Learning the Cultural Practices of South Korea

A semester in Korea left two midshipmen baffled in all the right ways. The following excerpts from the personal journals of Midshipmen 2/C Nate Mclauchlan and Ian Shaw highlight their four-month experience.

Hanboks are the traditional dress of Korea. The colorful gowns are still used for cultural events,
most notably the holiday of Chusok.

There was culture shock:

“I was warned about the extreme deference shown to elders here. I have read about it in many sources mentioning the deep Confucian values that prevail into contemporary times. But when I witnessed it first hand, I was at a loss. After a long day of a scavenger hunt all around Seoul, my group was on a subway ride back to the rendezvous point. Accompanying us were a couple of Seoul mates (Seoul natives who volunteer to help us foreigners enjoy our time here) who staffed the day’s activities. We were all abuzz, excitedly speaking of the day's happenings while also making plans for the night. Apparently it is good etiquette to be quiet in the subway, an older man let us know. From his seat (because elders sit before women) he violently waved a rolled up newspaper at one of the Koreans with us. Her reaction was silence and a gyration of movement which was intended to be a rapid series of bows. He went on waving and scolding her. She just took it. The criticism went on for a good two minutes. She apologized profusely and held her head down. All of us Americans quieted in awe. When I asked her later about it, she explained. I was angered. This man had the gall to embarrass a friend of mine and be so rude as to wave and point at her. But I was also frozen during the engagement. This was a culture shock.”

The Joint Security Area is the designated diplomatic location within the
Demilitarized Zone along the 38th parallel.

There was the Demilitarized Zone:

“From main center of Seoul to the southern side of the DMZ was an hour bus ride. Keeping in mind that 9.82 million of the 50.22 million South Koreans live in this spanning metropolis, the situation is just as perilous as that of Jerusalem and Palestine. In a conference room overlooking the DMZ and North Korea beyond, a ROK soldier told us not to worry, their missile interception system (he described it as similar to Israel’s Iron Dome) could shoot down anything the northerners sent our way. About an hour later, when speaking to a U.S. soldier attached to Camp Boniface (UNCOM), he pointed to the mountains a few miles north. 'See those? 80% of the North Korean artillery is just over that ridge, pointed right at Seoul. If they fired a consistent, max-capacity barrage for 8 minutes, Seoul would be flattened without sign of life.” Walking the streets of Seoul, one would never guess that desolation is only ever 8 minutes away. Subway stations are equipped with gas masks and sustenance supplies. So the people are not kept up at night, but the North is obviously a concern of officials running the city.”

There were Korean cadets:

“During a visit to the university track for a few laps, I was kept company by the drilling ROTC units on the infield. It is interesting to keep in mind that though these men volunteered to enter this program, they were required to serve anyway. When other male students cross the field and track as a sort of shortcut to the science building, they do not look at the uniformed men with curiosity but rather a chuckle or complete disregard. On a personal note, after a few laps one of the officers in charge threw me a smile and a thumbs up for my efforts. Quite possibly the most motivating experience since Plebe Summer Braveheart runs. Also, this was one of my first interactions with a foreign, allied military. Though small, I will not soon forget it.”

South Korea has 21 national parks in the country roughly the size of the state of Indiana.
The mountainous terrain is beautiful and littered with waterfalls.

There was the city seen from the mountains:

“Walking on the ridge along the old fortress wall, we reached our intended vista by 1200. The view was breathtaking, reminding me of the hike behind Yonsei campus earlier this semester. With snow on the ground and the wind howling in our ears, Seoul embodied a more arctic elvish city than it did in August, but Rivendell–esque nonetheless. The buildings sprawl, struggling for space as they challenge the littered mountains for land viability. Sprouting vertical at rapid pace and teeming with energy, Seoul appears to be a concrete chia pet watered by the dynamism of its citizenry.”

Immersion in the beautiful Republic of Korea was a professionally eye-opening and personally engaging experience. Midshipmenn 2/C Mclauchlan and Shaw are most grateful for their time spent on the peninsula and both hope to return in the future in and out of uniform.

USNA's Summer STEM Program Accepting Applications

By LT Teng K. Ooi and CAPT Linda J. Beltra

Applications for the 2015 Naval Academy Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) Summer Program are open. The application can be accessed at www.usna.edu/admissions/STEM.

Session dates include June 1-6 for rising 9th graders; June 8-13 for rising 10th graders; and June 15-19 for rising 11th graders.

This annual summer program is designed to expose young people to STEM concepts and technologies and to encourage 9th-11th graders to pursue a course of study in engineering and technology throughout high school, college and beyond.

The aim is to integrate STEM-focused concepts across the curriculum and pave the way for students to succeed academically in mathematics and science and help put them on a path towards successful STEM careers. An effective and practical way to stimulate student interest in STEM is to show how mathematics and science are applied to create exciting technologies.

The 2015 STEM program will showcase the latest in technological advances in a wide variety of science and engineering topics to include energy and light, infrastructure, transportation, cybersecurity, environmental challenges, flight and fluids, automation, simulation and modeling, biometrics and robotics.

Students will participate in project-based modules using a hands-on, real-world approach to solving design and analysis problems at the Naval Academy’s world-class laboratory facilities. This unique learning environment promotes engineering “habits of mind” such as critical thinking, optimization, innovation, creativity, and team work. It exposes students to a problem-based environment outside the traditional classroom.

The 2015 Summer STEM Program is a great start to a student’s career in science and engineering.

Superintendent's Q&A with the San Diego Tribune

Naval Academy Superintendent Vice Adm. Walter E. “Ted” Carter sat down with the San Diego Tribune’s Editorial Board while in town for the Poinsettia Bowl game to talk about the academy. These are some of the highlights from their conversation.

Carter: I wanted to give you a snapshot of what’s happening at the Naval Academy. What’s different with the generation of young men and women that are coming in now and why it’s so important for us to pay attention to this generation of young people who are going to do big things for us in the future. The Naval Academy started in 1845. It’s a service academy that’s really deep in tradition. But it’s evolved over the years. 1976 was the first year (women) entered as plebes. I showed up in ’77 so I was there for the first graduating class of ’80. We brought in 100 women in ’76 and 100 women in my class. Both graduated about 55 to 58 percent. And we’ve evolved.

Q: What was the role of women in the Navy at that point? A lot different from it is today?

A: Significantly different. We said we want to integrate women into the Navy, but when they graduated they were all put into noncombat roles, restricted line communities. Interestingly enough that first class, the class of ’80, had one of the highest retention figures of any women getting to the rank of captain. Just showed the resiliency of that one particular class who survived those four years. But we’ve come a long way. In the class of 2018, over 25 percent of the class is women. That’s about 300 out of about 1,191 freshman.

Today, at the Naval Academy, we have about 4,500 midshipmen there. We produce about 30 percent of the ensigns in the Navy every year. We graduate about 800 that go into the Navy. For the Marine Corps side, 250 to 270 second lieutenants in the Marine Corps. We are producing the leaders that are going to be of consequence and character.

The competition to get in is incredibly tough. The Naval Academy is listed at the top in terms of being the most selective of all schools across the country. Not just the service academies. Out of any school that produces more than 100 graduates, we have the number one graduation rate in the country. That’s pretty remarkable when you think these kids are signing up to serve in the Navy and the Marine Corps.

Our focus is to prepare these young men and women morally, mentally and physically so they can go on and serve a career in the naval service. But there’s a part of our mission statement that is a little different from everybody else. It talks about developing mind and character, to seek the highest levels of responsibilities in command, citizenship and government. We’re not just developing leaders for the Navy and Marine Corps; we’re talking about the future and beyond – CEOs of corporate America, congressmen and senators – and because we focus on a physical mission, we’re very much involved in our athletics. There are only two universities in the country that can say they had a president of the United States, a Heisman Trophy winner and a Naismith Trophy winner (kind of the Heisman for basketball ). The Naval Academy and Michigan. It shows the quality of not just the athletes but the great people that we have at the Naval Academy.

Q: What’s the typical trajectory for these people? Do they tend to stay in the Navy for a 20-year run?

A: It varies a little bit. Currently, the men are staying at a higher rate than women. When you look across the history of the Naval Academy, the numbers are pretty staggering. We’re the number one producer of astronauts for NASA over its history. We’ve had 53 astronauts come out of the Naval Academy. We’ve had 23 congressional leaders in the Senate and the House, 73 Medal of Honor winners. I don’t have numbers for how many corporate leaders we’ve had, but I would tell you that we’ve got to be in the top 10 in the country just based on what I see and the landscape today, who is leading corporate America.

Q: You placed a high emphasis in your remarks on character. It leads to a natural question in that one of the hottest topics, both in the military these days as well as nonmilitary colleges, is sexual assault and harassment. How are you dealing with that issue?

A: Last year, when I was at the War College, I wrote a paper for the secretary and the CNO called “The Ethics in the Navy.” We were struggling with what is it that causes seniors and others to make bad decisions. We made some recommendations that should change the way we’re teaching and educating everyone, from the most junior sailors up to the admirals, as to how to think about ethics.

It’s not just about what is legally right and wrong to do. It’s about understanding, about the decisions that you make often below some imaginary red line have consequences. And if the compass that is moral is not checked often enough, you’re likely to get out of calibration and stay there. The program at the Naval Academy when it comes to character development is not broken, but I think we can still do better. I have three priorities going forward into the future. Character development is number one, because if we can spend the right amount of time and get whatever biases these young people come in with corrected so they understand the consequences of their actions, all of the rest of this chain of bad behavior – some people call it the continuum of harm – that lead to these kind of destructive behaviors have a better chance of being corrected.

Q: How much is sports emphasized at the academy?

A: One in three midshipmen are competing at the Division One varsity level and 42 percent of the women at the Naval Academy are competing at the Division One level. We’re number three in the country for Division One sports programs, behind Stanford and Ohio State. Ohio State has 39 Division One sports programs, 20 women, 19 men. I’ve got 18 men’s sports programs and 15 women’s programs. Their student body of undergraduates is 53,500, mine is 4,500. And we’re not just playing at Division One. We have a 65% win percentage. The talent of athlete that we have there is tremendous.

Q: Let me ask you an uncomfortable question on this topic. There’s some thinking in aaval officer circles about why the service academies even compete at the Division One level. The job of the service academies is to prepare people to be ship drivers and why are you spending your time and energy on producing athletes who compete at that national level?

A: If it was up to me, I would have every midshipmen competing at the Division One level. What I want for the future is people that understand what it’s like to be on a friendly field, where competition matters.Wwhen they get into the toughest decision making they have to do – whether it be at sea, under the water, in the air – those that understand the concept of team sports that are played at the top level do incredibly well.

Q: The fact is not everybody who (can get) in the Naval Academy can compete at that level. That’s just a different level of athleticism. So that means you have to recruit people to be your football stars and your stars. When that position in the Academy could go to somebody who was a little more brainy, less brawny.

A: I have a cross section of all that now. That said, I have a physical mission that I have to sustain. I need people who have an understanding of physical fitness for life, so they can sustain themselves, and be leaders of consequence. Ninety percent of the freshman class had varsity letters on their record. This is the class of 2018. Sixty-seven percent of them were team captains. So they were leaders within their prep or high school programs.

I played ice hockey all four years at the Naval Academy. We weren’t Division One, we were a high-end club sport. I would tell you, in all seriousness, everything that I did that was successful in combat, I learned playing ice hockey. I’m a nuclear engineer. I’ve got degrees, I’ve taught at the War College. I still go back to what I’ve learned on the ice in terms of understanding the human spirit. Understanding what it takes to take care of your wingmen. To understand what it takes it win. And if you don’t have that in athletics, I don’t care how smart you are, that’s not going to get it done.

I could tell you story after story of having Navy football players who were linebackers in my squadron who had the best success rate in combat. So when people say why do you have athletes? I say, when I look at who is going to win and sustain our nation’s future I want a Naval Academy graduate. I want somebody that played a team sport. And I want somebody that’s academically smart, and thank God I’m able to get all three of those with the Naval Academy.

First Snow on the Yard!

Photo by MIDN 2/C Max Goldwasser

Photo by MCC Anthony Koch

Photo by MCC Anthony Koch

Photo by MCC Anthony Koch

Photo by MIDN 1/C Alec Bacon

Photo by MIDN 1/C Alec Bacon