Academy In Annapolis

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.

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 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.

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."

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.

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.

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.

50 Years Ago* Today, the United States Naval Academy marked its 97th anniversary in a wartime setting. Its first superintendent, Cmdr. Franklin Buchanan, had formally opened the Naval School, as it was originally named, on Oct. 10, 1845, with about 40 midshipmen. The Sun, Oct. 9, 1942.* NBC broadcast a coast-to-coast Charlie McCarthy radio performance last night from the Naval Academy in Annapolis. Don Ameche was master of ceremonies. Ann Arrundell Historical Society files, Oct. 11, 1942.