Sea Trials strike a more serious tone

[unhappycamper]

Bradley Maa, center, participated despite fracture
Dodgeball replaced by mock IED drill.


Sea Trials strike a more serious tone
By Brian Witte - The Associated Press
Posted : Friday May 23, 2008 5:55:48 EDT

ANNAPOLIS, Md. — The all-day physical exercises that mark the end of a midshipman’s first year at the Naval Academy were never exactly fun. But this year, they’ve gotten even more serious.

Dodgeball is no longer on the program. Parents aren’t allowed to gather on bleachers anymore to cheer. And each stop of the exhausting day is dedicated to a fallen service member.

The academy has put greater emphasis on wartime sacrifices, hoping to inspire plebes to think about what they are doing behind the academy’s walls on the picturesque Severn River.

“You are here to be tested and to learn how to be leaders of our magnificent sailors and Marines out there in the fleet,” Col. Mike Shupp told about 1,000 midshipmen last week in a chilly, pre-dawn gathering on Rip Miller Field. “You are here because we are still fighting the war on terror.”

For the next 13 hours, upperclassmen pushed them through challenges of body and mind — obstacles scattered between miles of running around the academy’s campus and the neighboring Naval Station Annapolis.


Rest of article at: http://www.navytimes.com/news/2008/05/ap_seatrials_052208/