Cadets

High school senior Shannon Lindsay, on this day known as "Master Chief Lindsay," walks down the almost perfect line, inspecting the uniforms of the new recruits saluting before her. One demerit for the spot on a girl's shirt - the cleaners are to blame, but Lindsay doesn't buy it. Another cadet loses a point because the back of his tie is longer than the front - he argues that he tied it in the dark, and Lindsay makes a face. The next recruit gets marked off for wearing black socks that, instead of the required solid, are decorated with silver peace signs.

Navy basketball coach Don DeVoe prepared the perfect pre-game speech yesterday to snap his team out of the shooting doldrums that hurt the Midshipmen in successive road losses at Bucknell and Lafayette."

Tales of sailors on shore leave are notorious - debauched nights on the town, girls in every port, trails of broken hearts and quickly forgotten liaisons. But aboard the Indonesian barquentine Dewaruci, docked in Baltimore until tomorrow as part of the Operation Sail 2000 tall ship tour, such ribald legends are, well, just that. Most of the ship's 77 cadets, 55 crew members and 18 officers are Muslim, which rules out drinking and any hanky-panky with the young women who have been flocking to the Inner Harbor since last week to fuel their men-in-uniform fantasies.

The Taneytown Police Department has added a dimension to its community policing program -- more than $500 to sponsor a Little League baseball team.Officers Bill Tyler and Scott Mitchell are teaching baseball skills to the Cadets, a team of 13 boys ages 8 to 12 who play in the Taneytown Recreation League's "minors," a level up from the instructional league and a level below the "majors," where more-skillful players of the same ages participate.The Cadets helped kick off the league season Monday night at Taneytown Memorial Park, holding on for a 16-10 victory over the Mariners in a five-inning game shortened one inning by darkness.

WEST POINT, N.Y. - It was a month after the terrorist attacks. Four thousand cadets at the United States Military Academy filed into the mess hall and stood at attention. In the cavernous stone building, where every sound echoes, silence fell. Four thousand of the nation's best and brightest waited for the order. "Sit!" Quickly, they did. They had only 20 minutes to serve each other chicken potpie and salad. Efficiency was the key. If anyone moved slowly, or fell out of routine, it provoked a sharp rebuke from a fellow cadet.

Students in Atholton High School's Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps Raider Battalion are known for their distinction. Principal ConnieLewissaid the group personifies traits that go beyond education - values, politeness, understanding of rules, warmth and safety. "I can't put it into words - just a great bunch of kids," she said. And last month, the students received a score of 98.1 of 100 for their formal inspection, earning the coveted "Honor Unit With Distinction" that is awarded only to the top 10 percent of JROTC units of 1,370 in the nation.

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- Record-breaking quarterback Chris McCoy and his fellow seniors produced the perfect ending to their Naval Academy football careers at Giants Stadium yesterday by overwhelming Army, 39-7, before a sellout crowd of 77,716.It ended five years of bitter frustration for the Midshipmen, who had lost the previous five games by a total of 10 points.Those memorable battles had been decided by shanked field-goal tries, dropped passes in the end zone and questionable coaching decisions.

Open burning of leaves in urban areas is illegal under state law unless you have a permit, or unless you are the Baltimore County Fire Department.That's why rush-hour motorists passing the county fire training site on Bosley Avenue in the heart of Towson last week may have been surprised to see uniformed fire academy cadets raking leaves against the fence, then calmly watching them being consumed by bright orange flames.The Fire Department says it's a training exercise.According to the academy's director, Battalion Chief Gary Warren, the department solves three problems by allowing cadets to burn leaves:* It gets rid of the leaves.

Absolutely American: Four Years at West Point, by David Lipsky. Houghton Mifflin. 336 pages. $25. For visitors, West Point is among America's most seductive places. Novelist and Rolling Stone writer David Lipsky spent four years - 1998 to 2002 - in nearby Highland Falls, N.Y., on what he calls "an extended tour of hanging out" at the U.S. Military Academy, and his book about the experience, Absolutely American, subsequently became a labor of love. Lipsky is fascinated by the rigors of the academy and how a diverse group of young men and women struggle with its challenges.

PHILADELPHIA -- You will not find Ronnie McAda's picture or biography in the 1994 Army football guide. Nor will you see his name listed in the preseason three-deep chart for Cadets quarterbacks.But this afternoon at Veterans Stadium, McAda, a 6-foot-4, 195-pound sophomore from Mesquite, Texas, will direct Army's offense in its traditional season-ending meeting with the Naval Academy.It took injuries to the Cadets' two most-seasoned quarterbacks to place McAda in this pressure-filled position.