To anyone who has ever been in the military

[redwing00]

I am a senior in high school, and I will be graduating soon. I am ranked very high in my class (as of now number 1) and (in my opinion) somewhat athletic (i run and lift weights everyday).

I have decided to take a big step in my life and enter the Annapolis Naval Academy. All the paperwork has been filled out and sent away. I understand the military and the academy itself is not easy. I'm just curious if anyone on these message boards has had any experience with Annapolis. I would be interested in hearing what you have to say about your years there or in the service. Oh....and did you have time to get some D&D in? (looking over the schedule for the 1st year, it seems every hour from 5 am to 11 pm Mon-Sat is filled for the schooling/military training......)

 

[Dr. Talos]

I am a senior in high school, and I will be graduating soon. I am ranked very high in my class (as of now number 1) and (in my opinion) somewhat athletic (i run and lift weights everyday).

I have decided to take a big step in my life and enter the Annapolis Naval Academy. All the paperwork has been filled out and sent away. I understand the military and the academy itself is not easy. I'm just curious if anyone on these message boards has had any experience with Annapolis. I would be interested in hearing what you have to say about your years there or in the service. Oh....and did you have time to get some D&D in? (looking over the schedule for the 1st year, it seems every hour from 5 am to 11 pm Mon-Sat is filled for the schooling/military training......)

I did not go to Annapolis, though I have friends who did. I have plenty of friends who went to the Air Force Academy. I went through the Corps of Cadets at Texas A&M so I have a similar but slightly different military school experience.

I am currently in the Air Force and have a regular gaming group. Your Plebe year at Annapolis will be a fairly intense environment, You will not have too much time for anything outside of class and the military training environment. You will make some very good friends though going through the experience. Just remember that it is all a game. If you treat it as a game with a set of rules you will have no problem making it through.

After your freshman year you should have no problem finding time and people to play. There are a significant number of geeks in the military.

Congratulations on your assignment and good luck.

 

[Beard in the Sky]

My father-in-law graduated from the Naval Academy in the early 70s and retired from the Naval Reserves as a Captain two years ago.

 

[Schmoe]

I lived in Annapolis for the last three years. I just moved to Northern Virginia, not too far away.

I loved the area. Although it gets pretty busy in tourist season, it's really got a strong colonial feel. You can sense the history in the buildings in downtown Annapolis. My wife and I were married at the Maryland Inn, in the basement of which is the Treaty of Paris restaurant. It got its name because that's where THE Treaty of Paris was signed. The bridges and the water are wonderful, and there are sailboats everywhere. The only downside is that D.C. is quickly expanding. In another 10 years, it will probably just be a suburb of D.C.

I wasn't in the military, so I can't speak to that, but the campus of the Naval Academy is beautiful. There's a lot of history there, too.

If you're looking for a good gaming store, I would recommend Games and Comics... and Stuff, about 20-30 minutes north in Glen Burnie. Thursday nights are RPG nights, and the owner runs a tight ship.

 

[Treebore]

I hope you get accepted. You will wish you never went, at times. When you get through it you'll be glad you did. Then you will get into the "normal" Navy. There will be a lot more times you will wonder, "Why in the heck did I volunteer for this?" Eventually you will get out. When you look back on it you'll be glad you did it. But along the way you will be thinking you were a fool to volunteer to put up with all that BS and to get treated the way you will. Just be glad you aren't enlisted. Overall, you will like a lot of it, and know it did a lot for you. It will be an eye opening experience. And then some.

 

[masque]

I am a senior in high school, and I will be graduating soon. I am ranked very high in my class (as of now number 1) and (in my opinion) somewhat athletic (i run and lift weights everyday).

I have decided to take a big step in my life and enter the Annapolis Naval Academy. All the paperwork has been filled out and sent away. I understand the military and the academy itself is not easy. I'm just curious if anyone on these message boards has had any experience with Annapolis. I would be interested in hearing what you have to say about your years there or in the service. Oh....and did you have time to get some D&D in? (looking over the schedule for the 1st year, it seems every hour from 5 am to 11 pm Mon-Sat is filled for the schooling/military training......)

Note that I am not in the military and never plan to enter. However, I am a navy brat, and one of my friends were accepted to the Naval Academy, and I heard plenty from him. That said, good for you for wanting to do this!

My friend Tony who got a scholarship there ended up dropping out after his second year, because he made a bad impression on his calculus teacher (Tony told me he was an Admiral) by being argumentative (idiot!), and things went downhill from there, especially since he failed one of his classes (Navigation, I think), since he's not that good at mental math and couldn't finish the tests. He told me he had a blast with the out of classroom stuff, including doing the timed course with the wood and rubber boats (my favorite quote from that story: "RAMMING SPEED!!"). He mentioned that he had very little free time, but he was more of a mad scientist type, rather than a gamer type, so I don't know what that means for you.

Tony's experience there taught me that, even if it's the Naval Academy, don't make waves. Puns aside, always be respectful, and if you find yourself on warning and you don't want to be kicked out, don't do stupid stuff. But generally, that goes without saying.

If you ever want to go overseas, make friends with your detailer. Also, keep your record clean, and have less than two children (don't know why, but I remember hearing this from my parents). There are certain places and jobs you won't be sent unless you've got a good record (the USS Blue Ridge is one example--you don't get ordered to that ship unless they know you won't screw up).

All information herein is secondhand, so take it with a grain of salt.

 

[Calico_Jack73]

Good luck at the Academy! Your first year is pretty much spoken for but after that you should be good to go.
I hate to spring some bad news on you but your selection of role-playing partners is going to be EXTREMELY limited during deployments and possibly at home (as far as other military members goes). The military has a policy against fraternization, basically once you are an officer you are not supposed to mix it up socially with enlisted who in my experience made up the bulk of the roleplaying crowd in the military. As an officer you are expected to keep that separation of rank in place and they also want to make sure there are no accusations of favoritism. I was an enlisted NCO in the Air Force before I recently separated and I had two of my troops that wanted to play in my game. I made sure to let the entire workcenter know that it was open to anyone but even then I made sure I was a little more critical of their work so that nobody thought they were getting by just by being in my D&D group. We had one officer from a different squadron join up and he'd go so far as to walk over so none of the other officers would see his car outside my house which was in base housing. I can't imagine not role-playing during deployments. When I went to Korea for a year and had to leave my family back in the states Role-Playing is what kept me sane. Same thing goes for when I went to Saudi Arabia.

Anyway, enjoy your time at Annapolis. Even the very worst of it will become a wonderful memory you'll look back on for the rest of your life.

 

[Dinkeldog]

Moving to OT forum

 

[EricNoah]

Former West Point Cadet here (note I didn't say West Point graduate!). The switch from civilian life to military life, for me, was an enormous and unexpected culture shock. I was so lured by the promise of a "free" high-quality education that I really didn't take into consideration a lot of other factors that, in hindsight, should have been obvious. I was a gymnast yet I did not enjoy competetive team sports like football or basketball, but in many ways the military is like being on such a team. I was 17 years old and had never really spent much time away from home before, and here I was moving halfway across the country. You will spend a lot of time having many of your personality traits (even some that you like about yourself) broken down and "beaten" out of you so that you conform. Stuff like that. Needless to say I didn't find that to my liking. It wasn't for me, and it's not for everyone, but it may well be an environment that you can either tolerate or actually thrive in. (BTW, there were some former enlisted men there and they absolutely hated it -- it was much more "bull" than in the "real army" as one guy put it.)

At first you will have zero time to yourself. On the other hand, I met some neat people there, so it seems likely that if you can find some spare time you'll find some gamers.

If you can find someone who's been through the whole thing maybe they can give you an idea of what a "typical day" is like beyond the first summer of basic training, and that might give you some better motivation to go for it.

 

[alsih2o]

one of my best buddies here in town is a blacksmith who did graduated west point. (about your age eric, mike ward?) he says that it was "hell, and worth it"

he also says he is not sure of he would do it again. he does frequently sstate that the piece of paper on the wall has oened many, many doors for him though.