The recent turn of events for the Maersk Alabama has had an interesting and prominent connection to Mass Maritime.  As I reported in my last post, both the captain and the Chief Mate on board that ship are Academy graduates, as well as the mate being the son of one of our professors, Capt. Joseph Murphy.

Since Capt. Murphy is both closely tied to the situation and an experienced and well-known mariner himself, the news media has gravitated to him for answers like flies on butter at a picnic.  Since early yesterday afternoon, they have been interviewing him continuously as new information was received about the situation on board the Alabama.  During my last class yesterday around 2 PM, there were about 6 or 7 TV trucks parked on campus broadcasting, as well as reporters from radio stations and newspapers around the area.  When I came back to campus after being out last night, there were still a few news trucks at 11 PM.  This morning, there were news crews here already setting up and filming during morning formation.  As the day has gone on, crews have been filing back on to campus and setting up to resume their coverage with Capt. Murphy right here from MMA.

After lunch today I walked down towards Blinn Hall and the canal, where most of the trucks were parked, to take a look at the commotion.  I managed to snap a few pictures of the scene.

These are a few of the news trucks on campus today.  These particular ones arrived shortly before lunch, apparently to get footage in time for the noon news broadcasts.

Shown here is Capt. Murphy speaking with news crews before doing an on-camera interview.  Click on the picture to get more details.

Everyone here at MMA has been concerned for the crew of the Alabama & their families, and are hopeful that this will end peacefully.  It was a relief to hear that the ship was underway again with a sizeable security force on board, headed for Kenya.  Still, seeing familiar names and images of places around campus on national news networks has been an odd & exciting sensation.  There was a lot of pride and positive energy around campus when we heard that Mass Maritime graduates successfully retook their ship from pirates.  This has certainly been an unusual couple of days.

If you’d like to see the rest of the pictures I took this afternoon, you can view them on Flickr.

This week marks the beginning of the end for fall semester.  Today is the first day of final exams, bringing mixed emotions to campus.  Certainly everyone’s excited that in a mere 5 days we’ll be leaving to go home for the holidays with school totally out of mind (for those of us not going on Sea Term that’s even easier).  Morning formation is the shortened formation every morning this week to allow for more studying time.  However, obviously there is some anxiousness as cadets are taking tests that can decide singlehandedly what grade they get in a class, or in some cases whether they pass or fail.

For those of us going on Sea Term, we’re also starting to give serious thought to this journey.  I’m sure the freshmen are especially preoccupied by this, as I was last year.

Good luck to everyone on finals, and especially to those cadets whose finals will be deciding their ability to go on Sea Term!

I received a suggestion a few weeks ago to talk about drug testing.  As most people involved with the Academy know, cadets are randomly drug tested to stay in compliance with Coast Guard licensing requirements.  Testing has always been conducted regularly at the Academy, but this year it’s being done with greater frequency.  Starting this year, testing is being conducted twice a month, instead of just once a month as it used to be.  This is being done for a couple of reasons.  First off, the number of cadets in the regiment has been increasing over the past few years, so they need to test more often to fit more people in.  Second, it keeps people “on their toes” about drugs here at the academy, and hopefully deters people who may otherwise have gambled with their chances of getting tested when it was just once a month.  The tests are not scheduled, and are spaced unevenly and scheduled at different times and dates each test to make it even more of a deterrent from using drugs.

Not all cadets are tested an equal number of times.  Last year I was chosen to be tested for the first testing of the year.  I didn’t get tested again until the beginning of this year.  I have friends, however, who were tested multiple times last year, and some people have been tested more than once already this year.  It’s luck of the draw, so some people get to experience it more than others.  It’s not a big deal, but it’s annoying to be woken at 0530 to go get tested.  Really, drug testing is a very minor aspect of life at the academy.

I received a suggestion a while ago (sorry for the delay to whoever left it) to talk about what opinions are being expressed about the presidential election.  To be honest, I’ve been tiptoeing around the issue on my blog, since this is such a polarized election.  However, since today is election day and what’s done is done at the time that I’m writing this, I figured it might be a good time to discuss it.

Opinions seem to be quite strong in the regiment, or at least among the people I spend the most time with.  Most people appear to be McCain supporters, but people on both sides are not being ambiguous about their politics.  It’s definitely made for some very interesting and high-powered arguments and discussions among cadets.  I’m really glad to see it, since it means that people are taking a strong interest in their political system and in how the government works.

I’m writing this just after 7pm on Election Day, so the first numbers are being reported.  No matter which way the election goes, the atmosphere on campus tomorrow is going to be charged.

Holy smokes, he’s back!  Yes, after being cut off from the real world for two months, I am finally finished with boot camp and starting my sophomore year at MMA.  I’ve been back at Mass Maritime for two days now, having arrived at school yesterday morning.  Already I’ve noticed differences in daily life between being a fourth class and being a third class.

First off, the most obvious differences:  We no longer have cleaning stations and study hours.  I no longer have to check the cleaning bill to see if I have to be up at 0545 to sweep the decks or scrub toilets, and do it again that night.  I don’t have to keep my door open for two hours each night pretending to get work done while people file in and out of my room, keeping me from being able to focus.  As third class cadets, we pretty much keep to ourselves, and are left alone most of the time, which I like.

We also have fewer inspections, and the ones we do have are at more convenient times.  We only have three inspections a week (instead of six as freshmen), and they’re all on weekday mornings (instead of having one on Sunday night).  As a result, I get to sleep in a little later on mornings that I don’t have inspection.

Unfortunately, my academic work load has increased somewhat.  Mainly, I’ve noticed that I have a lot more reading to do than I did last year.  While I don’t particularly mind reading itself, I have a nasty habit of falling asleep when I am reading from a book for more than about 15 pages, so I’ll have to find a way to overcome that.

I’ve been enjoying watching this year’s fourth class cadets around campus, watching them do the things that we had to do – running any time they’re outside, squaring corners when they’re in the dorms, etc.  I’ve also been greeted as “sir” by at least a dozen fourth class in the past two days, even though I’m only a third class, so I’ve had to remind them that “blue-taggers” (my class has blue name tags) are not sir or ma’am, we’re not much different from them in fact.  I actually find it pretty funny.

This year we get liberty on Wednesdays, starting after our last class of the day until we have to sign in between 2300 and 0000.  While I’m really looking forward to having time to get off campus in the middle of the week, I’m not really sure what I’m going to do with the time, and foresee it providing a good opportunity to waste money.  Still, it’s an opportunity to take a break mid-week, so I’ll take it.

Not much else seems to be going on around here that’s worth reporting on, although tomorrow morning we have a meeting to vote on our ports of call for Sea Term 2009, so once I find out the final decision on those I’ll post it.

I know this post is really, really long overdue, but I got a Skribit request that I write it, so I thought it was about time I got around to doing it.  I’ve mentioned Emory Rice day before, where I described the planned itinerary for the day and gave a brief description of what the day is.

First off, the marching competition.  First Company was, naturally, the first company to march.  I’d like to say that we did well, but I’d be lying.  We pretty much fell on our faces.  It didn’t help that there was a ship going through the canal while we were marching that happened to blow its whistle right as the company commander would give marching commands, but there are no asterisks in these competitions, so we weren’t given any leeway in scoring because of it.  We messed up a couple of times, but my personal favorite was when we were given the command “to the rear march” (everyone pivots 180 degrees at once, resulting in the entire platoon marching back the way they came) right at the ship blew its whistle, at which point the back half of the company turned and the front half kept marching because they hadn’t heard the command.  The entire thing was pretty classic.  We came in last for that part of the day.

During the day classes continued as usual, with one exception: dress-down tickets had been sold for the day, so the majority of cadets were in civilian clothes.  We usually have two or three dress-down days each semester, with the proceeds from the tickets going to a local charity.  I’m not sure where the money went for Emory Rice day, but I believe it was a charity.

That afternoon after classes we had a field day.  The school had rented a number of field activities, such as a rock climbing wall, a jousting table, a dunk tank, and a number of other things.  Various clubs and groups at school had their own activities as well.  The ROTC program set up an obstacle course on Cadet Beach, which I didn’t do but heard that it was pretty good (First Company won this event!).  In the mess deck, we had a cookout which was a nice change from the usual routine.  Unfortunately, it rained that afternoon or the cookout would have been outdoors.  That night they showed a movie in the gym, giving the cadets the choice of what movie to watch.  We chose Boondock Saints.

Emory Rice day was a lot of fun, and a great way to mark the end of the year.  I’m looking forward to it again next year, but hopefully it won’t rain again!

Only 24 hours until we’ll be leaving for the year!

Last night, the mess deck staff put on a Finals Breakfast from 2300 until 0100.  I guess they figured that most people would be up that late studying, so they’d give us an opportunity to take a break and grab something to eat.  It was pretty good: scrambled eggs, french toast sticks, bacon, sausage, tater tots, and the usual assortment of breakfast sandwiches and omelettes.

There was a very good turnout; just guessing, I’d say that over half the corps of cadets showed up.  I happened to be studying for my Coastal Navigation final today (I’m taking a study break this morning to write this), so it was nice to have an excuse to get out of the room and refresh.

Finals will be going on starting today through Tuesday.  I only have my Coastal Navigation final this week; all my other finals are on Monday, which is kind of a drag.  No big deal though, I’ll have all weekend to study so I should be fine.

Countdown until expected departure for the year: 6 days, 3 hours, 39 minutes!

This week is the last full week of classes for the semester, marking the beginning of the end. Starting on Wednesday next week, final exams will be given.  We’ll be having closed-door study hours on the freshman decks to allow us to study without disturbances, and prepare for finals more effectively.

We’re also making preparations to go home for the summer.  As part of the procedure for closing out the semester, we have to fully clean the company, as well as our rooms, to an Admiral’s-like level.  Once the company and all the rooms are cleared by the company officer on the last day, we are free to go.  Obviously this is a major priority with cadets!

Since the regular regimental routine for freshmen is all but over for us, I’ve been giving some thought to what we did this year, and what we’ll be doing next year.  We dealt with a lot of structure and commitment this year, most of it pretty frustrating (cleaning stations in the morning & evening, musters, study hours, etc.) and seemingly in the way.  However, as much as we may have complained about it, we all had that in common, which I’ve come to realize has really helped bond us as a company, and as shipmates.  That’s not to say that I enjoy those things any more – I don’t, especially cleaning stations – but simply that I can appreciate them for their effect on us.  Next year we’ll have almost no regimental obligations, short of inspections and morning formation.  We’ll basically be regular college sophomores with uniforms.  It’s going to be nice to have more freedom and responsibility, but at the same time it’s going to be weird not having somebody looking over our shoulder constantly.

Anyway, enough personal reflection.  Countdown to expected departure: 11 days, 15 hours, 12 minutes!

So usually I try to avoid writing these posts because I generally regard them as filler, but I thought it might be appropriate this week. We have some unique events going on over the next couple of days that I felt would be worthy of some introduction prior to my post-event write-ups that will follow (man, it’s just hyphen city back there, isn’t it?).

Tomorrow is Emory Rice day, which is our annual field day at the end of the year. The day starts off with a marching competition between the companies. Each freshman platoon in the regiment represents their competition, just as we did for Recognition back in September. This time is a little different however, because we will be marched by the upcoming company commander for our company, providing them with their first real experience in publicly leading the company as an officer. The afternoon is filled with activities aimed at providing us with some fun near the end of the year, such as an obstacle course done by ROTC and a rock wall. All activities are done by company, and are worth points towards Honor Company. I’ll explain Honor Company in a later post, so stay tuned for that.

Wednesday afternoon is Change of Command. Now that Coasties are over and we’re only weeks away from the end of the year, it’s time for this year’s graduating seniors to step down from their officer positions and hand the reigns over to the upcoming officers for next year. There’s a formal ceremony that will be held Wednesday afternoon on the Parade Field. Since I haven’t seen a Change of Command at MMA before, I’m not really sure the details of the ceremony. Since I’ll most likely have to be in formation for the duration of it I won’t be able to take pictures, but I’ll try to get some pictures to post from someone here at MMA (if there’s anybody reading this who’ll be here and would like to share their photos-maybe the Admissions office-I’d appreciate it, shoot me an e-mail).

Not much else to report from Taylor’s Point, except that the weather’s getting too nice for us to be indoors. I vote that classes start being held outside, who’s with me?