Naval Academy Class of 2017 receives service assignments

By Petty Officer 3rd Class Brianna Jones

The United States Naval Academy (USNA) Class of 2017 received their service assignments Nov. 17, informing them which warfare communities they will serve once they are commissioned as officers in the Navy and Marine Corps.

Throughout their four years of study, midshipmen are exposed to the various career paths offered by the Navy and Marine Corps, and submit their service assignment preferences between the 24 different options in late August of their 1st class (senior) year.

"Service assignment is a pivotal point in a midshipman's career," said Commandant of Midshipman Col. Stephen Liszewski. "I share their excitement as they join their perspective warfare communities."

 

USNA aims to match the 1,067 first-class midshipmen with a community that suits their personal preferences as well as their aptitude and ability. 95 percent of the Class of 2017 received their first or second assignment preference.

Midshipman 1st Class Julian Turner, of 4th Company, chose surface warfare officer (SWO). Turner is the first of his family to serve in the Armed Forces.

“SWO was my first choice,” said Turner. “I gravitate more toward the people in that community, and I feel that I will be a more impactful leader there because of my values, skills, and how I plan to lead.”

Turner will join 249 other midshipmen entering the SWO community from the academy. Midshipmen who will commission as surface warfare officers will select their first ships in the academy’s annual Ship Selection Nights slated for Jan. 26.

Midshipman 1st Class Sara Tumbas, of 4th Company, said she knew she wanted to be a Navy pilot over the summer when she did a cruise on an aircraft carrier.

 

“I was a part of power flight, which is a three week program where midshipmen learn how to fly,” said Tumbas. “Even though I never got to fly solo during power flight, just getting up there and being in the cockpit made me realize that I wanted this.”

Tumbas will join 240 of her classmates who were selected to become Navy pilots and 75 who will serve as flight officers.

Following in the footsteps of his father, a Marine aviator for 23 years, Midshipman 1st Class Christian Scroggs will become a Marine Corps officer.

 

“There was no pressure from home to be a Marine, just a solid role model and an idea of exactly the footsteps I wanted to follow in,” said Scroggs. “My dad is almost as excited as I am.”

Of the 269 midshipmen selected to become Marines, 173 will serve as ground officers and 96 will serve as pilots or flight officers.

Assignments are based on specific requirements provided to USNA by Department of the Navy leadership and consider both a midshipman’s aptitude and preference for a particular assignment. The Naval Academy endeavors to place midshipmen in the community best suited to their strengths, so as to set them up for successful careers of naval service.

The class of 2017 will graduate in May, and join their assigned warfare communities in the fleet. 

Understanding the Midshipman Honor Concept

One of the main tenets of the Naval Academy’s mission is “to develop midshipmen morally ... and imbue them with the highest ideals of duty, honor and loyalty”. To educate, shape and inspire thoughts and actions to best prepare the Brigade to become leaders of character – ready to lead Sailors and Marines in the Fleet – honor, integrity, and character are at the core of effective leadership.

The Honor Concept of the Brigade of Midshipmen directly supports USNA’s mission and permeates every pillar and every member of USNA.

The Honor Concept, the ethical baseline that reaffirms the Brigade’s commitment to doing that which is right, explicitly states:

“Midshipmen are persons of integrity:
WE STAND FOR THAT WHICH IS RIGHT.

We tell the truth and ensure that the full truth is known.
WE DO NOT LIE.

We embrace fairness in all actions.  We ensure that work submitted as our own is our own, and that assistance received from any source is authorized and properly documented.
WE DO NOT CHEAT.

We respect the property of others and ensure that others are able to benefit from the use of their own property.
WE DO NOT STEAL.”

The Honor Concept, owned by the Brigade, provides the ethical and moral guidelines for officers in training, and promotes trust and confidence across the entire institution. The focus should be on what you should do (positives), and not a codified list of what not to do (negatives). It inspires an innate sense of responsibility to do the right thing in enforcing high standards of honor.

We'll be sharing a series of inspirational posts throughout the academic year that support the notion of honor and developing officers of character. Stay tuned!

UPDATE: USNA Midshipmen Donate Record-Breaking 80,000 Pounds of Food

By Petty Officer 3rd Class Brianna Jones

UPDATE: A previous version of this story stated the mids collected more than 75,000 pounds of food, which was an initial estimate. The food bank later weighed the food and put the official total at more than 80,000 pounds.

Midshipmen from the United States Naval Academy’s Midshipman Action Group (MAG) and the USNA’s Chaplains Office collected and donated a record-breaking 80,000 pounds of non-perishable food items Nov. 3 for the Harvest for the Hungry Campaign.

Harvest for the Hungry is an annual food drive sponsored by the Anne Arundel County Food and Resource Bank to help low-income families with meals and other basic needs year-round. 

This is the 8th year that MAG has partnered with the Anne Arundel Food Bank and Anne Arundel Public Schools for this campaign, and they were able to donate more food than ever before.

The midshipmen began collecting items in September, participating in a friendly competition between the companies to see who could collect the most food. There is no formal prize, just bragging rights for the winner and the pride of knowing that they helped those in need.

“We don’t get any sort of rewards. We are doing this because we love to help the community,” said project manager Midshipman 1st Class Megan Rosenberger. “One in three kids in Anne Arundel County are food insecure, and we want to do anything we can to help end that. “

The Anne Arundel Food Bank’s on-site feeding programs serve more than one million meals per year which is made possible, in part, by the donations brought in by this event.

“This drive is essential to give us what we need over the holiday season,” said Susan Thomas, associate director of the Anne Arundel Food and Resource Bank. “The amount of food donated by the midshipmen will keep us stocked until spring.”

Annapolis is the home for midshipmen for four years, and for the MAG members, it just makes sense to give back to their immediate community beyond the gates.

“We started working with the Harvest for the Hungry program eight years ago,” said Miriam Stanicic, USNA community relations director. “At that time, we collected 8,000 pounds, and all the food fit in one large van. Never did we dream that just years later, the midshipman would be collecting this amount of food.”

“The midshipmen have been great," said Thomas. "Not just with the food drive, but they volunteer their time at the food bank and are always willing to give help anywhere that we need it."

MAG was established in 1992 as a community relations program for and by the Brigade of Midshipmen. The group offers a variety of educational and social service volunteer projects to instill a sense of servitude that will stick with them all of their lives. MAG encourages peer leadership, teamwork, morale and selflessness - all of which are traits that will set them up for success as naval leaders.

USNA Masqueraders Welcomes New Director

The midshipman theater group, known as the Masqueraders, are getting ready for their fall production, and this year brings some staff changes.

Dr. Megan Geigner became the newest Director of the Masqueraders on Aug. 1, as well as an Assistant Professor of English. Geigner brings experience and enthusiasm to her new position, and looks forward to working with the midshipmen.

“It is a great joy to be the Masqueraders' director,” said Geigner. “The students who participate in the group are a dream to work with, and I feel lucky to spend 20-plus hours a week with them!”

Prior to moving to Annapolis, Geigner received her doctorate in Theatre and Drama from Northwestern University. While at Northwestern she worked on, “A Funny Thing Happended on the Way to the Forum,” “Cabaret,” and a set of student original plays called “State(s) of America”. She is an Artistic Associate with Chicago’s TimeLine Theatre, where she dramaturged “Chimerica” and “Danny Casolaro Died for You.”

She has also worked with several other theatres in Chicago including Court Theatre, Remy Bumppo, and Mary Arrchie. Dr. Geigner has directed plays at the University of Chicago, Reed College, and Illinois State University. She spent seven seasons working the Illinois Shakespeare Festival.

Her work on theatre and drama has been published in Modern Drama, New England Theatre Journal, Theatre History Studies, Cosmopolitan Review, and Theatre Journal.

Geigner took over the director role from Associate Professor Christy Stanlake who served as Director of the Masqueraders for fourteen years. Stanlake continues to teach English at USNA.

“The Masqueraders were unbelievably lucky to have the talents of Professor Stanlake for 14 years,” said Geigner. “She has been invaluable to me in showing me the ropes of the academy, supporting me and the students, and fostering a positive environment for the club.”

The Masqueraders is USNA’s oldest extracurricular activity. Officially established in 1907, the group seeks to promote and stimulate interest in the theatre within the Brigade of Midshipmen, and strives to further midshipmen’s intellectual development through the practical experience of dramatic literature.

Under Geigner’s direction, she plans to foster this identity and promote the group as a signature program in the master academic plan, all while adding a more contemporary repertoire to the group’s performances.

“I am hoping to do contemporary work with them more regularly – plays written since 2000, or even plays written in the last year, and maybe midshipmen-written plays,” said Geigner. “Prior to coming here, I was involved with Chicago's professional theatre scene and had the privilege of helping to develop new plays and work on the first regional theatre productions of plays after their Broadway runs. I hope to bring some of my skills in working with new plays here to the academy.”

Geigner makes her USNA directorial debut with Shakespeare’s “Much Ado about Nothing,” which she began planning in earnest shortly after her arrival on the Yard.

“When asked to select a play for the fall, and knowing that the students had been performing Shakespeare every four years, I was excited to choose ‘Much Ado,’” said Geigner. “In the last decade or so, the Masqueraders have done Shakespearean tragedies and histories, so I wanted the group to have the opportunity to do a comedy. I figure that so much of what our midshipmen do is serious and weighty, so let them tackle the serious and weighty language of Shakespeare in order to tell jokes.”

Additionally, Geigner thought the play was appropriate for this time in USNA’s history.

“At its heart, this is a play about gender relations, and it seemed that there was no better time to do it than on the 40th anniversary of women at the academy,” said Geigner.

One of Shakespeare’s most beloved comedies, “Much Ado about Nothing” delights audiences with its dual and dueling ideas of love, courtship, and the proper behavior of the sexes. It is thought to have been written in 1598 and 1599 and takes place in Messina, a Sicilian port city. Geigner chose to reset the play in the American southwest just after World War I.

“My production is set in 1919 in New Mexico because prior to the Nineteenth Amendment, which didn't go into effect until August of 1920, New Mexico was the only state in the West that didn't have women's suffrage,” she said. “This sets Beatrice and Hero up nicely to be on opposite sides of socio-political history: Beatrice is an outspoken suffragette and Hero is an obedient daughter.”

Midshipman 1st Class Navarro, who plays Hero, agrees with the appropriateness of the play.

“We often do obscure shows, but this one is very relatable and easy to understand,” she said.

Setting the play in New Mexico gives Geigner and the midshipmen a chance to play with the characters as well.

“New Mexico also had a sense of the rugged Wild West so the character of Dogberry, the local sheriff, can play the renegade (albeit absentminded) cowboy,” said Geigner.

The comical character Dogberry is played by Midshipman 1st Class Evan Wray, whose opinion of Shakespeare has changed with his work in the Masqueraders.

“I didn’t think that I liked Shakespeare, and then I read this play, and it’s really funny,” he said. “I think this is the funniest production we have done since I have been part of the Masqueraders.”

The play’s performance dates are November 11, 12, 18 and 19 at 8 p.m., and November 20 at 2 p.m. in Mahan Theater. Tickets cost $13 for the public, $5 for midshipmen. To purchase tickets visit: https://navyperforms.showare.com/. Tickets can also be purchased at the door the evening of each show.

Mahan Hall is located on Maryland Avenue, near Gate 3. Any military or DoD personnel with a valid military ID can drive directly onto the Academy grounds. The closest parking to the theater is Alumni Hall parking lot. There is limited parking in front of Mahan Hall.

For all other audiences, parking is available out in town. Gate 3 (located at the end of Maryland Avenue) is open until 9 p.m. to any visitor with a valid government-issued photo ID.  Gate 1 (located at the end of King George Street) is open until 1 a.m. on weekends.