Academy In Annapolis

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.

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.

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.

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."

Pvt. Craig J. Cordner has completed basic training at Fort Knox, Ky.During the training, students received instruction in drill and ceremonies, weapons, map reading, tactics, military courtesy, militaryjustice, first aid, and Army history and traditions.Cordner is son of James R. and Kathleen A. Corner of Joppa.Heis a 1989 graduate of Joppatowne High School.WALTON TRAINS IN VA.Army National Guard Pvt. Richard Walton has graduated from the materiel storage and handling course at Fort Lee, Petersburg, Va.Students were trained in receipt, storage, shipment, issue, and preservation and packaging of supplies and equipment.

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.

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.

In some minds, the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis once evoked a distinctly Protestant world, a sanctuary of white flannels and tea on the lawn.But that picture leaves out significant minority groups inthe academy's history, says Annapolis researcher Eric Goldstein.While the percentage of Jews attending the academy has never beenlarge, their contributions have been significant, Goldstein says. A Jewish professor taught at the college in its founding year of 1845, and many of the more famous instructors were Jewish.

Since his return from the Persian Gulf, Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf has been making the rounds.He's been honored as father of the year. He's been the grand marshal of the Pegasus Parade in Louisville. And, he's even had the Queen of England bestow an honorary knighthood upon him.Today, the Army general was doing some honoring himself, addressing 950 graduates at the 141st commencement exercises of the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis.Schwarzkopf, affectionately known as "Stormin' Norman" to the U.S. troops he led during operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm, was addressing this year's graduates before they tossed their caps into the air to signal the end of four years at the Academy.

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.