One Woman’s Lived History from the Second Wave I’m interrupting the distant past for a glimpse of the more immediate past, the 50th Anniversary of Service Women at the Academies, and specifically the USNA Women’s celebration in Annapolis. More than 800 women and men, spanning five decades, gathered to mark this milestone. What unfolded over four days was the result of more than a year of effort, a true labor of commitment and care. There…
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Cool Ray
Published March 9, 2026
If you read my last post, you might remember that my regular glasses were resting somewhere at the bottom of Santee Basin on the Severn River. That left me with one option: the prescription sunglasses my mother had dropped off so I could see. Now, wearing sunglasses in uniform may not sound like a big deal. But at the Naval Academy in 1977, it absolutely was. I was the only person in the Yard wearing…
2 CommentsMan Overboard
Published March 2, 2026
There are times in your life when you don’t want any attention. You want to keep your head down, your nose clean, and your name out of the public eye. Plebe Summer at the United States Naval Academy was one of those times. Attention meant correction. Correction meant public scrutiny. Public scrutiny meant some calibrated blend of humiliation and demerits. The safest strategy was invisibility. If I could have faded into the granite and brick…
1 CommentOpen Doors
Published February 23, 2026
One woman’s lived history in the second wave at the Naval Academy One of the strangest reflections for me now, as a mother and after decades of working with teens and college students, is remembering that, in those early years at the Naval Academy, plebe doors had to remain open at all times.All times.Even at night.Some of my women classmates remember being issued nightgowns. I only remember sleeping in a T-shirt and gym shorts, knowing…
2 CommentsThe Summer Games – Plebe version
Published February 16, 2026
After the initial thunder of yelling and chaos of that first evening at the Naval Academy, the shock and awe of entering Bancroft Hall and realizing rather quickly that I was yelled at from every corner, one instruction rose above all the others: “Eyes in the boat.” Look straight ahead. Do not look left or right. Do not make eye contact. Move. We were told to rapidly navigate to a company area we had never…
Leave a CommentInduction Day
Published February 2, 2026
I walked in knowing exactly where I was going.I just didn’t know what I was doing. Inside Halsey Field House, Induction Day began with an unsettling calm. Everything looked orderly, almost polite. The ferocious part was waiting its turn. Rows of folding tables stretched across the floor, aligned alphabetically by last name. I found A and stepped up to a table. The upperclassman behind it didn’t smile or look at me for long. “Plebe Andrews,”…
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