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By Midshipman Second Class Dennis P. Dias, U.S. Navy
The United States Naval Academy exists for one purpose: to produce the best-possible career naval officers. While the Academy has met the challenge for almost 150 years, no system is perfect. The Naval Academy must be dynamic; it must change if its graduates are to maintain the reputation established by those who have gone before.
One aspect of the Academy that has resisted change is the basic academic year calendar: midshipmen traditionally attend academic classes from late August through May and spend the summer on a training cruise. While it is possible to find young people talented enough to tackle the demanding academic program, many graduate lacking a solid knowledge of day-to-day fleet operations. The Naval Academy should institute a longer and more diverse fleet training program, combined with a different academic year schedule.
The United States has several maritime academies that serve to prepare young men and women for careers at sea in the U.S. Merchant Marine Fleet. While some consider these trade schools rather than academic institutions—with their emphasis on ship handling and plant management rather than pure academics—they graduate people ready to handle the challenges that will face them at sea. The maritime academies offer almost a year of at-sea training, which is necessary to fulfill the U.S. Coast Guard’s licensing requirements for Merchant Marine officers.
Time for this valuable training results from basing the academic year on trimester or quarters. The California Maritime Academy, for example, has a fall and spring trimester for academic classes, broken up by a winter trimester for at-sea training.The Naval Academy could easily adopt this system and provide both a high-quality academic program and more fleet time to prepare midshipmen better for the challenges that would face them as junior officers.
Why more fleet time for midshipmen? Because they need more time learning to work with enlisted personnel. While the Academy’s class system attempts to foster a junior-senior atmosphere, it hardly reflects the relationship between the division officer or platoon commander and his people. Stationing more enlisted personnel in billets to work with midshipman is one alternative, but why take a sailor out of his environment to teach a midshipman about his job? Instead, send the midshipman to the fleet for a longer period of time to learn more about the practical aspects of how a division or platoon operates on a day-to-day basis.
A quarter system appears best suited to provide enough classroom time for a midshipman to complete the requirements for a Bachelor of Science degree and enough at-sea time to become a proficient junior officer. The current cruise system for Naval Academy midshipmen divides the summer into three four-week periods, of which two are devoted to training and one to annual leave. One training period is spent on a regular gray- hull cruise and the second is for elective training, which includes everything from airborne training to internships, plebe detail, sailing cruises, or a second gray- hull cruise. A four-week period is a very short time to see how the various departments and divisions work together on short time to see how the various departments and divisions work together on board ship. Worse, sometimes a midshipman is assigned to a ship in dry-dock or in port for the entire time, so little practical knowledge is gained. A longer training period on board active fleet units would ensure that midshipmen put into practice the naval theories they study at the Academy. With more time on board ship, the midshipmen will be exposed to a wide variety of leadership styles—both officer and enlisted—and will see what works and what does not work.
► Plebe year would consist of plebe summer, followed by fall and winter academic quarters concentrating on basic undergraduate academic classes common to all Naval Academy majors. The focus on basic academics and valuable plebe- year training would remain intact. The spring quarter would feature four funda-
Table 1 Sample Matrix for a USNA Group 1 Major (Engineering)
|
| SUMMER | FALL | WINTER | SPRING |
FOURTH |
| Plebe | Academic 1 | Academic II | Cruise Prep. and Leave |
CLASS |
| Summer | SIXXX 3 HEXXX 3 SCXXX 4 SMXXX 4 | HHXXX 3 HEXXX 3 SCXXX 4 SMXXX 4 | NN205 3 EN1002 NS101 3 NS252 2 |
THIRD | Year Group A | Academic III SPXXX 4 SMXXX 4 EMXXX 3 —HHXXX3 | Cruise 1 | Academic IV SP 4 EM 3 SM 4 HH 3 | PROTRAMID and ACTRAMID |
CLASS | Year Group B | Cruise 1 | Academic III SPXXX 4 SMXXX 4 EMXXX 3 | Cruise II | with NL 303 NN302 ES300 |
SECOND | Year Group A | Cruise II | Academic V | Cruise III | Academic VI |
CLASS | Year Group B | Academic IV | Cruise III | Academic V | Academic VI |
FIRST | Year Group A | Academic VII | Extended Cruise |
|
|
CLASS | Year Group B | Extended Cruise |
| Academic VII | G raduation |
Proceedings / June 1991
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,r,ental professional development classes •hat a midshipman would need before j=0lr>g on cruise. These would include NN203 (Navigation and Piloting), -hi 100 (Introduction to Naval Engineer's), NS 101 (Fundamentals of Naval Sci- ^nce), and NS252 (Ship Handling and Tactics). The class would be divided into •Wo groups with leave scheduled during |he spring quarter. As an additional train- ln8 aid during this cruise-preparation Quarter, the Naval Academy should fol- l°w the example of the Maritime Academes and use a small combatant as a dockside trainer to teach damage control and engineering plant fundamentals.
' Third-class year would begin more indepth fleet training. The class would be divided in half, designated as year groups A” and “B”. Selection for either group would be based on the midshipman’s standing at the end of plebe year, and factors such as varsity sport seasons. Leave ^ould be scheduled at the end of each Quarter, and the length of leave would depend on what time of the year the quarter would be ending. The groups would alternate academics and a cruise, beginning with the summer quarter—setting lhe pattern for the remainder of their years at the Academy. The entire third ) class would spend the spring quarter on •he same schedule. Midshipmen would take no professional courses during the academic quarters. With professional Courses removed, the credit load would ^e reduced to focus on the academic niajor. Since the third-class role in the i Plebe indoctrination system is minimal, academics would provide the focus for •he class. The purpose of the cruise during the year would be to work with the enlisted personnel the midshipman will someday serve with, and develop more of an understanding for the fleet sailor.
► Second-class year would continue the pattern of alternating cruises and academics, with the entire class together at the Academy for the spring quarter. One change that would be made to the curriculum with regard to the electrical engineering course currently required of all midshipmen regardless of major. The focus of the class would be on naval applications of electronics rather than electrical theory. Only midshipmen pursuing an advanced degree in this field would study theory in detail; others would spend what little time they have focusing on how the theory would apply to communications, weapons, radar, and related systems.
Billets for midshipmen brigade officer billets for the first and second class would rotate during these academic quarters, allowing different midshipmen to run the Brigade for three quarters instead of the current two semesters. More people in rotating billets will create turnover problems, but will also allow individual midshipmen a wider range of experience. The natural cynicism and drop in academic performance that builds during a long semester might also be alleviated by this rotation.
Midshipmen first class would go on a single two-quarter cruise that would give them additional hands-on experience. When they return to the Academy in the Spring for graduation, they will have amassed at least one year of fleet cruise experience, as will have completed the requirements for a Bachelor of Science degree in their major.
The traditional highlights of the Academy’s yearly schedule, such as commissioning week, would remain intact. The entire Brigade could be present.
While this additional fleet time might deter more highly qualified traditional candidates—i.e., those entering directly from high school—from applying for the
U.S. Naval Academy midshipmen spend the traditional academic year in class, then go on summer cruise.
A schedule change could give them more sea time—as in the old days— without detracting from academics.
Academy, the overall class size of each entering class is shrinking already, in keeping with the trend toward a smaller military establishment. The numbers might be made up by making more appointments available for junior enlisted personnel. Their enlisted experience would be valuable—to them and to the fleet. The Naval Academy Preparatory School (NAPS) and the Broadened Opportunity for Officer Selection and Training (BOOST) program could provide the academic help to prepare prior enlisted personnel for the Academy’s demanding academic program.
The term “cruise” is used in a broad sense to apply to any fleet training. Traditional cruises have been on board surface ships and submarines, but cruises could be expanded to cover a wider range of warfare areas. A quarter, for example, is long enough for a midshipman second class to attend “Bulldog,” a prerequisite for commissioning in the Marine Corps. If the midshipman does not complete the program because of an injury, the next cruise quarter could be used to repeat the program; the current schedule does not permit this option. Midshipmen who complete Bulldog could then cruise with units of the Fleet Marine Force (FMF), similar to the Devil Dog program that began last summer. Cruises might also include work at shore stations with the Civil Engineering Corps. The focus of this training cruise, however, should be on unrestricted line warfare specialties.
The future of the naval officer corps lies with the young people in the United States who still seek the challenges that a career as a naval officer can provide. While the current Academy system operates well, a longer and more in-depth fleet cruise will allow midshipmen to determine if a career in the Navy is for them before the government invests a substantial amount of money. Midshipmen arc often told how different the environment of the fleet is as compared to the Naval Academy. Longer training with the fleet or the FMF will allow midshipmen to see for themselves just what it is like to be a junior officer.
Midshipman Dias attended Northeastern University, Boston, Massachusetts, for one year, where he was a member of the Naval Reserve Officer Training Corps, before entering the Naval Academy with the class of 1992.
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Proceedings / June 199)