Before Plebe Summer
Before Plebe Summer starts, your child should receive a letter from their company officer. The letter will identify their platoon and company for Plebe Summer. There will be 30 platoons during Plebe Summer. Two platoons will be joined to form a company. This is described in how companies are organized during Plebe Summer provided courtesy of Doug Cabarle. (Please note that some Company patches shown are out of date). ie. Platoons 21 and 22 will be combined to form L – Lima Company. The “Letter” Company will apply only during Plebe Summer. After Plebe Summer, your Plebe will join their Academic Year company for the remainder of their time at the academy. ie. Plebes in Platoon 21 will join the 21st Company and those in Platoon 22 will join the 22nd Company.
Plebe Summer
After I-Day, Plebe Summer starts. Plebe Summer is an enriching 6 week acclimation period where your Plebe will be introduced to Navy life.
Morning PEP
The day starts off before the sun comes up. Your plebe and 1100 other plebes will be working out at Rip Miller Field.
Drilling and Marching
To your plebe, it feels like all they do is workout, drill and march.
During Plebe Parent Weekend, you plebe will march in a formal parade on Worden Field. It’s going to hot that day so make sure carry plenty of water and stay hydrated.
Plebe Summer for the Parents
When you get back home, a popular activity for Plebe Parents is “Where’s Waldo ?”. There will be many sources of photos available to you, Facebook, Instagram, Flickr, the Alumni Association Photo Program, to name a few. You’ll be grateful for the generosity of strangers posting photos of the plebes. You will be scanning every photo you can find in order to find your Waldo. Don’t think it’s going to be that easy. That other Waldo is usually the only one wearing a red hat. Your Waldo will be wearing white in a sea of other Waldos in white. And wait until you try finding them in their camouflage uniforms. Learn to download the photos of your plebe or bookmark the page as soon as you find them. You’ll be going through hundreds or thousands of photos and if you don’t save the photo when you find them, there is a distinct possibility you might never see that photo again.
Cell phones will be taken from the plebes on I-Day and will be returned two or three times during Plebe Summer. During each of these times, your Plebe will permitted to make calls for total of 30 minutes to call home, friends, significant and insignificant others. Ways to make the most of these calls include:
– gathering everyone in a room and using a speakerphone
– using a conference call service
– starting a series of three way calls where the first person calls a second person, they three way call the next person and so on. After everyone are finally connected, either the first person or the last person adds your plebe to a three way call.
During Plebe Summer, the plebes will be required to write at least one letter home. There will be some upbeat letters and some not so upbeat. Some of those letters might sound like Hello Muddah, Hello Faddah by Alan Sherman.
This year, Plebe Parents Weekend (PPW) will be from August 11 – 14, 2022. The Plebe Summer Booklet for the Class of 2018 , Plebe Summer Booklet for the Class of 2019 and Class of 2020 Plebe Summer Magazine will give you an idea of what you can look forward to.
Unless you have a DOD ID, you will need your DBID in order to drive on to the Yard. During the week, you will only be able to use the DBID to drive on to pick up / drop off your plebe. On weekends, parking is permitted in non-reserved space (Mid Store, Hospital Point and by the docks are probably your best bet).
A more expensive way of ensuring that you can drive on to the Yard is by becoming a member of the Naval Academy Club. You will be issued a parking pass valid for the year when you are a member. You will only be able to drive through Gates 1 or 8 between certain hours (currently 9:00 am to 10:00 pm) but the big benefit is that you can park on the yard on a weekday when you display it on your dashboard.
During Plebe Parent Weekend, your plebe will be granted Town Liberty. Town Liberty means that your plebe will be able travel within Town Liberty area of Annapolis, Washington DC and Baltimore. Your plebe will probably want to get out and as far away from the Yard as possible.
Make sure that you have your DBID for Parents Weekend so you can drive on to the Yard. It won’t be fun for your plebe to do the mad dash from Gate 1 or Gate 8 to Bancroft when they have to report back in from Liberty.
Care Packages
You’ll become creative at stuffing 10 pounds of stuff into a 5 pound care package very quickly The US Post Office has flat rate shipping boxes that you could stuff with as much you can. You could even ship bricks for the flat rate price as long as they fit in the box. The shipping boxes are free and it beats buying them at Staples.
Another option is to drop ship everything from Amazon or other online retailers. Shipping is free when you use Amazon Prime. There are other retailers out there that offer free shipping.
