NAVAL ACADEMY AIMS TO TURN THE TIDE ON SEA LEVEL RISE

The skies were dry. The tides weren’t surging around Annapolis.

Yet, Ramsay Road flooded … again. For Annapolis and the Naval Academy, 3 June 2023 was just another day. Nuisance flooding returned to the road fronting the Naval Academy Columbarium as well as McNair Road on the
opposite side of College Creek.

These “nuisance” incidents are becoming more frequent and no less disruptive. They’re a regular reminder that the Academy is built on reclaimed land at or near sea level.

While the 3 June episode was noticeable, it didn’t hamper Naval Academy operations. Nuisance flooding, however, has forced the cancelation or relocation of memorial services over the past few years. The Columbarium and Ramsay Road, along its front edge, are among the Academy's most vulnerable assets.

In April, the Academy in partnership with the Naval Support Activity Annapolis (NSAA) released its Installation Resilience Plan. This document, completed in 2022, details the threats of sea level rise and subsidence and outlines the actions needed to curb the impact. The plan “provides an integrated adaptation framework, project portfolio and year-to-year execution strategy that will mitigate the combined effects of land subsidence, sea level rise, ground-water change, coastal flooding/ storm surge and inadequate stormwater management at the Naval Academy to the year 2100,” according to a news release.

While the Resilience Plan won’t prevent flooding in the event of a 100-year storm, even when fully implemented by 2065, it is designed to deliver significant improvements to minimize disruptions to operational and educational endeavors at the Academy. Fortunately, Annapolis hasn’t seen a storm with the magnitude of Hurricane Isabel since the massive storm hit the city in 2003. Isabel and its confluence of winds, sea surge and rain left several Academy buildings uninhabitable and forced leadership to make quick decisions and craft creative solutions for keeping the Brigade of Midshipmen on track.

The Academy has already begun making mitigation measures including a near-term project to fortify the Farragut Field bulkhead near the Robert Crown Sailing Center. Time is not on the Academy’s side with nuisance incidents happening more frequently each year. Since 1929, the relative sea level in Annapolis has risen slightly more than one foot, according to the Resilience Plan. That has led to nuisance flooding incidents ramping up from two or three times per year to more than 40. These events force the closures of roads, sidewalks and building entry points, which hampers daily operations at the Academy.

“Sea level rise and land subsidence are increasingly impacting operations at the Naval Academy,” said Vice Admiral Sean S. Buck ’83, USN, the Naval Academy’s 63rd Superintendent. “The bottom line is that we are dealing with increasing amounts of water on the Yard every year and the projections show that the effects of climate change are an existential threat to the Naval Academy.”

Prioritized Planning
This month marks the 20th anniversary of Hurricane Isabel, which hit Annapolis on 18 September 2003. Isabel left over 22 buildings flooded with varying levels of damage, including Michelson Hall and Chauvenet Hall lab spaces. A barracks barge was moored adjacent to the Dewey Field seawall and served as temporary classrooms. While only one day of classes was canceled, Isabel’s impact demonstrated the need to bolster the Academy’s defenses.

In October 2021, a much more mundane storm brought heavy rains and flooded many of the roads on the Yard, but thanks to a variety of protective measures like door dams and sand bags, most of the buildings had little to no water on the interior.

Sandbags were deployed to protect building entrances. While midshipmen, faculty and Academy leadership have become adept to adjusting to these types of flooding, steps to mitigate the effects of storm surges have been employed. Door dams are utilized on many buildings on the lower yard to protect low lying entrances from flooding.

Naval Academy Deputy for Facilities and Construction Sara Phillips said proactive mitigation measures—including door dams—have protected the Academy’s buildings from high tides and storm water since shortly after Isabel and demonstrates that Yard leadership is “actively working every avenue to keep things going.”

The Resilience Plan aims to systematically bolster the Yard’s defenses through infrastructure upgrades over the next 40 years. The first major project started in November 2022 with the groundbreaking for a new sea wall along Farragut Field. The $37.5 million upgrade will repair and raise the height of the seawall to address daily high tides and minor storms through 2100. Future plans include adding earthen berms or other storm surge barriers to protect against higher water levels that will occur in large storms.

The Resilience Plan established short-, mid- and long-term project execution parameters (see graphic on this page). The portfolio of sea-level rise mitigation measures includes a combination of adaptation approaches: engineered defenses (seawalls, stormwater retrofits); adapted structures (building and infrastructure retrofits); green infrastructure (earthen berms, stormwater retention, living shorelines); and temporary solutions (deployable floodwalls or barriers) to issues where long-term permanent protection may take years to implement.

The Resilience Plan’s project completion targets are based on when water will threaten the Yard’s current level of protection. They don’t account for current facility conditions or the Academy’s operational requirements to train and educate midshipmen.
“We must now balance the information from the study with conditions of the existing infrastructure to create a program of projects that balances the mission of the Academy, funding availability and the risks associated with rising seas,” said Captain Tom McLemore ’97, USN, Naval Support Activity Annapolis public works officer.

Prioritizing the areas that will generate the most bang for the buck, Academy leadership is using the Resilience Plan to help craft the facilities master plan.

“We are looking at the plan holistically to better assign dates for operational requirements or when current facilities fail,” Phillips said.
Phillips noted the soil under the pavement along the Farragut sea wall was washing out under the wall. With the sea wall failing, that project was elevated in priority to tackle all the problems at once. The wall is being raised to protect the Academy for current and future sea levels. The wall is being constructed so it can be raised later if needed.

“That’s what becomes the facilities master plan,” Phillips said. “The Resilience Plan informs the master plan, but it is only the climate driver for that plan.”

Phillips said the Academy has funding programed for Fiscal Year 2024 to repair Ramsay Road which entails raising the adjoining sea wall. The road will be excavated, backfilled and stabilized.

As evidenced by frequent flooding, the Columbarium is currently threatened by sea level rise and sits in a floodplain. Relocation of the Columbarium is proposed in the 2038-48 time period in the Resilience Plan but for practical purposes, that is likely to occur much sooner, Phillips said. In addition to natural hazards, the Columbarium is running out of niches for inurnments.

On the Horizon
Academy leadership is crafting a strategy to prioritize areas where sea level rise will likely cause the greatest disruption for training and educating midshipmen. Projects are requirements-based and phased in over time. The Academy is prioritizing fortification of the lower Yard (the facilities and land east of College Creek) to sustain the most critical infrastructure where berthing, academic and training spaces are located.

“We’re trying to be cost sensitive and identify where we get the most bang for the buck and how to protect the most critical infrastructure,” Phillips said. “Those get protected at the highest level.”

Naval Academy Athletics Director Chet Gladchuk said the physical mission impacts the entire Brigade of Midshipmen. The Academy needs athletic facilities and training sites that are protected and reliably available for use to develop midshipmen, he said.

“I have seen a foot of water on the athletic fields adjacent to Santee Basin,” Gladchuk said. “It has shut down significant opportunities to participate in athletics and has taken weeks in some cases for the water to diffuse. Interruptions as a result of sea level rise are a very real detriment in our ability to utilize all of the resources that we have to ensure continuity of physical training and competition.
“The Resilience Plan is a critical step forward to ensure that the limited field space that we have is available without interruption leading to our effectiveness in meeting the requirements of our physical mission.”

Actual execution of the plan will depend on available funding. Phillips said funding for projects is not allocated beyond Fiscal Year 2024. Each year, Yard leadership will work with the Academy’s board of visitors to socialize the need for funding, demonstrate the requirements and demonstrate the Academy is ready to progress on these questions, she said.

“The expertise of our faculty and staff on the Sea Level Rise Advisory Council has been a key factor in our ability to build a plan that is consistent with data-driven science in this field as well as with our daily operations and mission requirements,” Phillips said. “There are many opportunities to create resilience at the Academy and we are invested in finding the most efficient and effective ways to do that as we move into the realities of climate change and its impacts here in Annapolis.”

The Academy has worked in conjunction with the City of Annapolis, Anne Arundel County and the state of Maryland to ensure efforts to combat sea level rise by each entity are complementary to the others. Phillips said even when all the mitigation measures are in place, another 100-year event similar to Hurricane Isabel would likely leave the Academy flooded in spots. However, by proactively addressing the issue, the Academy will be poised to remain the nation’s top accession source for Navy and Marine Corps officers.
“We believe the Naval Academy can be protected with the right amount of investment and the right timing,” Phillips said.

WATER TO THE DOORKNOBS IN THE LABORATORIES RECOLLECTIONS OF HURRICANE ISABEL IN 2003
By RADM William C. Miller ’62, USN (Ret.)

Ample warning was available as powerful Hurricane Isabel formed in the Atlantic and intensified to peak winds of 165 mph.
It came ashore in the Outer Banks of North Carolina as a Category 1 (105 mph) hurricane; the storm’s energy didn’t all dissipate, it spread out over a wider area. Isabel’s center drifted inland and passed well west of Annapolis.

Winds had reduced in intensity to tropical storm strength by the time it neared Annapolis with wind speeds of 60 mph, but it also brought significant storm surge. Unfortunately, such a storm is the most dangerous for the Academy.

As this powerful storm moved up the U.S. southeast coast, its counterclockwise rotation blew water from the Atlantic into the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay. Later, when the storm moved west of the Bay, its winds blew those waters up the bay and the water had no place to go but ashore, flooding the Chesapeake Bay shoreline.

The Academy and surrounding local governments prepared to fend off the anticipated high tides. The highest storm surge on record in Annapolis had been 3.5 feet above mean high tide. Isabel came ashore more than 5 feet above mean high tide, inundating all of downtown Annapolis and much of the Naval Academy.

I recall standing on Rickover Terrace at the height of the storm and seeing all of Hospital Point underwater and the river a few feet deep adjacent to Rickover and Nimitz halls. Looking in the windows at the lab level, I could see water to the doorknobs in all the labs below Michelson, Chauvenet and Nimitz. I did not realize at the time that all the utility systems located in subbasement spaces below the labs were flooded to their ceilings.

Immediate Challenges
Essentially, all the labs for teaching engineering, chemistry, physics and oceanography had been inundated; lab equipment, machine shops and support systems to support them had been destroyed. I recall the labels soaked off all the chemical bottles in the chemistry labs creating a massive hazardous waste problem, that a brand new $100,000 laser we had recently purchased for the physics department and had just been delivered was still on its delivery pallet on the deck, now under water, and many other similarly sad tales.

Power and HVAC service was unavailable in nearly all classrooms.

Flood waters that had come ashore in Annapolis washed over several dozen sewage treatment plants as intense southerly winds pushed the waters north, so everything that the water had touched—equipment, walls, desks—had to be considered sewage contaminated.

The Naval Academy is a four-year institution. We had more than 1,000 midshipmen scheduled to graduate in just eight months, 3,000 more right behind them. We could not just suspend the program.

Immediate Response
Isabel rolled ashore in Annapolis on Thursday night, 18 September 2003. On Friday, the waters had not yet receded; classes were cancelled; damage assessment began; and planning to resume operations the following Monday was begun.

On 19 September, midshipmen were put in gym gear (shorts and T-shirts) and assigned to help clean up debris around the Yard.
Action teams were provided government credit cards and sent out in vans to buy every white board they could find, together with all the dry-erase materials, to teach all the classes outside normal classrooms. Other teams were armed similarly and sent out in search of every electric floor fan they could find.

Associate Dean for Academic Affairs Dr. Fred Davis (one of the real heroes of the Academy’s recovery) met on the Academic Dean’s Porter Road porch all weekend with the schedule coordinators for every course taught, and they completely replanned and rescheduled the remainder of the fall semester.

After only one day’s cancellation, classes restarted on Monday, 22 September. Midshipmen were told to wear gym gear to class because of inadequate ventilation and sections were taught in squash courts, other athletic facilities, anywhere that had escaped flooding and still had power for lighting. Several sections even met in Alumni Hall, spread around the seating areas as much as possible to reduce interference. It wasn’t ideal; it was analogous to shipboard damage control while continuing to fight after the ship had taken a hit.

There were lots of reimagined lesson plans across the entire curriculum.

One particularly significant challenge, overcome by the heroic and innovative response of the faculty, was how to teach laboratory sections of the science and engineering courses. They relied primarily on demonstrations rather than the usual student hands-on approaches, and used commercially available analogs in place of the supplies they normally would use in the classroom.
All this dedication proceeded even though many faculty members had suffered damage to their own homes during the storm.

Longer Term Response
While the Navy contributed additional funding to the Naval Academy from its Operations and Maintenance account, costs for rebuilding the Academy after Isabel’s impact approached $100 million. Consequently, the Maryland congressional delegation, led by Sen. Barbara McCluskey, who was then the chair of the Senate Appropriation committee, assisted by Sen. Paul Sarbanes, ensured that sufficient resources were added to the Navy’s appropriation to recover and rebuild the Academy for the future.

Rather than rebuilding the academic facilities as they had been, an Academy committee helped coordinate faculty reconsideration of how courses should be taught in the future. For example, many additional hands-on learning experiences were conceived for the midshipmen and project-based learning was emphasized.

Another example was that chemistry department offices were moved to the lab deck and interspersed among the laboratories, so faculty were more readily available to assist students outside of regularly scheduled classes. The lab deck was gutted wall-to-wall and electrical distribution systems moved to the roof to avoid future flooding.

While a significant challenge to Academy leadership, faculty and staff, one should also recognize the real opportunity the storm provided us to rethink the future of the Naval Academy and how we wanted to carry out its mission to “… prepare midshipmen morally, mentally and physically.”

While classroom buildings were being gutted and rebuilt, a barracks barge was located in Norfolk; it had just completed support of a carrier overhaul in Newport News. An imposing facility, the barge could sleep hundreds of sailors and even had a galley and food service facilities. We weren’t interested in those capabilities; the barge had 12 classrooms and a chapel that could be used as a classroom. After some haggling, we had the barge towed to Annapolis and moored adjacent to Dewey Field seawall to serve as temporary classrooms.

Subsequently, as money became available, the Academy contracted for a temporary modular classroom village to be erected in the parking lot that formerly was between Rickover and Nimitz Halls (where Hopper Hall now stands). That complex significantly relieved the pressure on classroom space.

RADM William C. Miller ’62, USN (Ret.), served as Dean and Provost at the Naval Academy for 12 years. He is a 2014 U.S. Naval Academy Alumni Association Distinguished Graduate Honoree.

ISABEL RECOLLECTIONS FROM THE YARD

On 18 September 2003, Hurricane Isabel had weakened but still brought 60 mph winds and a storm surge that flooded large portions of the Naval Academy. Members of the Naval Academy community who were on the Yard during the time Hurricane Isabel hit Annapolis shared their memories with Shipmate.

Scott Strasemeier, Senior Associate A.D./Sports Information

Strasemeier joined the Navy athletic department as an intern in 1991 and started full-time in 1992. He said the sports information team moved their equipment to Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium on the Friday after Isabel battered Annapolis. The football team defeated Eastern Michigan that weekend and although the bottom floor of Ricketts Hall was flooded ankle deep, the team forged on.
“Seeing the fish on the tennis courts and watching boats drive by Riordan’s Saloon are two things I’ll never forget. It was incredible, seeing boats driving the roads around City Dock … We were back to business on Monday.”

Commander Dan Sweatman ’03, USNR; Lieutenant Colonel Charlie Nash ’03, USMC; Lieutenant Colonel Kip Rainey ’03, Rhode Island Army National Guard

At the time, we were stashed ensigns/second lieutenants coaching sprint football and waiting to go to flight school and TBS. What is better than being stashed in the athletic department, living in West Annapolis with your best friends and trying to adult for the first time in your life?

Our boss and head coach at the time was Major Jerry Rizzo. I can’t recall Coach Rizzo’s reaction to hearing that we kayaked the storm surge, but I imagine it was a look that conveyed that he thought we were being idiots and we needed to get our act together if we wanted to be successful junior officers.

Roger Calisch ’07
I recall, after the water receded, going on company runs for weeks and still seeing boats stuck on the rock walls beyond Gate 1. I remember having to go to plebe chemistry in the barges along the seawall across from Chauvenet and Michelson for the fall semester. It was a great experience to see how the entire Academy rallied around, not just each other, but the city of Annapolis as well.

Commander C. Ryan “Red” Miller ’05, USN
I was in 26th Company, so we lived in 8th Wing which overlooks Rip Miller Field and Brownson Road. The storm surge inundated the lower part of the Yard, especially the whole of Rip Miller and Farragut Field.

During my time at the Academy, I was a big swimmer. I was very active with triathlon and swam 1-2 miles each day. Since Brownson Road was flooded, the pool was closed and me being an indestructible 21-year-old mid, I decided that my swimming workout would be outdoors for that day. Particularly, I put on my goggles and swam laps up and down Brownson Road. Smart? Definitely not, but it was a helluva workout. Plus, how many people can say they swam laps on Brownson Road?

The best part, some senior enlisted adviser saw me and came out of 7th Wing to yell at me while I was swimming. I just swam away across Rip Miller Field and then back to 8th Wing.

John Semcken ’78
I was in town for our class reunion. I was staying at the Waterfront Hotel at the harbor in downtown Annapolis. There was this slamming noise followed by a scratching noise through the night and we couldn’t figure out what it was. We had to get out of the hotel the following morning.

The lobby was flooded so we had to climb out windows to the roof of the parking lot. That’s when we realized that the slamming and scratching noise was a section of the pier that had broken away and was slamming into the hotel then scratching down the side of the hotel when the wave retreated then back again. In the morning we were stranded because the hotel was surrounded by water like a moat. Kids from town gave us a lift across on small row boats. They got great tips that day.

Lieutenant Commander Kurtis Wong ’04, USN
I was on 2nd Batt staff and I was the Batt duty officer that night. Tons of issues:
• some middies swam out to the close buoy to ‘experience the storm up close,’
• King Hall staff stranded.

We got almost no sleep that night as we were responding to everything. Went out to meet my parents the next day and their entire hotel lobby was flooded. Only way to reach them in the hotel was to wade through chest deep water, so I had to keep my sea bag with my whites in it on my head as I waded in.

For the barges, a lot of complaining and disbelief that we’d come to this. But I was a systems engineer so our labs were flooded and I never actually had classes on the barges … It did force flexibility for a few weeks as we had to get King Hall cleaned and then sanitized and cleared for food service again. I think the Brigade adapted pretty well since we could see the circumstances.
One other thing I distinctly remember is how odd it was to see the Severn River flowing the other direction. Never seen that before, don’t know if we’ll ever see it again.

Mindy Smith, former English department staff member
I remember being one of a few civilians putting the classrooms back together for class on Monday even though the drywall was cut out about 18-24 inches all around. Things were chaotic upon everyone’s return. The phones had a party line effect and were not reliable for communication. There was no A/C as we were operating off generators.

Professors from other flooded buildings were teaching in various spots in Mahan and asking me for the most basic supplies. Meanwhile, my department had the opportunity to teach on the barge, which was brought in to help with the situation.
The interfaith chapel was destroyed. We had to bury all the Jewish books in the cemetery as they were ruined. I think that weekend was supposed to be the groundbreaking for the Jewish Chapel, but Isabel had other plans.

Commander Gray Tompson ’07, USN
I was a plebe in 30th Company, giving me a front row seat from my west-facing room on 8-4 … including the sight of a wayward inflatable tender getting lodged in the fountain between Bancroft and Lejeune Hall.
From my perspective, the King Hall staff were unsung heroes. I will admit the quality of midshipman fare suffered in the immediate aftermath of the storm due to the galley facilities being completely swamped (blueberry bagels and sausage gravy, anyone?), but the fact of the matter is they kept the Brigade fed after the storerooms were contaminated and “rebuilt” King Hall in Dahlgren and the 6th Wing parking lot! Bravo Zulu.

Lieutenant Commander John R. O’Neill ’07, USN
I was a plebe in 18th Company the year Isabel hit. I remember the upperclassmen running up and down the hallways yelling to come out for a hurricane party. All four classes hung out together in the P Ways while the storm hit.
It was a rather unexpected experience as we were barely into our first-ever academic year and everyone was suddenly being real nice to us. The next morning, we were all blown away to see how high the water got, especially on the 1st Regiment side. The party ended abruptly when we were all put into working parties to clean the Yard and specifically the parade fields of all the debris that had blown around everywhere. The hurricane symbol was put into our 2007 class crest because of that storm.

CANOES ON THE YARD, SWIMMING ON FARRAGUT
MEMBERS OF THE CLASS OF 2006 SHARE THEIR HURRICANE ISABEL FRONT-ROW MEMORIES

From devising ways to pass the time without power to finding creative recreational activities to sustain the physical mission, the Brigade of Midshipmen persevered despite the havoc brought on by Hurricane Isabel. The Class of 2006 recounted some of their experiences during that time.

“Swimming on Farragut.”
—Lieutenant Commander LaDoux Coleman ’06, USN

Commander Josh Angichiodo ’06, USN, 25th Company, Class of 2006 Vice President
As the storm approached, we were informed that the Brigade was going to tough it out in Mother B. She was wrapped in sandstone and protected by Poseidon (I was told), so this seemed like a reasonable decision. I’d been through a hurricane when I was enlisted and did the 18-hour evacuation drive only to return and find a few leaves along the sidewalk, so I was excited to just sit back and listen to the wind.

Hurricane Isabel didn't seem overly powerful. There was wind and noise, but it was nothing special. What I was not prepared for was the storm surge that absolutely wrecked the Academy and surrounding areas. The English poet John Donne may have said “no man is an island,” but John never said anything about USNA. When the sun came up, we could see Bancroft was surrounded by water on three sides, with Stribling as the singular escape route—only to be met by the risen waters of College Creek creeping towards Alumni Hall and the Worden Field residences.

Always a sleep thief, then-Commandant of Midshipmen Colonel J.R. Allen ’76, USMC, who retired as a four-star general, impressed the values of duty upon us (probably with a Kipling quote), and ushered several midshipmen towards their first Navy working party, picking up sticks in the flooded street behind Captain’s Row, and scouring the sidewalks of Stribling for out of place vegetation. Annapolis was a mess, but USNA would be tidy.

Shortly after the hurricane, a Rickover physics mannequin was either put out for garbage or perhaps just to dry, and somehow (via fireman carry by plebe Ryan Kimmel ’07), the mannequin made it back to the 25th Company wardroom, adorned in then-Midshipman (and now Lieutenant Commander) Nick Goddard ’07’s E-5 bus driver uniform, and christened “T.E.D.” He was prominently featured in the world famous “USNA Cribs” spirit spot, but was sadly taken from us during spring break 2004.
To this day, when touring family through the Yard, I am required to say, “That fountain was completely covered! People were kayaking in the streets! Allen made us clean up the Yard!”

“18th Company set up a game of Risk. We were eating Uncrustables and conquering the world for three days! We also had classes in the berthing barge!”
—Travis Klempan ’06

Mike Matson ’06
Back in 2003, professors still clung to their paper journal archives, a wealth of knowledge lost forever to the merciless floodwaters. It was truly gut-wrenching to witness these brilliant minds grappling with the sudden loss of years of research, learnings and cherished memories. The heartache was palpable.

In the aftermath of the flood, the chemistry labs found refuge in temporary shacks, affectionately dubbed T-shacks, near Dewey Field. It was a sight to behold, witnessing the resilience of our academic pursuits amidst such unconventional surroundings. Who needs fancy laboratories when you have a few humble shacks to conduct your experiments, right?

At the end of the second semester of our sophomore year, we faced a perplexing puzzle to unravel the enigmatic composition of a mysterious clear liquid. For me, it was the highlight of our chemistry experiments on the Yard.

Those box window AC units and the ventilation ducting in the fume hoods put up a valiant, yet futile, fight against the relentless Annapolis heat. After hours of tedious ether extractions in that sweltering environment, the fumes had clearly gotten to a few of our classmates. Giggles and laughter filled the air as the ether-induced giddiness took hold.

Ether fumes and stifling temperatures, a potent combination indeed. I’m sure our professors had quite the chuckle witnessing the antics and exuberance that ensued that day. I hope that memories like these slowly replaced the pages that were lost.
In true Academy fashion, we found humor and resilience. The Severn may rise and fall, but the spirit of camaraderie and laughter will always endure, leaving us with cherished memories of those tumultuous days in the T-shacks.

“Trying to stay awake in a DiffEQ class in a wardroom with epic leather couches.”
—Sam Fromille ’06

Gordon McDonald ’06
Kayaking in the 7th Wing horseshoe. Wrecked sailboats on the sea wall. Relaxing the tie requirement for WWB during classes because the boilers broke or something causing the heat in classrooms to remain fixed at 85 degrees. That rule stayed even after the temperature issue was fixed and we only wore ties for formations.

“I remember several mids canoeing around the Yard.”
—Lieutenant Commander Jonathan Allmond ’06, USN

Nick Hamm ’06
We gathered in my room and we had no internet and no smart phones and the only thing we had was a vintage electronic baseball game where you only had two buttons and we’d play and pass it around and all you could really hear was the 1980s game sounds clicking through our room and it was so stagnant and hot and boring. Nobody told us anything and we could see all of the crazy flooding but we knew nothing so we sat and sweated and listened to the game click.

Once we restarted classes they told us we could go in our white works and the legendary Captain Ford Shaw ’06, USMC, wasn’t going to miss the chance to be awesome. He put all of his books into his pillowcase, somehow found his canteen and clipped it on his bayonet belt, and donned his plebe cover and went to class as Nimitz himself intended, as a Plebe Summer pleber.

“Playing board games in the wardroom when there was no power because the administration told us we couldn’t leave. We had to play by candlelight at night since there was no power!”
—Lieutenant Commander Justin Kirkpatrick ’06, USN