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Hartford, Conn. (AP) -- Officials say a junior officer at a Connecticut submarine base has received an honorable discharge after suing the Navy, saying his Quaker beliefs prevent him from participating in war. . . . As part of his honorable discharge, he will reimburse the Navy for his education.

"The Travis Manion Foundation is saddened to post this devastating news about one of America's finest. Brendan Looney was a true patriot and loyal friend who will be missed greatly by all. We mourn for the loss of Brendan... Our thoughts and prayers go out to the Looney family." - www.TravisManion.com On September 21, 2010, LT Brendan Looney was killed in a helicopter crash in the Zabul province of Afghanistan. Brendan was a U.S. Navy SEAL and member of the Naval Academy Class of 2004. He was also the best friend and Naval Academy roommate of Doylestown's Travis Manion. American...

ANNAPOLIS, Md. — An investigation that found wide-ranging misuse of money at the U.S. Naval Academy was a factor in curtailing the tenure of its outgoing superintendent, the Navy's chief spokesman said Monday. The investigative report released Monday found that an improper, off-the-books slush fund was used to pay for tailgate parties, luncheons and other events for senior academy personnel. Vice Adm. Jeffrey Fowler is leaving the academy this summer after serving as superintendent for 3 years, the minimum term required by statute for the post. "The outcome of this investigation was a factor in him not serving longer," said...

Naval Academy upperclassmen call greaseless climb a 'joke' The Naval Academy's annual Herndon Climb had hardly begun yesterday before it was over. Midshipman 4th Class Keegan Albi, from Eugene, Ore., scaled the 21-foot-tall obelisk in two minutes, five seconds. Academy officials decreed this year that the Herndon Monument was not to be greased with lard, as is customary, and that the freshmen, or plebes, were not to be sprayed with garden hoses, as in most years. Also, the hat that the plebes were to remove from the top of the monument could not be taped or glued down. The climb...

ANNAPOLIS, Md. – As they have for 70 years, students at the U.S. Naval Academy celebrated the end of their grueling first year by scaling a 21-foot obelisk on Monday. But this time, without a lard coating on the monument, students completed the task in minutes. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100524/ap_on_re_us/us_plebes_no_more

... [T]he Naval Academy, where I have been a professor for 23 years, has lost its way. The same is true of the other service academies. They are a net loss to the taxpayers who finance them, as well as a huge disappointment to their students, who come expecting reality to match reputation. They need to be fixed or abolished. The service academies are holdovers from the 19th century, when they were virtually the only avenue for producing an officer corps for the nation’s military and when such top-down institutions were taken for granted. But the world has changed, which...

WASHINGTON, Feb. 26, 2010 – Female sailors will begin serving on submarines by the end of next year, with Naval Academy graduates leading the way, Navy leaders told a Senate committee yesterday. Navy Secretary Ray Mabus told the Senate Armed Services Committee that the Navy is in a good position to move forward with integrating women onto submarines. “We think we learned a lot about integrating women in the services years ago, and those lessons are relevant today,” Mabus said. Those lessons, he said, include having a “critical mass” of female candidates, having senior women to serve as mentors, and...

WASHINGTON, Jan. 25, 2010 – As the youngest of six children in his family, Adam Scott had some big military shoes to fill. Adam Scott, third from left, poses for a picture with his family at his parents’ home in Lorton, Va. Scott is a sophomore at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y. DoD photo by Elaine Wilson  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. His five siblings all joined the military. Three of them attended the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., as did his father and his grandfathers on both sides. On his father’s side, he...

Just thought with the game tomorrow and the Cadets/Midshipmen making their way to Phili today I'd create a thread for old grads from each side to root for their team.

ANNAPOLIS | U.S. Naval Academy officials said Monday that they were exploring ways of working knowledge about cyberwarfare into the core curriculum for all students because of the rising significance of cybersecurity. Right now, the academy offers some elective courses, classes mostly taken by computer science and information technology majors. But unlike the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in New York and the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, the Annapolis school does not even have a club for students interested in the field. "On a bunch of different levels, in terms of opening up to cyberwarfare, outside...

They're not a member of any conference and you’ll never be able to follow their standout players to the NFL. Nothing about the Navy football team screams “pay attention to me.”

Leaders of the U.S. Naval Academy tinkered with the composition of the color guard that appeared at a World Series game last month so the group would not be exclusively white and male. Accounts differ as to who was added to or removed from the Oct. 29 color guard. But the net result was that one of the six who marched on Yankee Stadium's field, Midshipman 2nd Class Hannah Allaire, was selected because her presence would make the service academy look more diverse before a national audience. The incident has captured the attention of the Annapolis campus and stirred up...

In ten days (I'd say ten short days, but this time of year the days are never short enough), Ohio State will open its 2009 season with a home game against the United States Naval Academy. It will mark the first time these two teams have faced each other since the 1981 Liberty Bowl, which the Buckeyes won, 31-28. Prior to that, Ohio State and Navy hadn't played since 1931. Ohio State University wants its fans to know that this isn't exactly the Kentucky School of Turfgrass Management that's coming to town. The Midshipmen are giving up a minimum of...

Link only.

The U.S. Naval Academy's PowerPoint display explains diversity by saying, "Diversity is all the different characteristics and attributes of individual sailors and civilians which enhance the mission readiness of the Navy," adding that: "Diversity is more than equal opportunity, race, gender or religion. Diversity is the understanding of how each of us brings different skills, talents and experiences to the fight -- and valuing those differences. Leveraging diversity creates an environment of excellence and continuous improvement to remove artificial achievement barriers and value the contribution of all participants." Admiral Gary Roughead, chief of Naval Operations, says that "diversity is the...

"Naval Academy Professor Challenges Rising Diversity," ran the headline in The Washington Post. The impression left was that some sorehead was griping because black and Hispanic kids were finally being admitted. The Post's opening paragraphs reinforced the impression. "Of the 1,230 plebes who took the oath of office at the Naval Academy in Annapolis this week, 435 were members of minority groups. It's the most racially diverse class in the nation's 164-year history. Academy leaders say it's a top priority to build a student body that reflects the racial makeup of the Navy and the nation." Who can be against...

Bruce Fleming has been an English professor at the United States Naval Academy for twenty-two years and has served as a member of USNA’s Admissions Board. He has expressed concerns over the Academy’s admissions process which he strongly believes places too much emphasis on racial diversity at the cost of quality students. He explains these concerns as follows: Here’s a question: would you rather be defended by the officer with high all-around predictors (including leadership and athletics in addition to grades and test scores), or low ones? I bet you think I’m joking when I say that at the Unites...

The Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Gary Roughead announced in Annapolis recently that "diversity is the number one priority" at the Naval Academy. The Naval Academy superintendent, Vice Adm. Jeffrey Fowler, echoed him. Everyone understands that "diversity" here means nonwhite skins. Fowler insisted recently that we needed to have Annapolis graduates who "looked like" the Fleet, where enlisted people are about 42 percent nonwhite, largely African American and Hispanic. The stunning revelation last week was that the Naval Academy had an incoming class that was "more diverse" than ever before: 35 percent minority. Sounds good, only this comes with a...

Graduating midshipmen of the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis are being told in writing to leave at home or in their vehicles all "ceremonial swords" and anything else "that might be considered a weapon or a threat by screeners" for Friday's outdoor commencement ceremonies featuring an address by President Barack Obama. Inside the Beltway has obtained the academy's list of prohibited items for this year's graduation exercises, which, besides ceremonial swords, includes umbrellas.

From today's you couldn't make it up if you tried file.......Obama's protectors have ordered graduating Midshipmen....and I suppose Commissioned Officers through Flag rank...to leave their swords at home. Full Dress White includes "wear sword". More to the point...those badges of office have been earned in a manner Obongo and his minions just wouldn't begin to understand. Important traditions that inspire are kind of lost on the red banner crowd, apparently. Further, ceremonial swords never seemed to bother the Secret Service for any previous President. And before World War II, the swords were not particularly "ceremonial", I've seen some of those...

Graduating midshipmen of the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis are being told in writing to leave at home or in their vehicles all "ceremonial swords" and anything else "that might be considered a weapon or a threat by screeners" for Friday's outdoor commencement ceremonies featuring an address by President Barack Obama.

ANNAPOLIS | President Obama on Friday promised the U.S. Naval Academy's graduating class that he will not send them into combat unless absolutely necessary and will always make sure they are properly prepared and equipped, in an apparent swipe at the Bush administration and the Iraq war.

ANNAPOLIS, Md. — Nobody protested President Obama’s commencement address Friday morning at the United States Naval Academy. Nobody told Mr. Obama he was undeserving of an honorary degree. Instead, under a nearly cloudless blue sky, the president was treated to a 21-gun salute, a Blue Angels flyover — and a respite from the controversy that has dogged him at two previous graduation ceremonies.

SWORDLESS SAILORS Graduating midshipmen of the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis are being told in writing to leave at home or in their vehicles all "ceremonial swords" and anything else "that might be considered a weapon or a threat by screeners" for Friday's outdoor commencement ceremonies featuring an address by President Barack Obama.

Obama, before and after.

Obama vows not to send people to war without cause By DARLENE SUPERVILLE, Associated Press ANNAPOLIS, Md. – President Barack Obama promised graduating midshipmen at the U.S. Naval Academy on Friday that, as their commander in chief, he will only send them "into harm's way when it is absolutely necessary." In his first address to military graduates, Obama also pledged to invest in the men and women who defend America's liberty, not just in the weapons they would take with them into battle against 21st century threats. "I will only send you into harm's way when it is absolutely necessary,...

President Barack Obama stands with coach Urban Meyer, second left, after he was presented with a personalized football by the 2008 NCAA Football Champions Florida Gators in the East Room of the White House in Washington, Thursday, April 23, 2009. U.S. President Barack Obama (C) is presented with a football and a football jersey by tight end Cornelius Ingram (R) and other players as Obama welcomes the 2008 NCAA national champions, the University of Florida football team in the East Room of the White House in Washington, April 23, 2009. U.S. President Barack Obama peeks through a giant replica of...

[Midshipman 4th Class Curtis] Calabrese, from Boca Raton, Fla., was the first in decades to fulfill a tradition of putting his cover, or hat, on top of the chapel's obelisk, earning himself and the 1,200 other plebes - the school's term for freshmen - a week of relaxed restrictions. His accomplishment wasn't about bravado or a daring climb hundreds of feet above the ground as much as it was about engineering, ingenuity and a cooperative weather system.

President George W. Bush playfully kicked a football and presided over the pre-game coin toss on Saturday as he basked in the pageantry of the annual Army-Navy game, one of the sport's most storied rivalries. The crowd at Lincoln Financial Field let out hearty cheers of "USA, USA" as Bush made his way to midfield for the ceremonial coin toss,…MORE Earlier in the day, Bush got a look at how history will remember him — at least in one artist's view — as he presided over the unveiling of his portrait at The Union League of Philadelphia. "Welcome to...

Fifty years ago, 899 young men gathered in the then-new Naval Academy field house to hear a graduation address by President Dwight D. Eisenhower. After four grueling years of military and academic training, their numbers had dwindled by a quarter,but for those who had survived, promising futures stretched out ahead. [snip] "We're not going out looking for another job, especially one that's as overwhelming as being president of the United States," said Potter, who planned to travel from California to attend the reunion. "Many of us wonder, 'Where does he get the energy to do this?' But those who knew...

A recent Washington Post profile of John McCain’s years at the Naval Academy portrayed him as an unruly, fun-loving, under-achieving Midshipman struggling with his obligation to live up to his family’s brilliant military legacy. It was “a four-year course of insubordination and rebellion,” McCain later wrote. McCain graduated 894th out of 899 in 1958, five spots above the “Anchorman,” the lowest-ranking midshipman. In this respect he did uphold one family tradition; his similarly rebellious father Jack, who would rise to the rank of Admiral and was the Pacific Command CINC while his son was being held prisoner in Hanoi, had...

ANNAPOLIS, Md. - The U.S. Naval Academy is building on efforts to increase student diversity with the help of a new commercial and a graphic novel. ... Vice Adm. Jeffrey Fowler, the academy's superintendent, wants to make the academy's student body as diverse as the Navy's enlisted force, in which minorities make up about 47 percent.

Remember Idris Leppla? You may recall about 6 months ago, Barnard Senior Idris Leppla became an internet celebrity after the publication of her incoherent diatribe in The Columbia Spectator entitled The Truth About The Academies. You can access this article and some of her other Spectator articles at this link. http://www.columbiaspectator.com/node/25716 Well, it seems that the field for Fullbright Scholarships must have been a bit thin this year, since Ms. Leppla has been awarded a Fullbright to study heroin addiction and prescription drug addiction in France. Judging from the clarity of her writings, this may be an autobiographical work. And...

The ACLU is threatening to sue the U.S. Naval Academy because they say prayers before lunch.

ACLU tries to halt mealtime prayer at Naval Academy By Josh Mitchell | Sun reporter 8:09 PM EDT, June 25, 2008 A national civil liberties group is renewing a push to end mealtime prayer at the U.S. Naval Academy, where a group of midshipmen recently complained to officials that they felt pressured to participate in the longtime practice. The tradition, believed to date back to the college's founding in 1845, now involves a chaplain's leading grace before a noon meal that all 4,200 midshipmen must attend at King Hall. Midshipmen are not required to pray, though they must stand during...

Three years after a scandal at the Air Force Academy over the evangelizing of cadets by Christian staff and faculty members, students and staff at West Point and the Naval Academy are complaining that their schools, too, have pushed religion on cadets and midshipmen.

Mullen said he was inspired to write the essay after receiving a constant stream of legitimate, if troubling, questions while visiting U.S. military personnel around the world, including, "What if a Democrat wins?" and, "What will that do to the mission in Iraq?" "I am not suggesting that military professionals abandon all personal opinions about modern social or political issues," Mullen wrote. "What I am suggesting - indeed, what the nation expects - is that military personnel will, in the execution of the mission assigned to them, put aside their partisan leanings. Political opinions have no place in cockpit or...

President Bush held a meeting this morning with his cabinet to discuss the economy and the Columbia Free Trade Agreement This afternoon, President Bush presented the Commander-In-Chief's Trophy to the United States Naval Academy Football Team in the Rose Garden Transcript First Lady Laura Bush and Jenna Bush visited first grade students at Martin Luther King Elementary School in Washington, Monday, April 14, 2008 To mark the tenth anniversary of 'Teach for America Week' Enoy your visit to Sanity Island

Hundreds of Naval Academy plebes attempt to climb the Herndon monument in an annual tradition marking the end of their freshman year in Annapolis. (Sun photo by Doug Kapustin / May 17, 2007) It's one of the Naval Academy's most enduring traditions: Hundreds of shirtless plebes mark the end of their first year by swarming a grease-slicked, 21-foot-obelisk, climbing over one another in a race to the top. Now, academy officials are asking: Is this safe? In a terse statement this week, academy officials said they will assemble a student committee to study changes to the Herndon Monument Climb. "Like...

A Day in the Life of President Bush (with photos): 12-01-07 Enjoy your visit to Sanity Island PHOTO (s) OF THE DAY ~~Cardboard cutouts of President Bush are represented on both sides of the field at the annual Army/Navy Football Game today. Army cadet Andrew Batule from Honolulu, Hawaii, cheers while standing along side a cardboard cut out of President George W. Bush during the first half of Army's NCAA college football game against Navy in Baltimore, Maryland December 1, 2007. A group of Midshipmen from the United States Naval Academy hold a cardboard cut-out of U.S. President George...

SOUTH BEND, Ind. (AP) — It took 44 years and three overtimes for Navy to beat Notre Dame again. The Midshipmen snapped an NCAA-record 43-game losing streak to the Fighting Irish on Saturday with a 46-44 victory in triple overtime. Kaipo-Noa Kaheaku-Enhada threw a 25-yard TD pass to Reggie Campbell on the first play of the third overtime, then found him again in the end zone for the 2-point conversion. Notre Dame (1-8) cut the lead to two on a 5-yard TD run by Travis Thomas. But after a pass interference call gave Notre Dame a second-chance at the 2-point...

WASHINGTON, Oct. 26, 2007 – Nearly 100 U.S. Naval Academy graduates from the class of 1995 are dedicating their participation in the Oct. 28 Marine Corps Marathon to the memory of six fallen comrades. Left to right: Dr. Mike McClung and his wife, Dr. Re McClung, and Suzanne Kristensen, with her husband, retired Navy Rear Adm. Edward Kristensen, discuss their departed children, Marine Maj. Megan M. McClung and Navy Lt. Cmdr. Erik S. Kristensen at the “Run to Honor” reception in Washington, D.C., Oct. 25, 2007. Photo by Gerry J. Gilmore   (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. About...

The Real ‘Truth’ About the Academies By Michael Podberesky PUBLISHED OCTOBER 15, 2007 In its series on the Service Academies, Spectator has published two submissions: an ignorant, invective piece titled “The Truth About The Academies” by Idris Leppla, whose brother attends the Naval Academy; and a very fair and honest account by Emily Haney-Caron, a self-described anti-war liberal whose fiancé attends West Point. To these voices I would like to add my own—as a graduate of the Naval Academy and a current student at Columbia. Leppla’s unfounded accusations against my alma mater cannot go unanswered. I do not question Spectator...

<p>Could the US dollar be destined to join the D-Mark and the franc in the graveyard of defunct national currencies? Vicente Fox, former Mexican president, told CNN this week that he had talked to US president George W. Bush about the possibility of a regional currency for the Americas.</p>

Rutgers University is known as the birthplace of college football, but in the last few weeks it's seemed more like the deathplace of sportsmanship. On Sept. 7, Rutgers hosted Navy's football team. What respect was shown in the wake of the midshipmen's forthcoming service to the country and the approaching Sept. 11 anniversary? The rowdy student fans of Rutgers hurled obscenities at Navy, thoroughly embarrassing their college and their town. Rutgers won the game but lost any sense of honor and decency. Navy was booed and peppered with "You suck!" chants when they stepped on the field to start both...

It pays to be on the media’s approved victims list. After Don Imus made his “ho” comment about the Rutgers women’s basketball team on April 4, the media went into a feeding frenzy. In the first week after the story broke, the three major networks aired a total of 19 segments. On cable, CNN had 60, with Fox News at 21 and MSNBC at 13. The New York Times ran 12 articles, USA Today and The Washington Post each ran nine, and Newark, New Jersey’s Star-Ledger ran 11. But after the Sept. 7 Navy-Rutgers football game, at which Rutgers fans...

It pays to be on the media’s approved victims list. After Don Imus made his “ho” comment about the Rutgers women’s basketball team on April 4, the media went into a feeding frenzy. In the first week after the story broke, the three major networks aired a total of 19 segments. On cable, CNN had 60, with Fox News at 21 and MSNBC at 13. The New York Times ran 12 articles, USA Today and The Washington Post each ran nine, and Newark, New Jersey’s Star-Ledger ran 11. But after the Sept. 7 Navy-Rutgers football game, at which Rutgers fans...

A likely upshot of President Bush's meetings with his Canadian and Mexican counterparts in Canada, will be a further impetus to the effort to engage in what is euphemistically called the "harmonization" of the three countries' economies, regulatory systems and policies. The effect will be to contribute to...a significant, and possibly irreversible, erosion in the nation's sovereignty. ... the essence of the most successful political experiment in history — the United States of America — is the sovereign power entrusted by the people via our Constitution to our elected, accountable representatives. Unfortunately, such sovereignty is endangered by those who believe...

"Jason Tomlinson should be a commissioned officer preparing to begin a Naval career in surface warfare..." "Tomlinson elected not to graduate from the Naval Academy last May, a personal decision that stunned his coaches and fellow players with the football program. By all accounts, Tomlinson was on course - both academically and militarily - to graduate and simply chose not to do so."

The debate over illegal immigration is a "diversion" to distract Americans from government efforts to enter into a North American Union with Canada and Mexico, in the view of activists protesting in Washington, D.C., on Friday. "The illegal alien problem is a mechanism for leveraging what is yet to come," Daneen Peterson, a researcher who studies the North American Union issue, said at the rally. "If you continue to believe that the illegal alien invasion is the biggest threat to America, you will never understand that there is something far more dangerous to our country called the Security and Prosperity...