Tears rimmed Joseph Hauser's eyes as he watched his daughter, Charlotte, disappear behind the gymnasium door.
Fierce emotions rip at many parents as they drop their children off at college, but more than most, Hauser knew his daughter would not be the same person after a few months away from him. That's the reality for almost all candidates at the U.S. Naval Academy, which welcomed its newest class of 1,230 plebes Wednesday morning.
"It's quite a reality check," said Hauser, a resident of Saratoga Springs, N.Y. "It's different than sending your child to a normal college, where you can see them whenever they allow you to. I'm sure she will be different when I see her again. I know she will."
The academy takes teenagers like Charlotte Hauser - top students, hyper-competitive athletes, driven leaders - and spends a summer teaching them how little they really know about discipline, time management, proper manners and physical duress. They come out looking and behaving differently. So for them and the people who love them, Induction Day is a line of demarcation.
"It's like night and day," said Midshipman 1st Class Carolyn Horiye, a senior who will help hammer the rigid details of academy life into the newcomers.
The candidates arrived as early as 6 a.m., ready to give up their hair and possessions for a summer of grueling 16-hour days. Business is booming at the academy, which received more than 15,000 applications this year and is celebrating the most racially and ethnically diverse entering class in its history - 14 percent Hispanic and 10 percent African-American. No matter the composition of the class, I-Day, as it's known around the academy, brings familiar rituals.
The morning began with families pouring off buses and clustering a few hundred feet from the gymnasium. That's where Hauser shed tears as he watched Charlotte cross the threshold.
Her father acknowledged being "a little slack-jawed" when she said she wanted to attend the academy. Their family carries no military legacy; a neighbor cultivated Charlotte's enchantment with naval pilots. She visited the academy on the neighbor's recommendation and loved it from the start.
"It's hard to explain," Hauser said of his emotions Wednesday. "I know I'm handing my daughter over, and it's a tremendous honor, but there's no going back."
