clothes so as not to be a visible part of this.
The following recent reporting, copied directly from an alumni website pretty much typifies the regard midshipment have for tourists:
"Item: Plebes have a rotating responsibility to announce 10, 5, 4, 3, 2, and 1 minute before formation, in a strictly formatted ritual known as “chow call”. This is a tough challenge when you have a class the period before noon meal formation. One young lad was hurrying back to do his duty when one of the tourii (the Latin plural of tourist, of course) asked him if he would pose with them for a picture. In a somewhat agitated state he looked at her and said “F*ck no, lady, I got chow call!” Supposedly she noted his name from his nametag and reported him to Main Office."
As far as jocks, my son was one. I was one. My son's roommate was captain of the football team. I have met, talked to, and socialized with a lot of athletes, including football players. I see kids who work a lot harder, bring a little recognition to the academy, and get looked at under a microscope by the rest of the Brigade. Ask my son his biggest shock of his entire Naval career and he will tell you that it is his roommate becoming a career surface officer. He got into the fleet, did extremely well, decided he liked it, and is now a career Naval Office, commencing as a blue-chip football recruit who couldn't wait to get out of the Navy.
