ANNAPOLIS — A headline in yesterday's editions of The Sun stated incorrectly the number of incoming plebes at the U.S. Naval Academy.
, The correct figure is 1,132.
ANNAPOLIS -- James S. Bates flew 20 combat missions for the U.S. Navy, blowing up mines, dodging gunfire and capturing Iraqi soldiers. He won numerous decorations for his acts of heroism including the prestigious Navy and Marine Corps Medal.
FOR THE RECORD - CORRECTION xlB
So what is he doing as a plebe, the lowliest of the low among midshipmen at the U.S. Naval Academy?
"I wonder about it myself sometimes," confessed Mr. Bates, a former petty officer second class with three years and 10 months of enlisted experience.
"As a Naval air crewman I sat in the back of the helicopter and I only got to sit up front with the officers a few times. Sitting up front is where I want to be."
Yesterday, Mr. Bates joined 1,131 other potential Navy and Marine Corps officers as members of the Naval Academy's incoming class of 1995 on Induction Day. It was the beginning of Plebe Summer, the institution's six-week, boot-camp-like freshman indoctrination.
Called "I-Day" at the academy, it was the first and likely easiest of the grueling 16-hour days of rigorous physical and mental training that lie ahead for the plebe class.
For the first time since the Vietnam War, a fair number of combat veterans were sprinkled among the fresh-faced high school graduates entering the academy.
While unsure of the exact number, officials said many of the 120 active duty personnel who joined the plebe class had served in Operations Desert Storm and Desert Shield.
"We have always had people with fleet experience coming here and that is always a plus for the education of midshipmen," said Capt. Michael D. Haskins, the academy's commandant of midshipmen.
"As combat veterans, they add an extra element to their classmates -- 'Hey, listen, there is a reason for this.' That's really what this training is all about."
Mr. Bates, 21, a native of Woodbury, Conn., spent much of the Persian Gulf war blowing up mines that threatened the fleet.
He won his Navy and Marine Corps Medal for rescuing four crewmen from a British helicopter downed in the Mediterranean Sea in 1989.
After surviving those experiences, Mr. Bates said he is quite capable of taking an upperclassman's orders -- no matter what the volume -- on such subjects as making beds and folding clothes.
