Academy In Annapolis

DESPITE EXPERIENCING a series of humiliating scandals in the past few years, the U. S. Naval Academy does not suffer from any major institutional flaws. That was the favorable conclusion from a special committee charged over the past half-year with examining the service academy in Annapolis that trains officers for both the Navy and the Marine Corps.There was bad news, too: The 20-member panel found that the academy does have problems of Navy culture and climate that can be corrected only if the historic institution's diverse constituencies work better together.

On the same day last spring, Diane M. Zamora and her boyfriend, David C. Graham, learned that their enviable high school records had won them appointment to the nation's prestigious military academies -- Zamora to the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Graham to the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colo.The 18-year-old Texans announced their engagement to be married after graduation, setting the date for Aug. 13, 2000. But the clean-cut couple carried to their new campuses a terrible secret.

50 years agoCivilians will have no opportunity to directly purchase Army-Navy football tickets this year as the academy quota of 50,000 will go to the midshipmen. -- The Sun, Sept. 6, 1946.Lt. Com. E. Usatorres, Havana, head of Cuban naval aviation, visited the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis today on an inspection of its air facility and aviation department. -- The Sun, Sept. 11, 1946.

About 400 military officers and their families gathered at the Naval Academy in Annapolis yesterday to celebrate the opening of the $7 million Armel-Leftwich Visitor Center, which they say will help the public better understand the value of the academy and the life of midshipmen."

50 Years Ago* An enthusiastic group of Annapolis business and political leaders gathered for a session today under the slogan, "Keep the Naval Academy in Annapolis." It is supported by Gov. O'Conor who plans to enlist aid at the Eastern Governors Conference to secure Naval Academy retention on the East Coast. -- The Sun, Aug. 10, 1945.* The gates of the Naval Academy swung open to the public for the first time since Pearl Harbor and the public streamed in to watch the Middies celebrate the victory over Japan.

50 Years Ago* State officials announced that microfilm copies of Maryland historic records that were shipped to Western Maryland in 1942-43 for safekeeping in case of possible bombing attacks are being returned to Annapolis. -- The Sun, June 2, 1945.* Yesterday, the Navy Department broke a silence to report that the submarine Barb, commanded by Commander Eugene Bennett Fluckey, of Annapolis, holder of the Congressional Medal of Honor, was responsible on three separate patrols for sinking so many Japanese ships that even the Navy Department cannot total the enemy losses.

75 Years Ago* Tomorrow, commencement day at St. John's College in Annapolis, will be featured by the unveiling of a monument to the 24 St. John's men who lost their lives in the war. Franklin D. Roosevelt, assistant secretary of the Navy, will make the address. -- The Sun, June 11, 1920.* Under the terms of the annexation bill passed by the legislature in 1918, by which Anne Arundel County was to be reimbursed for property taken into Baltimore City, a board of arbitration awarded Anne Arundel County $200,000, including payment for the Curtis Creek bridge.

Cheating. Lying. Stonewalling.They're not the words that traditionally come to mind when talk turns to the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis.It is supposed to be a school of cap-tossing pride and achievement, not a place of dishonor, where a stolen electrical engineering exam could move swiftly through the decks of Bancroft Hall.The largest cheating scandal in the school's 149-year history -- with 133 senior midshipmen implicated -- has caused many to wonder how the academy got off track.Look no further than two disparate emblems of recent history: Timothy Leary and Hyman Rickover.

The investigation of 28 midshipmen suspected of cheating is the biggest scandal to hit the U.S. Naval Academy since student Gwen Dreyer was chained to a urinal in 1989 -- perhaps even bigger. The Dreyer case involved a small group whose horseplay resounded with repugnant connotations. The cheating is not a question of stupidity, but one of honor that goes to the heart of the academy.In recent weeks, the service academy in Annapolis has been plagued with headlines about a variety of bad news: overzealous pillow fights; a suicide; a man climbing, unwanted, into a female classmate's bed, and now cheating.

Tried-and-true tradition kicks off a series of celebrations at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis today.The normally reserved plebes will step out of their crisp white uniforms and into shorts, T-shirts and lard as they slither their way up a 21-foot obelisk.The climbing of Herndon Monument is just one of the many events that mark Commissioning Week at the Naval Academy. Concerts, color parades and fireworks will dominate the Annapolis landscape between now and Wednesday, graduation day.But, far removed from the mandatory pomp and circumstance, it is events like the scaling of Herndon that best illustrate the ebullient feeling associated with Commissioning Week.

Navy introduces warship USS Freedom at Academy The U.S. Navy's newest warship, the USS Freedom, will visit the Naval Academy in Annapolis today through Monday during its maiden voyage from the Great Lakes to Norfolk. The ship will be open for public visitation from 12:30 p.m. to 4 p.m. tomorrow, on a first-come, first-serve basis. Visitors may walk through Gate 1 (King George Street) and Gate 3 (Maryland Avenue) and should be prepared to show a government-issued photo identification. Handicapped individuals with proper decals may drive through Gate 1 after a vehicle inspection.

Just say no Society long ago reconciled itself to a bright line between religion and academics in public school classrooms. The courts recognized that even when students aren't obliged to pray at specific times, the pressure to conform exerts a powerful coercive influence. Now nine midshipmen at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis who object to the school's traditional lunchtime prayer have asked the American Civil Liberties Union for help ending the practice, which they say forces them to risk losing the respect of their peers or forgoing leadership opportunities if they follow their conscience.

A female midshipman was pronounced dead yesterday afternoon after being found unconscious in her dormitory room at the Naval Academy in Annapolis, college officials said. Roommates found the first-year midshipman unconscious and not breathing in her bed in the academy's Bancroft Hall in the late morning. She was pronounced dead at 12:46 p.m. at Anne Arundel Medical Center. The academy did not immediately release the student's name, pending notification of next of kin, or provide a cause of death.

Colorado Springs, Colo.-- --From the moment new cadets arrive at the U.S. Air Force Academy, the message is made abundantly clear. They attend classes in small groups, separated by gender, and learn the meaning of terms like "bystander effect," "non-stranger assault" and "situational awareness." They see video screenings of Frank: The Undetected Rapist. Fliers all over the sprawling, space-age campus bear the numbers 333-SARC, a sexual assault hot line on which cadets can call a trained specialist at any hour to ask questions, seek advice or report sex crimes.

In the ivory towers of academia, free thought is a virtue and authority exists to be questioned. But at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, authority is to be revered and obeyed. For the 221 uniformed members of the teaching faculty, that's not a problem. They readily salute their commanders and heed orders. For the 313 civilian professors, who teach everything from English literature to electrical engineering and often come from a culture that favors the free exchange of views, it can be a source of tension.

The Anti-Defamation League, arguing that the lunchtime prayer at the U.S. Naval Academy violates the separation of church and state, says it will ask Congress and the secretary of the Navy to stop the practice. The group sent a letter last month to the academy in Annapolis but has received no formal reply, said Myrna Shinbaum, a spokeswoman for the organization devoted to fighting anti-Semitism and other discrimination. "We will continue to make our concerns known through the Armed Services Committee of the Senate and House, as well as with the secretary of the Navy, and continue to raise the issue in the public arena," she said, declining to be more specific.

From the oval-shaped windows of an airplane, Maryland looked enough like Belize that for a moment, teenagers Andrea and Javier Bosch forgot about the lush landscape and glittering beaches of their Central American homeland. "As we arrived it was like `Wow,'" Javier Bosch said. "It's very green here, and coming from Belize, that's what we are used to." Beginning today, however, the 19-year-old twins will realize how different their lives will be at their home for the next four years: the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis.

Construction began this week for a temporary roundabout at Triadelphia and Ten Oaks roads in Glenelg, according to the Department of Public Works. The temporary roundabout is expected to be in place until early fall. The purpose of the roundabout is to reduce speed and provide an efficient way for traffic to move through the intersection. The roundabout will provide an opportunity for Howard County to evaluate the intersection and give residents time to comment on its operation. Drivers should yield to traffic in the roundabout.

Federal authorities have charged a Glen Burnie man with theft in the stealing of 148 band instruments from the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis. Criminal charges filed Friday in U.S. District Court in Baltimore say a man took the instruments from the Naval Academy on April 26, 1998, then resold them. Adrian Maurice Brown is charged with theft of government property. A conviction could bring 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

DESPITE EXPERIENCING a series of humiliating scandals in the past few years, the U. S. Naval Academy does not suffer from any major institutional flaws. That was the favorable conclusion from a special committee charged over the past half-year with examining the service academy in Annapolis that trains officers for both the Navy and the Marine Corps.There was bad news, too: The 20-member panel found that the academy does have problems of Navy culture and climate that can be corrected only if the historic institution's diverse constituencies work better together.