Naval Academy

A 2006 graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy was killed in a helicopter crash in Afghanistan on Thursday, the Marine Corps has confirmed. The 27-year-old was one of six Marines who died in the accident. The Pentagon identified him as Marine Corps Capt. Daniel B. Bartle of Ferndale, Wash. A brief biography provided by officials at his base in Kaneohe, Hawaii, lists him as a pilot for the squadron called the "Red Lions," but it was unclear whether he was at the controls when the Vietnam-era CH-53 Sea Stallion went down in Helmand province.

George and the late Marion Phelps are being recognized Wednesday when officials rename Middle Street in the Parole neighborhood of Annapolis for them at a 4 p.m. ceremony. George Phelps was the first African-American sheriff's deputy in Anne Arundel County. He deputized 200 special deputy sheriffs, all African-American, Annapolis officials said. In 1963, he was asked to provide technical assistance and material support for the security contingent at the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Justice, led by the late Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.  The city earlier honored him for a longtime commitment to Annapolis' cultural heritage.

A 26-year-old Naval Academy graduate from Howard County who realized a long-held dream of becoming a Naval aviator was killed when the jet she was piloting crashed into a field outside Spokane, Wash. Lt. j.g. Valerie Cappelaere Delaney and her two crew members died Monday morning when the EA-6B Prowler crashed during training, the Navy said Tuesday. The incident remains under investigation. Friends and family described Cappelaere Delaney as a focused, athletic and caring young woman whose career was shaped by conversations with her grandfather, a retired Air Force pilot.

If you're flipping channels on Sunday, you may recognize Annapolis on shopping channel QVC. QVC will broadcast live from the rooftop of the Fleet Reserve Club along Ego Alley on Compromise Street, accordng to the Annapolis and Anne Arundel County Conference and Visitors Bureau. Live interviews are scheduled from 10 a.m. until noon and from 3 p.m. until 6 p.m. Interview guests will include Mayor Josh Cohen, Elaine Rice-Bachman of the Maryland State Archives, Naval Academy spokesman Cmdr.

The snide comments surprised Randy Kurtz, who figured she was suffering the same harrowing rites of passage as her U.S. Naval Academy classmates as they trudged through the plebe summer of 1978. "You don't belong here," the male midshipmen might say. A few seemed to take particular glee in pulling her down as she attempted the Herndon Climb, which culminates plebe year. Kurtz, a Connecticut native, was part of the third academy class to include women, and the spirit of equality had not sunk in with everyone.

The Napoleonic Wars and the Royal Navy had C.S. Forester. World War II and the U.S. Navy have Vice Adm. William P. Mack.The 76-year-old Mack, a former superintendent of the U.S Naval Academy, is the main author of a projected 10-volume fictional history of the American destroyers during the Second World War."It's a history of the feeling of sailors in World War II," Mack says. "The equipment and the facts are authentic. The only fiction is the characters."The first two books are "South to Java" (released in 1987 and written with his son, William P. Mack Jr.)

Henry E. Ciccarone, who arrived in Fells Point a penniless immigrant from Italy and became a master tailor who made clothes for presidents and admirals, died Saturday of complications from dementia at Heritage Harbor Health and Rehabilitation Center in Annapolis. He was 97 and a longtime Annapolis resident. Mr. Ciccarone was a tailor from 1923 until 1971 at the Naval Academy, where he started as an apprentice at age 15 and later would cut suits for Presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry S. Truman and John F. Kennedy.

A former instructor at the Naval Academy has been found not guilty of aggravated sexual assault in an alleged attack on a female midshipman two years ago, an academy spokeswoman said Sunday. Marine Corps Maj. Mark Thompson, 43, was found guilty of indecent acts, failure to obey an order or regulation and conduct unbecoming an officer in the 2011 incident, spokeswoman Jenny Erickson said. He is to be sentenced on Monday. Thompson, who taught history at the academy, was accused of attacking the midshipman in his Annapolis apartment following the annual croquet match between the Naval Academy and St. John's College.

Assembled at a long, paper-scattered and coffee cup-cluttered table, the Naval Academy's admissions board is deciding who's got the right stuff.Their tea leaves are the 10,000 half-inch-thick application packages submitted to them from across the nation. On this Thursday morning, the board is sorting through dozens of those files to decide who is worthy of being in the Naval Academy's Class of 2002.It's a process with no equal in higher education -- except, maybe, at West Point. And its results will be felt for many years.

Richard Duckett King, a retired Navy commander who flew nuclear weapons to aircraft carriers and later taught physics and oceanography at area schools, died Saturday of a lung disorder at Gilchrist Center for Hospice Care. He was 83. A resident of the Blakehurst Life Care Community in Towson, he formerly resided for 29 years in the Stoneleigh neighborhood. Born in Baltimore and raised on Longwood Road in Roland Park, Cmdr. King was a 1937 graduate of Polytechnic Institute, where he was class president and captain of the wrestling team.

Second Lt. Stephen James Peck, son of William and Donna Peck of Abingdon, graduated from the U.S. Military Academy on May 25. A 2009 Bel Air High School graduate, Peck concentrated his studies at West Point in information technology. He also attended the Naval Academy in Annapolis for one semester, and he completed Air Assault School in his sophomore year. He was recently commissioned as a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army within the armor branch and following several months of officer training in Ft. Benning, Ga., will report to Fort Stewart, Ga., for his first assignment.

A former instructor at the Naval Academy was sentenced Monday to 60 days in a military jail for indecent acts, fraternization and conduct unbecoming an officer stemming from an incident with two female midshipmen in 2011, an academy spokeswoman said. Marine Corps Maj. Mark Thompson, 43, was also fined $2,500 per month for two years — for a total of $60,000 — and issued a reprimand, a punitive letter that now becomes part of his permanent record, spokeswoman Jenny Erickson said.

A former instructor at the Naval Academy has been found not guilty of aggravated sexual assault in an alleged attack on a female midshipman two years ago, an academy spokeswoman said Sunday. Marine Corps Maj. Mark Thompson, 43, was found guilty of indecent acts, failure to obey an order or regulation and conduct unbecoming an officer in the 2011 incident, spokeswoman Jenny Erickson said. He is to be sentenced on Monday. Thompson, who taught history at the academy, was accused of attacking the midshipman in his Annapolis apartment following the annual croquet match between the Naval Academy and St. John's College.

The Navy is investigating the alleged sexual assault last year of a female midshipman at the Naval Academy by three members of the football team, a Pentagon spokesman confirmed Friday. The woman has told investigators she remembers little of the alleged assault, which she said occurred after she became intoxicated at an off-campus party in Annapolis, her attorney said. Susan Burke, the Washington-based attorney, said the woman learned from friends and social media that three football players were claiming after the party that they had had sex with her while she was incapacitated.

Nicholas Wayne Hancock, a 2009 graduate of Havre de Grace High School, has graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy with a bachelor of science in aerospace engineering. Hancock was commissioned on May 24 as a second lieutenant in the U.S. Marine Corps. He will continue his training in Quantico ,Va., for six months and then training in Pensacola, Fla., as a naval flight officer. Hancock's parents are Lisa Buonaugurio and Wayne Hancock of Havre de Grace. His grandparents are Nick and Elly Buonaugurio of Aberdeen.

Last Friday morning, President Barack Obama visited Annapolis to address roughly 1,000 Naval Academy midshipmen. Then he took his seat with other VIPs and the thousands in attendance and watched as the midshipmen, decked out in their pristine dress whites, graduated and took their oaths as commissioned officers. Every year, the event is magnificent. With a ceremony of such grandeur, it should come as no surprise that, in their previous four years, the midshipmen were held to the highest standards of performance and conduct.

As it turns out, the Naval Academy is awash in "Gangnam Style. " A crew of mids from the 22nd Company, at least, seem to have it in spades and shows it off in a video that's going viral. The video (see above), just posted Sunday on YouTube, already has more than 267,000 views. In it, the young men, mainly in dress whites, dance around the Naval Academy to the song "Gangnam Style" by South Korean rapper PSY. It's one of the hottest songs in America right now. The mids call it a "spirit spot.

President Barack Obama told Naval Academy graduates Friday that declining faith in government and other institutions makes it more important than ever that they retain their moral center as they embark on military careers. As a cold rain fell on the 1,047 graduating midshipmen, the president spoke of the sexual assaults that have plagued the military and made reference to political scandals that have roiled the early months of his second term. "As we've seen again in recent days, it only takes the misconduct of a few to further erode the people's trust in their government," the president said.

Hello, Midshipmen! (Applause.) Well, thank you, Governor O'Malley, for your kind introduction and the great support that Maryland gives this Academy. To Secretary Mabus, Admiral Greenert, General Paxton -- thank you all for your incredible leadership of our extraordinary Navy and Marine Corps teams. To Vice Admiral Miller, thank you for the outstanding work that you do. To Captain Clark and all the faculty and staff; to the moms and dads who raised your sons and daughters to seek this life of service; to the local sponsor families who cared for them far from home; the members of the Class of 1963 -- veterans who've guided these midshipmen along the way -- today is also a tribute to your support and your patriotism.