http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100524/ap_on_re_us/us_plebes_no_more
No lard for Navy plebes in yearly academy ritual
Play Video WJZ 13 Baltimore – Monument For Plebe Monument Climb Not Greased
AP – 3rd Company's Keegan Albi from Eugene, Ore., top at right, scales the last
bit of the 21-foot Herndon …
By BRIAN WITTE, Associated Press Writer Brian Witte, Associated Press Writer –
Mon May 24, 5:53 pm ET
ANNAPOLIS, Md. – As they have for 70 years, students at the U.S. Naval Academy
celebrated the end of their grueling first year by scaling a 21-foot obelisk on
Monday. But this time, without a lard coating on the monument, students
completed the task in minutes.
For years, the Herndon Monument was slathered in the grease to make the event
as challenging as possible. It often took hours for a group of first-year
students, or "plebes," to hoist a peer on their shoulders to place an officer's
hat atop the obelisk.
This year, the event drew more attention after Vice Adm. Jeffrey Fowler, the
academy's superintendent, cited "unnecessary injury risk" as a reason the
school could end the yearly ritual. He declined to offer a timetable for a
decision that will likely rest with his successor.
"I just think at some point it will become not very interesting and it will
just cease to be a climb," Fowler told reporters earlier this month, adding
that there have been minor injuries in the past.
However, many students, parents and alumni find the tradition to be an
endearing rite of passage.
On Monday, Midshipman Keegan Albi managed to grip the sides of the monument and
shimmy his way to the top in just over two minutes after a human pyramid of
classmates boosted him more than halfway up. As the ritual dictates, he
snatched a first-year student's cap from the top and replaced it with the
officer's hat.
Moments after reaching the top, Albi was upbeat, but he also sounded
disappointed by the lack of lard.
"They should grease it, though, make it a lot harder," Albi, of Eugene, Ore.,
said.
Spectators, including alumni and current students who dealt with the lard
coating, could be heard grumbling about how easy it is without the grease.
John Truesdell, who made the greasy climb in 1960, warmly recalled the bond of
teamwork shared by those in tackling the task. He said the academy should keep
the tradition. "I would love to see it continue," Truesdell, of Tucson, Ariz.,
said. "I think it's such a big part of the tradition at the academy."
Even Albi's mom, Linda Albi, said it was much more exciting when her daughter
participated several years ago. "It happened way too fast," Linda Albi said,
noting she hardly had time to take pictures.
Fowler said he would rather that the academy's Sea Trials exercise be seen as
the culminating experience for plebes. The 14-hour competition, which began in
1998, involves every member of the class and requires teamwork to complete an
obstacle course. Fowler is slated to be replaced as superintendent by Navy Rear
Adm. Michael H. Miller, who was nominated by President Barack Obama's
administration in April to lead the school. Miller must first be confirmed by
the U.S. Senate.
First-year students began the yearly ritual of helping classmate to the top of
the obelisk in 1940, and added the symbolic placement of an officer's cap on
its tip seven years later, according a history of the event by James Cheevers,
senior curator at the U.S. Naval Academy Museum. In 1949, upperclassmen began
smearing on as much as 200 pounds of lard on the monument to increase the
difficulty of the task.
Records are incomplete on how long the climb has taken every year. But the
longest time is believed to be the span of more than four hours in 1995, a year
when upperclassmen glued down the hat that must be removed from the top. The
shortest on record is 1 1/2 minutes in 1969, a year that the monument wasn't
greased.
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