Darkness surrounded the Naval Academy yard patrol boat as it moved down the Chesapeake Bay near the Thomas Point Lighthouse. Marcus Robinson stood on the boat's bridge an hour after midnight and enjoyed the unseasonably warm March air. Suddenly, three alarms sounded, shattering the silence.
"I'd been awake since 6:30 the previous morning, and I was counting on our mission to be routine," said Robinson, a 2004 Wilde Lake High School graduate and the night's commanding officer.
But, the 47-foot boat had another idea that early Saturday morning. Its gyro had malfunctioned and set off the blaring sirens. The crew of midshipmen had lost its navigational system.
"We had to rely on magnetic compasses and visual fixes," he said, "but there wasn't much to see, just the yellow lights of an occasional tugboat and big tankers moving past us.
"It was pretty intense," he said.
"Though we have practiced handling systems failures in a controlled setting twice every week, it was something else when it actually happened. I was the one in charge of the safety of the crew - and I absolutely loved it."
Robinson, 21, will graduate at 10 a.m. today in the top third of his class at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium in Annapolis. The commissioning ceremony, during which he will become a Navy ensign, will be held at 1 p.m.
Only 1 in 10 applicants are accepted at the Naval Academy, according to spokeswoman Judy Campbell. The Class of 2008 began with 1,220 students, and 1,000 are graduating, she said.
The son of Carleton and Stanette Robinson of Harper's Choice, Marcus has talked about attending the academy since he was 10, his mother said.
"My grandfather and my uncle had both served in the Navy, but it wasn't even their influence, really," he said. "This is just something I knew I wanted to do."
Robinson attended Wilde Lake for his junior and senior years and had a teacher there whose moral and personal values served to shore up his beliefs.
Herbert West, a social studies teacher, said he has kept in touch with Robinson in the four years since high school graduation, continuing the theme of their conversations of years past.
"Marcus is beyond determined - he's awesome! I've always coached him about his responsibilities as a gifted and driven young man, and he has been very receptive, though I really didn't have to sell him anything," said West.
