Induction Day Motivation!

My newly-minted Firstie is back on The Yard to see I-Day from a completely different perspective, today.
I am excited for all the new Plebes and their families. It goes by fast.
 
Finally back to a more normal I-Day this year! One difference is candidate reporting is staggered over a couple days leading up to the Oath of Office, including for direct civilian inductions, probably a remnant of scheduling before the covid situation changed.

Also kinda funny, this year Plebes don’t have to carry or even wheel their issued gear from Alumni Hall to Bancroft. It’s being transported by trucks and then carried up on deck by the detail. Not sure why.
 
DS is there for a voluntary summer class (who does that???) and said this morning that it is weird but good to see Plebes in white works with dazed parents everywhere.
I told him to soak it all in, be grateful he finished his plebe year, and enjoy 16 weeks of math crammed into 4 (yikes).
 
Kierkegaard said:
...Plebes don’t have to carry or even wheel their issued gear from Alumni Hall to Bancroft. It’s being transported by trucks and then carried up on deck by the detail. Not sure why...
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Changes like this make it so previous years can always say "We had the last REAL Plebe Summer!", but (even better) this year there won't be any photos of Plebes with wheeled carts for the West Pointers to point and snicker at.
 
Heatherg21 said:
DS is there for a voluntary summer class (who does that???) and said this morning that it is weird but good to see Plebes in white works with dazed parents everywhere.
I told him to soak it all in, be grateful he finished his plebe year, and enjoy 16 weeks of math crammed into 4 (yikes).
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Youngsters do not feel like Youngsters until they see and smell sweaty plebes in white works. Then it’s all good.
 
THParent said:
Changes like this make it so previous years can always say "We had the last REAL Plebe Summer!", but (even better) this year there won't be any photos of Plebes with wheeled carts for the West Pointers to point and snicker at.
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No, they’ll say this: <smarmy voice> ohhh, you can’t carry your own stuff. I bet mommy had to carry your bat bag for you.
 
This new I-Day format allowed people to walk around the Academy and company areas with their phones before they had to report so I know who my roommates are and have talked to one of them.
 
I'm really hoping they get the authentic I-Day experience. While watching a video of the march into Bancroft with my new 2/C, we got to the part where they all entered and the doors closed. His exact words were "And that's when they started yelling at us". That put a huge smile on my face.
 
Capt MJ said:
Youngsters do not feel like Youngsters until they see and smell sweaty plebes in white works. Then it’s all good.
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There is just something about that combination of "white works sizing stuff," Annapolis heat & humidity that is utterly timeless. I took DH back there in summer 2009, mid-July. We walked by a company of plebes right next to Luce Hall taking off their white works blouse and trousers and folding them up in prep for sailing. It was like lurching 20 years (then!) back in time: I was standing on red beach in my stiff white works and dixie cup, sweating (of course), trying to read Reef Points, totally awash in that unique smell. I'm sure it happens to every grad and former plebe.
 
So my DS reports tomorrow (Wednesday). We arrived on last night (Monday). Today we drove into DTA for lunch. As we waited for our table at Iron rooster we walked over to Gate 1 for pictures just in case we do not get to do so during drop off. My DS grew nervous as we approached the pedestrian entrance and refused to step into the courtyard. He said we dis not want to get sucked into the “vortex” and he said he will have four years inside the Yard. He relished his last few hours looking on outside in. For tomorrow it will be inside looking out.
 
LT360 said:
So my DS reports tomorrow (Wednesday). We arrived on last night (Monday). Today we drove into DTA for lunch. As we waited for our table at Iron rooster we walked over to Gate 1 for pictures just in case we do not get to do so during drop off. My DS grew nervous as we approached the pedestrian entrance and refused to step into the courtyard. He said we dis not want to get sucked into the “vortex” and he said he will have four years inside the Yard. He relished his last few hours looking on outside in. For tomorrow it will be inside looking out.
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No downers allowed on this site please …. I had to take some uppers after reading this.
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ders_dad said:
I heard from a (not-so) little bird currently on leave in my basement that Plebes may have to carry their rifles wherever they go.
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That's kind of a head-scratcher. It's not like Big Navy is known for their infantry and drill chops, and nametag and cover seems to give enough of them a lot of trouble the first 3 weeks.

Eh. Such is training. A cheery "aye aye, sir/ma'am!" and away we go.
 
ders_dad said:
I heard from a (not-so) little bird currently on leave in my basement that Plebes may have to carry their rifles wherever they go.
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I got that same scuttlebutt from DD, who’s in very good position to know. There’s a deep desire among the Plebe Summer powers-that-be to instill discipline in this plebe class that was missing in last year’s (through no fault of their own, just victims of pandemic adjustments). Has less to do with infantry drill and more to do with the old “break them down to build them back up” approach.
 
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