Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
NPR
February 19, 2008 Morning Edition (NPR), 10:00 AM
STEVE INSKEEP: If you've ever visited the beautiful old seaport of Annapolis, Maryland, you've seen a familiar sight: groups of clean cut young people in crisp uniforms. They are midshipmen from the U.S. Naval Academy there. But there are fewer of them on the streets these days. A new commander has taken over, Vice Admiral Jeff Fowler, and he wants the midshipmen inside the academy's walls studying and training. The admiral tells them we're a nation at war. Here's NPR Pentagon correspondent Tom Bowman.
TOM BOWMAN: The Acme Bar and Grill on Main Street has long been a favorite haunt for midshipmen. They perch on the stools in this long, dark-paneled pub, scarf down burgers, wings, draft beer. But bartender Tara Henderson says lately she's seen few of what the locals simply refer to as Mids.
TARA HENDERSON (Bartender): I haven't seen Mids in here for, shoot, for about a month now.
Unidentified Man: (unintelligible) (Soundbite of drums)
BOWMAN: That's because midshipmen are spending more time on academy grounds, standing at attention, marching across this wide plaza. There's less liberty, more study hours, restrictions on extracurricular activities, mandatory meals for all 4,000 midshipmen. And as the brigade heads off to lunch, there are strong opinions about what they've lost. Here's Senior Kevin Liu, Junior Nick Lowe, and Senior Joy Dewey.
KEVIN LIU (Midshipman): The most negative response would definitely be the liberty. I mean, just people are very sensitive about their liberty. People like to go out.
NICK LOWE (Midshipman): The initial reaction was, oh great, there's something else to deal with.
JOY DEWEY (Midshipman): There was a lot of initial griping.
BOWMAN: Admiral Fowler, the man who made these changes, says those reactions were expected.
Vice Admiral JEFF FOWLER (United States Naval Academy): I would say up front, there was a little bit of griping, but it's really expectations. And that's human nature.
BOWMAN: The mother of one midshipman wrote to the local newspaper. The admiral, she said, was turning the academy into a reformatory.
FOWLER: The impression is I came in here and turned the place into a prison, and it really isn't that bad.
BOWMAN: Fowler came here from Naples, Italy, where he commanded NATO's Naval forces. He realized early on that midshipmen had to refocus on leadership and studies, especially in this time of war. When he was a midshipman in the 1970s, there were Saturday classes and earlier time for lights out. Now he saw midshipmen with more freedom being pulled in too many directions - French Club, Glee Club, tutoring children in Annapolis. That might be okay for a state college, but at the Naval Academy, the whole point is to create military leaders, and that process begins by overseeing the squads of midshipmen.
FOWLER: Now it's more than just about themselves. Now it's about them leading others. If everyone's off doing their independent things that happen at a lot of colleges, the squads would never get together.
BOWMAN: Fowler pushed those clubs, the charity work, into a midshipman's spare time and weekends.
FOWLER: Now, we have not eliminated those. We just said we've got to be smarter about this. You can't miss your calculus class or your leadership class. That's part of your development. You can't do that to go do other activities.
BOWMAN: And part of that development takes place in King Hall, the sprawling cafeteria. With more required meals, the upperclassmen have more time to talk with their squads, drill younger midshipmen on their studies, disciple some, reward others. Midshipman Nick Lowe is a platoon sergeant who plans on becoming a pilot. He says after the initial grumbling about lost privileges, many came to realize the importance of connecting, especially with the freshmen.
LOWE: You get to know them a lot more when everybody's around, otherwise, if you don't have to go to a meal, you stay in your room and you work on homework or whatever.
BOWMAN: And that's what Fowler says he wants to accomplish, get midshipmen to spend more time with each other, practice for the real world. Fowler asked the midshipmen to consider the last deployment of the U.S.S. Eisenhower. The aircraft carrier was at sea for 233 days, with just 15 days in port.
TENELEY FULLINGTON (Midshipman): When you're forced to sit down with your squad, you're forced to interact with different personalities.
BOWMAN: Teneley Fullington is a 21-year-old junior from Pennsylvania. She hopes to serve aboard a Navy ship and one day become an oceanographer.
FULLINGTON: You learn how to deal with different types of people, and that's going to help out significantly when I'm out in the fleet.
BOWMAN: The changes at the academy have the backing of one powerful group: alumni. Lawrence Good Heyworth, the third, is a spokesman for the Naval Academy Alumni Association. He graduated during the Vietnam War, is the son and grandson of Admirals, and the father of a 2005 academy graduate.
LAWRENCE GOOD HEYWORTH (Spokesperson for the Naval Academy Alumni Association): I would call that a reality check, is what the superintendent's doing.
BOWMAN: Heyworth agrees that tightening up the rules will help midshipmen better understand what they will soon face.
HEYWORTH: We are a nation at war. We've got these kids out of 2005, 2006 and 2007 who are in Iraq. My son is boarding Iraqi and Iranian ships in the Gulf just last summer. (Soundbite of chimes)
BOWMAN: In the meantime, most appear to be adjusting to the new rules. Midshipmen Kevin Liu is still in the Glee Club, though with a shorter practice so he can make dinner. And Acme Bar and Grill owner Kevin Epley still sees midshipmen.
KEVIN EPLEY (Owner, Acme Bar and Grill): We have our little spikes on the weekend when they are allowed out.
BOWMAN: Those easy weekends before they head out to sea and possibly into harm's way.
Tom Bowman, NPR News.
February 19, 2008 Morning Edition (NPR), 10:00 AM
STEVE INSKEEP: If you've ever visited the beautiful old seaport of Annapolis, Maryland, you've seen a familiar sight: groups of clean cut young people in crisp uniforms. They are midshipmen from the U.S. Naval Academy there. But there are fewer of them on the streets these days. A new commander has taken over, Vice Admiral Jeff Fowler, and he wants the midshipmen inside the academy's walls studying and training. The admiral tells them we're a nation at war. Here's NPR Pentagon correspondent Tom Bowman.
TOM BOWMAN: The Acme Bar and Grill on Main Street has long been a favorite haunt for midshipmen. They perch on the stools in this long, dark-paneled pub, scarf down burgers, wings, draft beer. But bartender Tara Henderson says lately she's seen few of what the locals simply refer to as Mids.
TARA HENDERSON (Bartender): I haven't seen Mids in here for, shoot, for about a month now.
Unidentified Man: (unintelligible) (Soundbite of drums)
BOWMAN: That's because midshipmen are spending more time on academy grounds, standing at attention, marching across this wide plaza. There's less liberty, more study hours, restrictions on extracurricular activities, mandatory meals for all 4,000 midshipmen. And as the brigade heads off to lunch, there are strong opinions about what they've lost. Here's Senior Kevin Liu, Junior Nick Lowe, and Senior Joy Dewey.
KEVIN LIU (Midshipman): The most negative response would definitely be the liberty. I mean, just people are very sensitive about their liberty. People like to go out.
NICK LOWE (Midshipman): The initial reaction was, oh great, there's something else to deal with.
JOY DEWEY (Midshipman): There was a lot of initial griping.
BOWMAN: Admiral Fowler, the man who made these changes, says those reactions were expected.
Vice Admiral JEFF FOWLER (United States Naval Academy): I would say up front, there was a little bit of griping, but it's really expectations. And that's human nature.
BOWMAN: The mother of one midshipman wrote to the local newspaper. The admiral, she said, was turning the academy into a reformatory.
FOWLER: The impression is I came in here and turned the place into a prison, and it really isn't that bad.
BOWMAN: Fowler came here from Naples, Italy, where he commanded NATO's Naval forces. He realized early on that midshipmen had to refocus on leadership and studies, especially in this time of war. When he was a midshipman in the 1970s, there were Saturday classes and earlier time for lights out. Now he saw midshipmen with more freedom being pulled in too many directions - French Club, Glee Club, tutoring children in Annapolis. That might be okay for a state college, but at the Naval Academy, the whole point is to create military leaders, and that process begins by overseeing the squads of midshipmen.
FOWLER: Now it's more than just about themselves. Now it's about them leading others. If everyone's off doing their independent things that happen at a lot of colleges, the squads would never get together.
BOWMAN: Fowler pushed those clubs, the charity work, into a midshipman's spare time and weekends.
FOWLER: Now, we have not eliminated those. We just said we've got to be smarter about this. You can't miss your calculus class or your leadership class. That's part of your development. You can't do that to go do other activities.
BOWMAN: And part of that development takes place in King Hall, the sprawling cafeteria. With more required meals, the upperclassmen have more time to talk with their squads, drill younger midshipmen on their studies, disciple some, reward others. Midshipman Nick Lowe is a platoon sergeant who plans on becoming a pilot. He says after the initial grumbling about lost privileges, many came to realize the importance of connecting, especially with the freshmen.
LOWE: You get to know them a lot more when everybody's around, otherwise, if you don't have to go to a meal, you stay in your room and you work on homework or whatever.
BOWMAN: And that's what Fowler says he wants to accomplish, get midshipmen to spend more time with each other, practice for the real world. Fowler asked the midshipmen to consider the last deployment of the U.S.S. Eisenhower. The aircraft carrier was at sea for 233 days, with just 15 days in port.
TENELEY FULLINGTON (Midshipman): When you're forced to sit down with your squad, you're forced to interact with different personalities.
BOWMAN: Teneley Fullington is a 21-year-old junior from Pennsylvania. She hopes to serve aboard a Navy ship and one day become an oceanographer.
FULLINGTON: You learn how to deal with different types of people, and that's going to help out significantly when I'm out in the fleet.
BOWMAN: The changes at the academy have the backing of one powerful group: alumni. Lawrence Good Heyworth, the third, is a spokesman for the Naval Academy Alumni Association. He graduated during the Vietnam War, is the son and grandson of Admirals, and the father of a 2005 academy graduate.
LAWRENCE GOOD HEYWORTH (Spokesperson for the Naval Academy Alumni Association): I would call that a reality check, is what the superintendent's doing.
BOWMAN: Heyworth agrees that tightening up the rules will help midshipmen better understand what they will soon face.
HEYWORTH: We are a nation at war. We've got these kids out of 2005, 2006 and 2007 who are in Iraq. My son is boarding Iraqi and Iranian ships in the Gulf just last summer. (Soundbite of chimes)
BOWMAN: In the meantime, most appear to be adjusting to the new rules. Midshipmen Kevin Liu is still in the Glee Club, though with a shorter practice so he can make dinner. And Acme Bar and Grill owner Kevin Epley still sees midshipmen.
KEVIN EPLEY (Owner, Acme Bar and Grill): We have our little spikes on the weekend when they are allowed out.
BOWMAN: Those easy weekends before they head out to sea and possibly into harm's way.
Tom Bowman, NPR News.