Naval Academy

Retired Lt. Cmdr. Wesley A. Brown, who broke the color barrier at the Naval Academy and was its first African-American graduate in 1949, died Tuesday of cancer at Springhouse of Silver Spring Assisted Living. He was 85. "It's important for America to remember Wesley A. Brown. He was a pioneer like Jesse Owens and Jackie Robinson," said Navy historian Robert J. Schneller Jr., who wrote about Commander Brown's years at the Naval Academy in his book "Breaking the Color Barrier: The U.S. Naval Academy's First Black Midshipmen and the Struggle for Racial Equality.

As he took the helm of the Naval Academy on Tuesday, Vice Adm. Michael H. Miller told a crowd that his tenure at the military college would be marked by a mission to provide leaders who have strong ethics for the Navy fleet. Midshipmen must learn to engender trust in order to lead effectively, he said. "I believe honor is at the core of building that trust. I'm convinced that an ethical foundation will come first, and that will be our starting point while I am here," he said.

Reports of sexual assaults at the Naval Academy doubled last year, the fourth straight year the number has increased, according to the Defense Department. But do the findings of the Pentagon report on sexual harassment and assaults mean that such incidents are on the rise in Annapolis? Or do they show that midshipmen have grown more aware of sexual assault and are more likely to report it to authorities? Academy officials and critics alike hope it's the latter — but say it is impossible to know for certain.

The departing superintendent of the Naval Academy says that if the "don't ask, don't tell" policy that bars gays from serving openly in the military ends, the academy will adjust, as it has changed over the years with the admission of minorities and women. The Obama administration is seeking to repeal the 1993 policy that prevents gay people from serving in the military unless they shield their sexual orientation. Vice Adm. Jeffrey L. Fowler said that if the ban is repealed, the academy will continue to apply its concept of "basic respect" among midshipmen.

When Lt. Cmdr. Wesley A. Brown was a midshipman at the U.S. Naval Academy, he was ostracized, his classmates once trashing his room ahead of an inspection. But the Navy embraced him as a trailblazer in Wednesday funeral services, part of which were held in a field house that bears his name. More than 250 gathered in Annapolis to remember Brown, the sixth black midshipman and the first to graduate. Mourners included top Navy and military officials, the first black female graduate of the academy and the oldest living black graduate of any U.S. military service academy.

The U.S. Naval Academy has been named the nation's most popular liberal arts college, according to a ranking published by U.S. News & World Report magazine. The academy tops the magazine's popularity list of schools based on its yield — the number of accepted students who decide to enroll as freshmen. In the fall of 2009, 1,251 of the 1,464 students accepted to the Naval Academy chose to enroll, a yield of 85.5 percent. "We think this is indicative of the great opportunity the Naval Academy affords our nation's most talented and well-rounded young Americans to serve as leaders in the Navy and Marine Corps," Vice Adm. Michael H. Miller, superintendent of the academy, said in a prepared statement.

The U.S. Naval Academy's new superintendent wants his campus to become a center for cybersecurity education, with a $100 million building and a slate of new classes devoted to the emerging discipline, he said Friday in his first interview since taking the job in August. "It's an important part of my tenure here to get that project going forward," said Vice Adm. Michael H. Miller during a session with reporters at the academy's on-campus museum. Miller said an introductory cybersecurity class would replace another required course in the curriculum for the Class of 2015, and he eventually expects the academy to produce graduates who specialize in cyberwarfare.

Annapolis and the state of Maryland owe a debt of gratitude to a mutinous midshipman hanged from the yardarm.Midshipman Philip Spencer's attempted takeover of the brig-of-war Somers in 1842 persuaded then-Navy Secretary George Bancroft that prospective naval officers needed better training. He decided to replace on-ship training with an on-shore academy that he chose to place at a naval station on the Severn River. Thus in 1845, the U.S. Naval Academy was founded.Tonight, the academy kicks off a year-long 150th anniversary celebration with the premiere of a documentary about the school.

Navy Capt. William T. R. "Randy" Bogle, the commanding officer of the U.S. Naval Air Station in Pensacola, Fla., will become the commandant of the U.S. Naval Academy next month.Captain Bogle, who was unavailable for comment yesterday, will begin his new duties on Aug. 16 as second-in-command to Adm. Charles Larson, the new superintendent who will take command Aug. 1.He will join two other members of the academy's class of 1968 in assuming leadership posts at a school fighting to rebound from a cheating scandal.

The Naval Academy will dedicate the Armel-Leftwich Visitor Center at 4 p.m. Friday.The $5 million, two-story center, next to Halsey Field House, will contain an exhibit area, a theater, a gift shop and a guide service for tours.Center hours will be 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily from March to November and 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. from December to February.Information: 268-3355.POLICE LOG* Annapolis : Someone broke into the Riva Trace Baptist Church in the 2900 block of Riva Trace Parkway early Monday and stole checks and $869.