Advice to a Midshipman

When I started having the time to take advantage of an extended port call and take big chunks of leave on deployment, I reinstated a policy for liberty that I had in college.

When on Spring Break, I never went anywhere with more than 4-5 people. I preferred to go with 1 or 2 others. I never spent more than 3 nights in any one place - same town is fine, but don't repeat the same bars over and over - "friends" you make on Spring Break are like fish, after three days they, well, stink.

The last is the most important. Lie. Yes, I know "Lie, cheat or steal..." yadda, yadda, yadda - but this is in a different context. In both college with my non-Navy friends, and in the Navy on liberty - I went by another name when conducting diplomatic intercourse with third country nationals on four continents. I went to a different college while in college. In the Navy, I was a business man. I was never Phibian Salamander from College or LT Salamander from the USS Neverdock.

No - I would pick an alternative reality for me. Hey, I wouldn't see these people again - and I/we avoided this.

The Naval Academy said Tuesday it is investigating allegations of lewd behavior and heavy drinking by a group of midshipmen on a spring break Caribbean cruise.

The investigation began after a woman on the Carnival Cruise Lines ship Glory complained in an e-mail to the academy that a group of eight to 10 male midshipmen were acting in a "lewd" manner, The (Baltimore) Sun reported Tuesday.

One passenger wrote that she and other women were groped, and that some of the midshipmen offered alcohol to teenage girls on the cruise.
...
"I was 'felt up' by one of the very drunk men and I was given the misfortune of watching them grab and disrespect every woman they could get close to as well as seeing them offer underage (15 and 17 year old) girls at our table alcohol," the woman wrote.

In a March 18 posting on cruisecritics.com, another passenger described "a group of boys from the Naval academy" who were "being very loose with their hands when talking with the ladies."

Ungh. You can't get away from being a Midshipman when you take it with you there Shippy!

Remember; you are pre-Med from Perdue, Pepperdine, or Penn State. Rinse, repeat.

And WHO in their right mind gets underway when on Spring Break? Plenty of time for that later. Then again, these are Annapolis types - they probably picked a Disney Cruise.

Hat tip LargeBill.