Word: midshipmen
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National Interest. The Navy wants St. John's 32 acres, across Annapolis' King George Street, for a dormitory to house 5,000 midshipmen. Said a Navy spokesman: "St. John's property is urgently required in the national interest." St. John's suggested that Annapolis could expand just as well by crossing College Creek on its north, leaving St. John's alone. The president of the American Institute of Architects gave supporting testimony. But Vice Admiral Aubrey Fitch, the Academy's superintendent, does not want his men to have to march too far between classes...
...Midshipmen learn that "the fingerbowl is provided as an assistance in cleansing one's lips and fingertips," and emerge with the old-fashioned polish that marks their profession...
...reason: the Academy's lock-step method of teaching. Daily, across the Yard, in & out of Luce, Dahlgren, Isherwood, Maury Halls, squads of midshipmen march to get their marks, file into class, sit down, open books, stand up, recite, sit down, stand up, march to the next class. The question (said Annapolis' critics on the inside) is not what they know but what they momentarily remember...
...Broad Is "Broad"? The Academy's rationalization of the system is that in no other way could midshipmen be crammed with all that is thought necessary. In four years of about 3,200 hours they are required to get satisfactory marks in seamanship, navigation, ordnance and gunnery, marine engineering, electrical engineering, mathematics, one language (the only chance for an elective) and an abbreviated course called English, History & Government...
...Week for Air. In aviation, the Academy said, its mission is not to teach men to fly. Its mission is simply to familiarize midshipmen "with the potentialities and limitations of air power...