Halloween Night at the USNA
I'm joined by Jeremiah Harding who is a class of 17 graduate from the United States Naval Academy and currently serves as an infantry officer in the United States Marine Corps. Jerry was a history major at the academy and joins the podcast from Okinawa, Japan.
In this episode, we give a peek of what Halloween is like at the Academy for a Mid. Do we decorate our rooms? Do we wear costumes (other than those Navy costumes we wear each day)?
Grant and Jerry cover dressing up in costumes, the food, decorations and the costume contest in King Hall.
What is trick or treating like in Bancroft Hall?
Grant and Jeremiah tell stories about their experiences of Halloween in Bancroft Hall.
It's a super fun and casual episode. It provides a sneak-peek into what a Mid's Halloween might be like.
Be sure to review and subscribe to The Academy Insider with Grant Vermeer podcast on Apple Podcasts or where you listen to podcasts.
Follow the Academy Insider on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook.
The mission of Academy Insider is to guide, serve, and support Midshipmen, future Midshipmen, and their families.
Grant Vermeer your host is the person who started it all. He is the founder of Academy Insider and the host of The Academy Insider podcast and the USNA Property Network Podcast. He was a recruited athlete which brought him to Annapolis where he was a four year member of the varsity basketball team. He was a cyber operations major and commissioned into the Cryptologic Warfare Community. He was stationed at Fort Meade and supported the Subsurface Direct Support mission.
He separated from the Navy in 2023 and now owns The Vermeer Group, a boutique residential real estate company that specializes in serving the United States Naval Academy community PCSing to California & Texas.
We are here to be your guide through the USNA experience.
Connect with Grant on Linkedin
Academy Insider Website
Academy Insider Facebook Page
If you are interested in sponsoring the podcast, have an idea, question or topic you would like to see covered, reach out: podcast@academyinsider.com.
Halloween Night at the USNA
I'm joined by Jeremiah Harding who is a class of 17 graduate from the United States Naval Academy and currently serves as an infantry officer in the United States Marine Corps. Jerry was a history major at the academy and joins the podcast from Okinawa, Japan.
In this episode, we give a peek of what Halloween is like at the Academy for a Mid. Do we decorate our rooms? Do we wear costumes (other than those Navy costumes we wear each day)?
Grant and Jerry cover dressing up in costumes, the food, decorations and the costume contest in King Hall.
What is trick or treating like in Bancroft Hall?
Grant and Jeremiah tell stories about their experiences of Halloween in Bancroft Hall.
It's a super fun and casual episode. It provides a sneak-peek into what a Mid's Halloween might be like.
Be sure to review and subscribe to The Academy Insider with Grant Vermeer podcast on Apple Podcasts or where you listen to podcasts.
Follow the Academy Insider on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook.
The mission of Academy Insider is to guide, serve, and support Midshipmen, future Midshipmen, and their families.
Grant Vermeer your host is the person who started it all. He is the founder of Academy Insider and the host of The Academy Insider podcast and the USNA Property Network Podcast. He was a recruited athlete which brought him to Annapolis where he was a four year member of the varsity basketball team. He was a cyber operations major and commissioned into the Cryptologic Warfare Community. He was stationed at Fort Meade and supported the Subsurface Direct Support mission.
He separated from the Navy in 2023 and now owns The Vermeer Group, a boutique residential real estate company that specializes in serving the United States Naval Academy community PCSing to California & Texas.
We are here to be your guide through the USNA experience.
Connect with Grant on Linkedin
Academy Insider Website
Academy Insider Facebook Page
If you are interested in sponsoring the podcast, have an idea, question or topic you would like to see covered, reach out: podcast@academyinsider.com.
This is your host Grant Vermeer Naval Academy class of 2017 and I'm your Academy insider. It's my goal to be your guide through the Naval Academy experience by sharing my stories and providing you insight information into the life of a Midshipman.
Speaker 2:[inaudible]
Speaker 1:Academy insider is in no way officially affiliated with the United States Naval Academy. All of the content on Academy insider is my own and does not reflect the views of the United States Naval Academy, the United States Navy, nor the department of defense. Oh man, it's Halloween week y'all and thank you so much for joining me on Academy and Saturday. Today. Today we have Jeremiah Harding, who one not only is my best friend, a former roommate of mine, but also a fellow seven class of 17 graduate from the Naval Academy and a member of the 26 company rough riders. Now, Jeremiah being one of my best friends, I know that he absolutely loves all things holidays. He loves Halloween, he loves Thanksgiving, he loves Christmas and all the festivities that go with them, especially as they relate to being at the Naval Academy in inside Bancroft hall. So in this episode we talk all about Halloween from decorating rooms to the day of Halloween to Halloween dinner or costume contest and trick or treating with him banned, cropped all. So we share a really a ton of really fun stories and just have a good time. It's a really casual, fun, low key and quick conversation. So make sure to check it out and I hope you guys enjoy it. Jeremiah, my guy, what's up? Thank you so much for taking the time to come on the Academy insider podcast.
Speaker 3:How's it going man, thanks for letting me on.
Speaker 1:Oh absolutely. And uh, having a good time out here. Uh, but before we get into today's episode, which is all about Halloween at the Naval Academy and as typically brought Jeremiah on, cause he loves all of the holidays and all the festivities and specifically how we celebrate those at the Academy. Do you mind just telling the audience a little bit about yourself? So a little bit of background about you, where you grew up, how you got to the Academy and then a little bit of background about your midshipman self, including company major and just some facts about you as a midshipman.
Speaker 3:Absolutely. So I grew up in Conyers, Georgia about 25 miles East of Atlanta. What's the heritage high school over there? I actually didn't find out about the Academy until my senior year of high school. So I was actually really late applying to the Academy, but everything seemed to work out cause I got in first try, so like thank the Lord. So I went to the Academy, I thought I was going to be an aeronautical engineer and a after first semester plebe year, I quickly realized that is not the right call from myself. So I went ahead and did something I already had a passion for. So I uh, I majored in history and while I was at the Academy I absolutely love my time. Enjoyed it. Yeah, I was a narc, you know, normal, average, regular person. And I also was on the, the club ultimate team. So I did do that sports wise. But other than that, just participate in the intramural. So I had a great, great time at the Academy. I was in 26 company with grant. We've known each other kind of ride rough. So we've known each other for quite some time now. Yeah. So he, we actually shared a room together junior year when one of our race decided not to come back to the Academy. So it was just him and I got really, really close that year. So yeah, no grant for quite some time now.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely. And that's, that's an interesting thing that you bring up. Something that I want to talk about later on Academy at some point. So we've mentioned what the two for seven is before on Academy insider, but the two for seven, right. You don't have to sign it. And so our third roommate who came back to the Academy for his junior year, literally on the day of two for seven, decided that he's like, I like, I need to take a break and ended up literally doing a mission trip in Nepal for a full year or returning to the Naval Academy. But he didn't make that decision until like the day of like he showed up at the signing and just didn't sign it, which is pretty wild. As a result, me and Jeremiah were so roommates for an entire year and that was so much fun. Like Jeremiah are best friends to this day because of that experience. So absolutely a good time. But it also brings me to the first topic, the idea of room. So again, this episode is going to be about Halloween and one of the questions I've actually gotten from people before are our Shipman because we have room inspections and because we have kind of the military standard and expectation of cleanliness and professionalism, our mids allowed to decorate their rooms for Halloween and like even at Thanksgiving or Christmas, like what is the kind of culture within the brigade in regards to decorating rooms for holidays.
Speaker 3:So it's a very much so we're going to come down to the company, the leadership you have, but for the most part, yes, you can absolutely decorate your room. Whether it's just kind of putting some stuff up on the wall like a boo or a tricker tree type deal. You can do that on the inside. Like I said, it's going to come down to the leadership you have on like what you can put on inside the room. But the big thing that everyone does, which they usually have contests for, is actually decorating your door so the outside of your door, you can decorate it and make it all Halloween-y. And usually each company or a, excuse me, each battalion kind of has a door decoration contest that they'll do at how,
Speaker 1:yeah, absolutely. And it's just for everyone's situation awareness. We referenced the term battalion in regards to the Naval Academy during the academic year. That is the culmination of five different companies. So we have 30 companies in the brigade, six different battalions. So like first battalion is first company through fifth company and then specifically for us, we were both members of the 26 company, which was a part of the sixth battalion. So six battalion had 26th to 30th company and each battalion basically basically owned majority of like one academic wing or not academic but wing in Bancroft hall. So that's what we referenced. But yes, door decorations is absolutely huge thing. Some companies more lenient than others will allow midst to decorate their rooms. More fun. We'll quote unquote fun and other companies, but absolutely a thing that people do, especially with the doors. But now as we move actually to Halloween day, I know it, a lot of civilian schools, people probably wear costumes all day to class. You know, you sit down in your, your calculus class that you're complaining about at 10:00 AM cause it's so early and you look to your right and there is Spiderman, Spiderman is staring back at you and you have a random kid in a Spiderman costume in class. Is that the same as Naval Academy? Are the midshipmen allowed to wear costumes to class?
Speaker 3:Unfortunately, we don't wear costumes to class a for the most part, the day itself, uh, it's an academic day so it proceeds as any other normal day. You wear your uniform to class and then really all the kind of fun stuff really happens after the school day itself is over.
Speaker 1:Uh, you know, I like to joke, we all were wearing a costume. We're just all wearing the same costume and it's not really a costume at the uniform, but you know, we look spooky dressed in, in our all-black uniforms. But yes, absolutely. Like Jeremiah was saying, the fun really doesn't start until the school day is over. But once the school day is over and we head down for what we call evening meal, that's when stuff really starts to pick up. So I guess my first question for you, Jeremiah is like, when is that first time that those Halloween shenanigans are allowed? And like where does that take place?
Speaker 3:So the first time really anything happened. So like I said, he goes to the normal academic day to the academics day. You do that, you'll do your sports period. And then after sports period we have, you know, evening meal. And so when we go to evening meal, that's when all the shenanigans start to kick off. So everyone dresses up into their Halloween costumes and they'll go to meal in their costume. And uh, Bancroft hall, the, a place where we eat our meals is completely decked out for Halloween. Just, that's one thing I love about the Academy is they go all out for each of the holidays, especially inside came hall where eat our meals, that they just everything to the food, to the decorations. Even all the workers there, they're all hyped up about it and they, uh, they just love it in there. So everyone's dressed up in costumes and we're trying to eat a meal together. It's a great time.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely. And the Beal usually is kind of a special meal. Do you, by just telling the audience a little bit about that Halloween deal, what usually is on the table for us and how it differs from a normal,
Speaker 3:some type of meal? So Halloween, uh, as you can imagine, everyone's Stricker treating so on the table itself with decorations, there's all sorts of different candy bars and I'm not talking like fun size, I'm talking regular size. So there's candy everywhere. We have these cookies at the Academy that for each like big type of occasion, they decorate these cookies from a vendor and so they have like Halloween inspired cookies that are on the table. Everyone, you know, loads up on those while they're there. It's a great fun meal that they throw together, you know, different tablecloth, you know, they might even have stuff hanging around all over King hall. They really go all out for kind of the meal of just like making it as Halloween theme as they, they can kind of do with it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely. And that was one of my favorite nights also because it was like endless wing night and so they would just bring like tubs and tubs of chicken wings,[inaudible] tables and I'm sitting there and my buzz Lightyear costumes just like eating like 40 wings. It's like the greatest day cause and then you're just staring at the table and you're like[inaudible] bad more. Should I eat that Carmel Apple that's sitting in front of me? Like I don't know what to do. So already happened. There are so many options right now dude, this is crazy.
Speaker 3:Do you like about a King hall? Is that,
Speaker 1:yeah. What's up
Speaker 3:for Halloween? Like there, each of the, the holidays, how would we included like there is you will not go back up to your room hungry and you will go back up to your room with stuff for later and the next morning like it is you are setting, there is plenty out there. And if you have a sweet tooth like Halloween, that is it. That is the time.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, absolutely. And so you mentioned a little bit before is that people will come down in costume to King hall and that's really the first opportunity that we have. One. My first question to you is, is generally how many people dress up? Like for Halloween, like if a rough percentage of the brigade that dresses up. And then a question for you is did you dress up for Halloween and what were some of your costumes?
Speaker 3:So I would say if I had to put a number on it, I would say at least like 75% of the brigade dresses off may be more like it's yeah, that, that was a time when everyone kind of goes all out. Like, it's your one time that you can really do something that's not, you know, military like is that we all can kind of get in a costume and kind of be kinda like a regular person in terms of like, we get to dress up, we don't have to wear a uniform. So people will take that Liberty to, you know, not wear their uniform for that one, that one night and, you know, put on a costume. So for myself,[inaudible] I completely forgot that Halloween was coming up just cause we were so busy doing plead things. And so I really didn't have a costume. So me and Noah, JP Dougal, he was a grant and ice company. He also didn't have a costume. So what we ended up doing is I myself, I'm a short person, so I, uh, I jumped on his shoulders and I threw one of our overcoats over the top of both of us. So we were just walking around with this long trench coat on and it just looked like, you know, like two little kids trying to get into an R rated movie. Like, that's a, that's what we went with. So the costume plead here, youngster year and second class year. I honestly can't remember if I actually did anything. I guess if I did a costume, it wasn't that memorable, but senior year, that's when, uh, I decided to kind of go, go for it for a costume. And uh, for anyone that's watched mad TV in the past, I decided to be Cotons from a mad TV. So I got a really short shorts, a nice flamboyantly yellow polo with a really weird tie put on a mustache, had the whistle long white socks and everything. I really went for it that year. Uh, that was definitely the most fun one that I can remember. So yeah, definitely that being told time senior year for Halloween.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely. Coach Hines. Will we reference coach Hynes? That was like a Michael Keegan or whatever from key and Peele. Correct. That's the guy who plays Cotons.
Speaker 3:Yeah, no, I completely, yeah. Right. Keegan. All right. I don't even remember the name now. Shoot. Yeah. So, uh, he did a sketch, uh, multiple times on mad TV where he impersonated the Cotons this gym coach at this a private like middle school, high school Academy, and a hilarious, if you ever, you ever have the opportunity, I would say just watch a couple of those old videos. They're pretty good.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely. And I can confirm that in addition to the costume, big, top notch and fluff, flawlessly executed by my boy Jebidiah over there. He also accompany that with the lines from some of the skits. And so if you wanted, if you want, it's been great comedy from any point in the night you have to Jeremiah and get, get a couple of coach Hynes lines. And cause I remember again, me and Jeremiah like we're best friends and so we would just sit like at night we sit in each other's room and just watch YouTube videos all day and joke around and do stuff like that. The amount of coach Hines videos we want, it was actually insane. Well, it's one of our, one of our favorite things to do and it made Halloween night all for the better. All right. So those are some pretty great costumes. I think we're going to somehow find photo evidence of that senior year costume that you had repeat or share with the audience because it needs to be seen. But for everyone else that is dressing up so well still in King hall now while dinner is going on, there is also something else going on. Do you mind talking a little bit about that aspect in?
Speaker 3:Yeah, so a in King hall on the center at the anchor, so that's the center of King hall where they can do announcements, they have the microphone, they set up a costume contest. And so this is the Dade wide, uh, each company is supposed to send whoever they think is their best costume. So in all there'll be 30 people that go up there and they put a kind of like red carpet out there and they have two MCs that are up there usually and they'll be announcing who company it is and who they are for their costume. And so they play some music and you have your moment to shine as you get a strut your stuff. On a little red carpet down and back on the catwalk, showing off your costumes. So if you have like a pretty cool costume, it's one thing if you can make it a routine somehow. I think one year we had a vanilla ice actually went up there and did a dance. So that was, that was pretty good really as the tricks of it. But uh, so while you're eating a meal, you get entertained, you can look up at the TV screens or if you're close enough, just look at the red carpet and see all these people coming down with their costumes.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely. And is there ever, is there a costume that to this day you can still remember it because it made you laugh or it was just like something just so obscure or ridiculous that you just can't forget it.
Speaker 3:But there was definitely some obscure ones. The one that actually made me laugh the most though was actually the one I just mentioned, a vanilla ice. So it was a, it was another person in our company that came in as vanilla ice and a, he went all out baggy parachute pants. Everything looked apart and we expected him to just walk down and he actually had a boombox with him, which was working and turned it on and just started in a whole routine for vanilla ice. And just, I think it was just the theatrical of it mixed with the fact that we knew who this guy was that just made it hilarious for so.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. And we'll save his name for the sake of anonymity, but if you are lifted into it, my man, I miss you a lot and that costume absolutely cracked. Yep. I love all your posts on Facebook, especially the ones about cats and weird stuff that you always do, but we love you. So. Absolutely. All right. And did you personally ever participate in the costume contest?
Speaker 3:No, I did not. Yeah. Like I said, plebe year wasn't exactly like the most innovative posture. It really took a uniform on them. We had and threw it over two of us senior year would have been the time, but I was more interested in just sitting at the table talking and having a good time and going up there. So
Speaker 1:absolutely. And then there was one story I specifically want to bring up, I forget what year it was. I think it probably was our junior year, maybe our senior year for everyone who goes to Navy football games. They know about the crab race, right? Like at every, at one at one of these TV time, basically three crabs, red crab, a blue crab and a green crab. They all show up like the big screen in the monitor and then there's like an animated race for whatever reason the Burke Gade loves like that bird gate will cheer louder for that darn stupid crap race than it will for the football game. And like literally it's three crabs like just moving back and forth like down the screen eventually one and you're just like, people are screaming like red crap, like and people are losing their minds. Well one year three funny guys decided to dress up as the crabs but they didn't even enter the costume contest. They literally just hijack the ox cord that takes over the speaker system in King hall in played the song that goes with the Kraft race, like during the games at the Navy Marine Corps stadium. And then they, they started to just run in through Bancroft hall just like sprinting up and down the aisles and like doing a crab walk and they were all dressed up in like the bird Gade lost their mind and King hall that day. It's still to this like makes
Speaker 3:me crack up cause like three guys just come up with the creativity, address it up like crabs and recreating the crap race. And that was absolutely hilarious. That was good. That was good.
Speaker 1:Sweet. All right so now King hall is done and so the costume contest is legitimately a contest with prizes. So I do want to mention that like for people with good costumes, you can win like money for your yard card, which is like gives you the ability to purchase food or other items on the yard or like money for steerage or sometimes just straight gift cards. So all of that is an option and highly encourage people if they have good costumes to participate. Cause why would you miss out on an opportunity to win free money and show off a dope costume. So that all happens. All right, so now King hall is over, we're done, dinner is over and we're now moving back into Bancroft hall in it's time to trick or treat. Can you tell the audience a little bit about your treating in Bancroft hall?
Speaker 3:So trick or treating it just like anywhere else, the time for everyone to just go around and you go door to door. So how it works is that the a, the plebes in each company is kind of in charge of the handing out the candy. So you go by plebes stores and you trick or treat just like, um, just like anywhere else. And so see the plebes in their costumes and you get to walk around so you know your friend's company areas and you know, talk, hang out with them, get some candy from some of their plebes and just, you know, everyone gets to show off their caution going around town. And of course just like, you know, any other time you go back to your room at the end of trick or treating and you and your roommates are all comparing your candy halls and everything. Like it's a good time.
Speaker 1:Oh, absolutely. And do you have a favorite memory from your plebe year when you actually handing out candy in your double Decker costume, sitting on some shoulders? Do you have every memory? Was there anything that like an upperclassman did that you're like, this is absolutely ridiculous, but here's some candy.
Speaker 3:Oh my goodness. I don't know. Oh, there's so many different costumes that people tried to do from obscure things that like you really have to ask them like, Oh, I'm sorry. I don't know. Um, to just like people that really don't try very hard at all. They'll like, sometimes you just wear civilian clothing and be like, I'm okay. I go to college students.
Speaker 1:I was like, Oh, nice dude. Nice. Yeah. Good one. Yeah, sorry dude. I literally just want candy. I'm sorry. But you're Katrina, you're like not fair.
Speaker 3:I would say my favorite though was watching the reactions of people. So our plebe year down at the very end of the P wave for us at the very end. So like everyone in the plebe chaff can see it. Uh, at the big room we had a group of Cleves outside and they're all musically talented. And so a bunch of leads got together and they said they were old Crow medicine show and they were just playing wagon wheel nonstop on instruments. As people came by, they were tricker treating from them. So they're handing out candy as they're singing wagon wheel on repeat.
Speaker 1:So that was pretty good seeing the, the upperclassman's reactions that, you know, they're actually out there playing, which we're talking like someone's got a violin and the multiple guitars, some lead vocals. It was pretty good. It was 20. Yeah, absolutely does always make for a good time at one of the special things too is a lot of the times the company officers, the senior enlisted leaders, the battalion officers will bring their families and their kids into trick or treat too. So some of the most fun things are like seeing some of the young little kiddos running around in sugar. Treating in Bancroft hall because it has always make for a fun time and it's like even way better if they have dogs and they bring dogs in cause you're like what some candy and out of there was a dog that I can pet too. So that's always great. A couple of their fun things. So the Navy basketball team w ere not very fun. I don't know what other better way to put that, but we never did anything as a team for like Halloween or anything. But there are teams and clubs on the yard that do k inda coordinate for Halloween. And I'm going to pass this one over to Jeremiah to explain a little bit of some of the teams that are notorious for coming up with staff during Halloween.
Speaker 3:So sometimes the water polo team will too. Most notorious ones I think team wise that they coordinate costumes together. Probably men's and women's swim team individually. So they don't all do one costume. So I know a one year, one of our classmates who is on the swim team for the women's swim team, they all um, they all dressed up, uh, as they were wearing basketball jerseys and basketball shorts and then they had an inflatable like donut around them and they were Dunkin donuts. So like
Speaker 1:from something like that,
Speaker 3:real, real notorious ones in the men's swim team. So they usually coordinate some type of, some costume together as a whole. And then that's what makes them notorious is that uh, they bring their shenanigans through the whole brigade. They just go running up and down all the wings through every deck of Bancroft hall, just running, not like doing anything, just running through the deck together,
Speaker 1:running and screaming. And the best part about it is they're swimmers. So their costumes usually involved a lot of body paint and minimal clothing. Usually it ends up with them in their Speedos. And then body paint, I'm pretty sure I, plebe year, I think they may have went as Smurfs. Right. And I think their whole bodies were blue and then they like were wearing white beards. And like some Smurf hats and stuff.
Speaker 3:I remember Smurfs. I know one year they did minions. That was another one.
Speaker 1:The minions was a good one. Yeah, absolutely. But in notorious fashion, when you do stuff to bring attention to yourself or you come and get you some positive attention, but you also get a little bit of a, I don't know if negative attention is the right word, but sometimes stuff happens and you may or may not have a story. I'm totally gonna push off to Jeremiah to tell.
Speaker 3:So yeah, like every year you can expect that the men's swim team is gonna run through the, the whole brigade, uh, in Bankcroft hall from deck to deck. And so like we're talking, they do this at the most random time, like while everyone's trick or treating and stuff. So like kind of doesn't put a damper on it, but like puts a pause in the, uh, what's going on. And of course if you do something like that to the whole brigade, like there are going to be responses. And so we as they were running through our P way, we may or may not have had oranges from Bancroft hall that we're supposed to eat later that we're not later, but instead thrown into the crowd of the swim team they ran through again may or may not have had
Speaker 1:it may I don't recall. That can, can neither confirm nor deny that any events like that took place. But yeah, I mean that's the main thing, right? We just wanted to take this time on this episode to share a couple funny stories, uh, and just get, give an insight into what Halloween at the Naval Academy is like. Cause it is a little bit different. Right? Like during the academic day, it is no different. You still have to go to class, you have to wear a uniform. You don't get away with any functioning again ans are wearing costumes to class or anything like that. But we do like once the school day ends and you head down to dinner King hall and the King hall staff does a phenomenal job of putting on a super fun evening hosting the costume contest, providing a super fun dinner, having a bunch of candy laid out all over the table and and like caramel apples and a bunch of different stuff and all the different cookies and it's a super fun night and then they allow you to trigger treat within the hall and do all these different things and it does just in the midst of an extremely stressful and demanding academic life in schedule at the Academy. It does provide a nice much needed break because I think all four years when we were midshipman Halloween fell on a weekday, which makes it different because honestly if it happens during the weekend then you can best believe the large majority of the upper-class midshipman are just going to be out in town anyway. But it definitely for all the times, especially on weekdays, Halloween does provide some fun aspects. So the Naval Academy life in the Mitchem and experience, you got any, you got any other comments, stories, anything you want to bring up in relation to Halloween there[inaudible]
Speaker 3:just have fun with it. I know as a plead like I completely forgot just cause stuff was going on, but like it's just a fun time to hang out with friends and like everyone goes kind of all out for the costume. So I'd say like you don't have to go and buy some super expensive costume. Some of the best ones are just people taking it a bunch of cardboard and and paint and just slapping something together and it makes for a pretty, really fun night. So just have fun out there. It's Halloween load up on the candy on the Carmel corns cookies. Like you know, that's your time where you can cheat a little bit of while you're at the Academy, but a yeah, just have fun with it. It's, it's your one opportunity where you're really kind of like let loose a little bit and not be, you know, in that military mindset for the the entire day. So just have fun with it. Getting in the costume. Getting character.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Just do a couple pull ups on the shower bar after I burn off those calories. All right, sweet. Yeah. Well, uh, Jeremiah, thanks so much for all of that. Uh, but before I let you go, I do ask all former midshipman, uh, that come on the podcast a lightening round of questions. So I still do want to incorporate this into our episodes. So are you ready?
Speaker 3:Ready?
Speaker 1:All right. The first question is, what's your favorite spot on?
Speaker 3:Oh, so actually I have multiple, but uh, some of my favorite are just being out of hospital point. It's nice. It's tranquil out there and you can go out there and just throw Frisbee around or play Spikeball whatever. So, uh, there as well as on the other side of the yard, the rocks around fair field, just to become a rock, just staring at all the boats go by and stuff. It's a nice time. You can wave to everyone go by and uh, even as it gets late, it's a really nice just area to go and kinda relax a little.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely. And then a large majority of our talk today was about time in King hall. So fitting question here, which is what was your favorite meal?
Speaker 3:Oh man. So I hope they still have it, but the crisp Speedos, I remember they took a little boy, took him away for a while and then they brought him back. So I really hope that everyone could still enjoy the crisp ETOs and everyone after meals over just going by checking all the tables of people that left to see if there's any left,
Speaker 1:if there are any extras in the pins on the empty table. Oh yeah, I could eat a lot of those. Crispy does dude, just straight calories. Oh man. Good stuff. All right. Now, now transitioning to a little bit more serious of a topic here, which is who or what kind of had the biggest influence on your current leadership style that you can trace back to your time at the Naval Academy?
Speaker 3:I would say probably our company officer are kind of senior year and junior year. And we had captain Baldwin. And for as much as I got to see a lot of behind the scenes being that I was in a detuned commander at the time and so that see a lot of behind the scenes, but she really, really pushed for us to be kind of treated as she would treat her lieutenants and how we, you know, we are supposed to be with our leadership stuff. She really just wanted us to kind of be ourselves with leadership. So I think that really had kind of a, a big impact for me because if you compare me to a lot of the other fellow officers, um, I'm around, I'm, I'm definitely me, I'd say when I'm around my other officers. So yeah, definitely a, she, she played a big part in time just putting out there that you just gotta be you and then you just take care of your Marines or your sailors.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. And I, I want to reiterate that I loved Kevin Baldwin. She was amazing. She really came in and set the scene a tough from this art. I don't know if you remember that cause we went, we kind of trip, we made it a slight transition of our company officers. So our previous company officer before her was a little bit more on the lead side. And so it was her first day as company officer. We showed back up after summer break and we had a White's inspection and uh, some of the people were not up to standards and I that I think how long did that White's inspection last week?
Speaker 3:I don't know cause he ended up doing three or four actual whites inspections where we would break for like 30 minutes for people to fix their uniforms and we'd come back and inspect again. And we did that multiple times. She really set the bar high of like what, like there is a standard that has to be kept and us, especially as future officers, like we are expected to set that standards for our, our juniors, you know, enlisted that will be under us when we graduate.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. And she was just fantastic the entire time. And a big fan it since we're on the topic of Halloween. Special shout out ma'am, if you do hear this to you and your husband cause you were one of the few people to recognize my costume I senior year when I dress up as Nathan Scott from one tree Hill and uh, you guys were like, Holy snap, I actually know what that is. I totally get your costume dude. And I was like, thank you. I was like, ah. Cause that was one of the weird people that dressed up in a costume that not everyone knew. And they're like, Oh what are you like a basketball player? And I was like, uh, I mean like but but like a basketball player from a TV show. Yeah, I mean so it's like totally fine. It's totally normal. So thank you for your watching of lunch free Hill. But more importantly, thank you for just being a awesome human and an awesome teacher, coach and mentor to all of us in the 26 company. We definitely did appreciate you. Yeah,
Speaker 3:absolutely.
Speaker 1:And then my final, Oh, not final yet, sorry. Sorry to easy there. I've got two more for ya. What's your best memory or your greatest memory from your time at the Naval Academy?
Speaker 3:Oh, I don't know. I think I'd say it's between three separate things of a one cumulative, just the Friday nights as a plead at the Academy, getting all of us plebes just being together. There's nothing for us to do. So all of us, plebes just sitting down together. Either it's playing cards against humanity or we're just sitting in each other's rooms. Like literally standing on window sills, having someone throw like cereal or like pretzels or something from the other side of the room and the someone's mouth who standing on the window if we're bored. And there's nothing to do. Like it's really those times where you can really like bond with people. So I absolutely enjoyed that. And then, uh, the, uh, the next one, like single moment was probably the moment when all the nonbelievers were shown wrong when Navy beat Houston so personally. So everyone's walking over to the, was super out of the game, didn't want to go to it cause it was, it was terrible weather. Everyone thought we were gonna lose. And me just as we're walking, you know, marching over to the field from March on just thinking like, this is it, we're going to do it. I got placed in a, we ended up doing it, we beat Houston. I actually got the storm the field, which was awesome, you know, and it's like something that everyone wants to do at a college just on the field. So that was pretty cool. And then lastly also kind of cumulative is just senior year is when you begin to, especially second semester, you begin to realize like this is your last few parting times with all your classmates and really start to kinda cherish those moments you guys have together those last couple of weekends or hanging out or the times when you guys aren't studying, you're either pushing that off, everyone's finished for the night and you're just hanging out together. You know, some of the last times you really to to see each other and hang out as a group. We've been very fortunate grant now that we've been able to attend a couple of weddings of our classmates. So each time it's like another reunion. It's a great time.
Speaker 1:Oh, fun.
Speaker 3:But uh, yeah, senior year you really start to cherish those moments and it really makes all those memories you have from senior year that much sweeter.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. Those are great answers, Jerry. Thank you. And then the final question for real this time is what advice would you give someone who's either a candidate or just interested in the Naval Academy about what they should consider when trying to decide whether or not the Naval Academy is right for them?
Speaker 3:So I, I think the Naval Academy gets a bad rep and that a lot of grads from the past that I've heard have said, like the Naval Academy is a terrible place to be, but a great place to be from. And uh, I don't think that's right at all. Absolutely loved and enjoyed my time there. You're stressed a lot and you know, you definitely aren't living that college life. So if you just want to have like the typical college lifestyle, the caddy is definitely not the place for you. But, uh, if you're looking for a place where you can, like to this day, you know, I have 39 other very close friends that I could call on at any moment. We went through thick and thin together. You know, you were challenged academically, you've got a very, very um, that, you know, they're not going to get that type of experience elsewhere in the world. Like you come home from, from your, you know, on leave from, you know, your in Christmas or whatever and you know, you try and talk to your other friends that are going to radio colleges and stuff and they have just no clue the type of stuff you're going through or like they can't relate. And so in a very, very specific type of experience that you share with very few other people. So it's not that it's exclusive as much as like, you know, you share this experience with only a few other people and it makes it that much better for like when you recount those memories very much though to how the Marine Corps is a very, very small groups of the esprit de Corps here is, is crazy in the Marine Corps. And so just like at the Academy, like the, the experience you have is just very like you're only gonna get that type of experience at the Academy itself. So it makes everything you do like that much better and like reminiscing about it. Like I can tell you most people want to like go back to Annapolis theater tour, go back there as a possibility, just the way back to the Academy to kind of relive some of that energy and those experiences that they had.
Speaker 1:Absolutely man. Well Jeremiah, thank you so much for taking the time today to come to us cause you're joining us from Japan, from Okinawa, currently serving as an infantry officer in the Marine Corps. So thank you for one, doing what you're doing, but to taking the time to join us on Academy inside or share some of these stories and just give, give a little bit of insight into, again, one of the unique aspects about the bitch ship and experience at the Naval Academy. So thank you
Speaker 3:anytime. Cool.
Speaker 1:Well for all the listeners out there, thank you so much. I hope you were able to learn a little bit and enjoyed this episode and if you ever have any questions you can always reach out to me on my Facebook page or the website, www.academyandsaturday.com so thank you guys so much and I hope you all have a good day. Bye. Thank you all so much for listening to the podcast and I hope you learned a little bit about the intricacies of Halloween at the Naval Academy. Please leave me a review on iTunes and be sure to subscribe to the Academy that our podcast. If you want to learn more about the United States Naval Academy in the midstream experience, make sure to go check out all the articles, content videos that I have on my webpage, www.academyandsaturday.com or my Facebook page Academy insider. All links discussed in the show are listed in the show notes, and again, I'm grant Famir, the Academy insider, and thank you so much for letting me be your guide to the United States Naval Academy.