#119 Ship Selection - On The Yard (009)

Ever wondered what happens during that exciting night when Naval Academy midshipmen discover which ship they'll serve on after graduation? Ship selection night is one of the coolest traditions at the Academy, and understanding this process gives families incredible insight into their midshipman's future naval career.

As someone who's witnessed the evolution of this incredible event, I'm excited to share the behind-the-scenes details of ship selection. From the energy-packed atmosphere in Alumni Hall to the strategic decisions midshipmen make when choosing their first assignment, this episode reveals everything you need to know about this pivotal moment.

The Blue Chip Program and International Opportunities

One of the most fascinating aspects involves the blue chip program, where outstanding midshipmen can secure guaranteed positions on ships they've served aboard during summer training. We'll also examine the coveted Forward Deployed Naval Forces positions in Japan and Spain, complete with ceremonial sword presentations for the first selectees.

Strategic Factors in Ship Selection

Choosing a ship involves much more than picking a cool name. Midshipmen consider home port locations, operational schedules, ship culture, and even classified briefings about future deployments. These decisions shape their entire naval experience, from qualification timelines to quality of life.

What This Means for Families

• Questions to ask about their ship selection priorities
• Understanding the results of their choice
• Appreciating the research and planning that goes into each selection

Whether your midshipman is heading toward surface warfare or you're simply curious about Naval Academy traditions, this episode provides valuable perspective on one of the most significant nights in a midshipman's Academy experience. The energy, strategy, and celebration surroundin

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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. 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 residential real estate company that matches service academy families with trusted real estate teams all across the country. Text (650) 282-1964 with any real estate questions.

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Chapters

• 0:00 What Ship Selection Night Is
• 1:49 How The Event Became A Spectacle
• 3:21 Venue And Step-By-Step Flow
• 5:15 Order Of Merit And Picking Rules
• 7:45 Placard Colors And What They Mean
• 11:15 Why Nuke And EDO Billets Are Set Aside
• 16:05 Blue Chips And Guaranteed Spots
• 20:37 Foreign Delegates And The Sword Tradition
• 25:24 Hot Home Ports: Rota And Japan
• 29:49 How Midshipmen Research And Decide

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:00

Welcome back to the Academy Insider Podcast. Today's episode is gonna be all about ship selection. For all the families out there who have a first day at the Naval Academy, who is going to be participating, who is going to be commissioning as a surface warfare officer in the Navy, then make sure to check out this episode. It's a really cool insight and deep dive explanation into what you will be witnessing or what you will be watching on ship selection night. I quite literally think there's gonna be a live stream where you can watch the event, but at the very least, if you see pictures and you have questions about what you're looking at, this episode will answer them for you. So I'm really looking forward to it. I hope you enjoy. Take a listen. Let me know if you have any questions. Otherwise, have a great day. Thank you so much. Let's get into it. All right, let's jump into ship selection. Ship selection is a super fun topic for me because it really was the class of 2017 that changed ship selection as we know it. And you know, it's funny to say that because you know I claimed the class of 2017. It was really the efforts of one man, one incredible legendary Naval Academy graduate by the name of Jared Reed Dixon. And he kind of went head and shoulders above to really make ship selection really an incredible event. In the past, it was still cool. You figured out where you're going, you're going to your, you finding out what ship you're going to, where your home port was going to be, but it was really kind of calm and low-key. It wasn't the same, right? There's there's a real like energy associated with ship selection now that didn't exist prior to 2017. And it's so exciting that that tradition has really continued. And so we're gonna talk about what makes ship selection really exciting and really incredible. And we'll start with like where, right? So we're gonna kind of run through this in a very almost chronological order, which is where. So it's gonna happen in alumni hall. Again, that's where the basketball games are played, four stall lectures happen. It's a big auditorium, a massive space, and it's perfect. They're able to like set up a stage on the floor. You have stadium seating that goes up, like e up into the rafters, and it's really, really cool. It's an em it's a really awesome place to go. Now, in alumni hall, basically what will happen is each midshipman individually will get called on, like their name will get called. They will walk down onto the stage in alumni hall, they will walk up to a board, and on that board will be the list of every billet. And when we use this term billet, we literally mean like a job position available for SWOS in this graduating class, right? And so what I mean by that is, you know, there may be space or room for three people. They need three people on the USS Arlington, whereas they only need one person on the USS Samson, right? And so there will be multiple like placards, the magnetic placards that will go up on this board, and the midshipmen will literally go up there and pick the ship that they want to go serve on when they commission and when they graduate. And that that will literally be kind of how it goes. So, quite literally, you know, midshipmen X, their name will get called. It'll, it'll be everyone will start cheering. They'll get like literally a walk-up song. It's like you're in a professional baseball stadium, right? And the batter is coming up and they put on the music 15 seconds as you walk down there. And uh again, so quite literally, the midshipman name will get called, music will be played, it'll put like, you know, a PowerPoint presentation on the big screen there, you know, calling hometown, company, activities, you know, interesting facts, different things to make this moment really special for the midshipman. And so that that person will then get their opportunity to go down onto the stage, pick the ship that they're gonna be going to, you know, shake the hand of you know the person who's down there, and then return up to the stands and have that moment where you get to know for sure, you get to concretely put into the world what ship you're going to and where you're gonna be. Now, you know, a couple of questions that I'm sure people have on this side is like, how do you actually know when you're going? How does the order happen? And much like the Naval Academy and everything in the Naval Academy, it's based on merit, right? There's a bit of a meritocracy associated with, you know, the the Naval Academy experience. And quite literally, of all of the people that pick SWO that are going to be service warfare officers, they are ranked based on their overall order of merit at the Naval Academy. So the person with the highest overall order of merit that is going to be a service warfare officer, they get to go first. Like they will be the person who goes down there and picks the ship first before anyone else, and they get their pick of the litter of like where they want to go and what they want to do. And then it'll literally go down sequentially of who goes next is kind of the next in order of merit all the way down. Now, you know, with that is there are some restrictions of like what you can pick and what you can't pick. And so that's where we're gonna get into this next piece. You know, you have every available billet on the board, but what you will notice, again, as we're kind of talking some of the behind the scenes here, what you will notice on the board are some placards that are different colors, right? And I don't know, I can't guarantee that they're gonna be the same colors this year as they have been in years previous. But normally, the the placards that are white are for people who are going to be a quote unquote a normal swell. Like they have no additional factor. Whereas if the placard is red, that's because they're gonna be a nuke swell or a nuclear swell. And what a nuke swell is, and again, I think why this is important, we'll kind of run through all of these different aspects and concepts here, is nuke swes after commissioning, even though they're a nuke swow, their first tour in the Navy is gonna be as a normal swell, as a conventional swell. They're going to a normal ship doing a normal swow job because they have to qualify as a swell. And at some point, I'll do an episode about the nuke swell community like at large. But it's important to understand for nuclear swes, I think a lot of times when you hear nuke swow, you assume they're gonna be working on an aircraft carrier, because again, an aircraft carrier is powered by nuclear power. There is a literal reactor on the aircraft carrier that powers the aircraft carrier. And so nuke SWOs are going to be service warfare officers that go to the nuclear power school, get nuclear training, and work their way up in hopes of commanding a ship one day and then commanding the reactor one day on an aircraft carrier. Like those are the pinnacles of your career in the Nuke SWO community. But it all starts as a conventional normal SWO, right? And so you will go to a normal ship. But with all that being said, there are billets that are reserved for nuke swes. And you know, with that, is you will also then see likely a green placard. So you'll have white placards, you'll have green placards, and you'll have red placards. The green placard is usually saved for the nuke, or excuse me, not the nuke, the SWO EDO options. And EDO stands for engineering duty officer. Again, this is a special pipeline and pathway within the SWO community. This is one of those that I actually don't know a tremendous about. So we're gonna save that and save myself from complete ignorance about the EDO community. It's something I do wanna bring people on to talk about. But what's important for this is that the whereas Nuke SWOs will do one tour as a conventional SWO and then go to the nuclear power, like then go to nuclear power school and then go to an aircraft carrier, the EDOs, so the SWO EDOs, engineering duty officers, will go to two conventional tours as a SWEW. So they'll do literally two back-to-back tours as a conventional SWO as any other SWO before they make their lateral transition into the EDO community. And so, again, as a result, you have these different placards, even though they're all going to the same place, right? And so it's like, well, if they're all gonna be conventional SWOS in their first tour, why is there even a distinction? And and I had that question a lot myself, which is like, all right, cool, like we distinguish for the sake of distinguishing, but at the end of the day, all of them for their at least their first tour are gonna be conventional swos. They're gonna be all on the same playing field, all even level. So why the difference? And one of the most important things that will come out of this, and we'll kind of talk about like picking the ship that you want to go to, anyways. It's really important. It's important for everybody to qualify and qualify fast as it like as a service warfare officer and actually earn your warfare pin. But again, in the order of precedence, and again, the Navy, you know, we have to put in perspective this as an organization at large, right? Which is the Navy gives bonuses to their nuclear engineers. If you go through nuclear power school and you are going to become a nuclear SWO, you will be receiving bonuses. And you have a really important job as like one of the nuclear engineers that's gonna be in charge of running the reactor on an aircraft carrier, right? And so as a result, those ships that are picked specifically designated for nuke SWOs and EDOs are ships that are usually based on their schedule being very operational first. And the reason for that is when you are operational first, meaning like you are going on deployment almost immediately, or you have a ship that is not in the yards, there's not maintenance going on, you're out doing operations, you are going to qualify fast. And they need you to qualify fast so that way you can almost start to make your transition and start the preliminary study and getting everything ready to make your transition for either the nuclear pipeline or the EDO pipeline, right? And so instead of just putting it out there for anyone to pick any ship, they make it clearly designated for the NUCSWOS and the EDOs to make sure that they are getting set up in order to make their transition. And so that's why you kind of have those differentials in ships and colors and all these different things, is really based on ship schedule, right? These aren't picked necessarily at random. Like there is a method to the madness, there is a reason why these ships are, again, different colors on the board to kind of fit some of these roles. And, you know, again, it's not a perfect science. It's not to say the the ships that are in white aren't gonna be operational. Welcome to the Navy. Every ship's going to sea, I prom I I dang near promise you that like every ship that's on that board, every single midshipman will be on deployment within like the first two or three years of their commissioning. So this isn't, again, when I when I explain that, it's not to say, like, oh, if you're not, you know, receiving a placard with a red or green on it, like that you're not gonna go to sea. Absolutely not the case. But it's just like one of these things where it's it's critical for the progression and pathway of the nuclear SWOs and the EDOs, and so that's why they have them designated that way. You're gonna likely see, again, on the board, about 40 red, like red placards, because there's 41 nuke SWOs in this class, the graduating class of 2026. You're gonna see 16 green placards, so there's 16 available billets, but there's only 13 EDOs, so there will be a couple of spots that are not picked. And then the last thing you're gonna see, we talked about white placards, red placards, and green placards. The last thing you will see are literal blue placards, like blue, you know, magnetic slabs there. And those are for the blue chip midshipment. And what a blue chip is, and this is one of these really interesting things, because I think, again, this was also relatively new around my time at the Naval Academy. And it was tough because there were a lot of people who, you know, were really excited. They you knew they were gonna be really competent naval officers, but like the Naval Academy's hard, dude, and academics are hard. And so there are plenty of people who are like gonna be great in the fleet that didn't have opportunities to like, again, they were gonna pick their ship at the very end. And what was happening is as midshipmen went on summer cruises, they had really positive interactions with the ship's crew and the ship's captains, and the captains were like, hey, we want you to come back to our ship as soon as you graduate. Like, we want you to be a part of our crew. And a lot of the times the midshipmen were like, I mean, I'll try, like, I'll try, but I'm order of merit like 978. Like, there is a good chance that your ship is not on the board by the time I get up there. And so, kind of what was created in the Naval Academy world in the summer training program was this opportunity for the ship and the midshipmen to agree on the desire to return back to that ship after graduation. And literally, the captain of the ship could offer that midshipman a blue chip, basically guaranteeing them a spot to come back after graduation. And again, what this did, it is it really incentivized midshipmen to take summer training very seriously, to like really invest and really be poured into the experience and a chance of receiving that opportunity. Because again, if you're a midshipman who's on the lower half of the order of merit spectrum, and you're going to a ship in Pearl Harbor, or you're going to a ship in San Diego, or you're going to a ship in in Rhoda, and you're like, holy crud, like I might have the chance to actually get this ship after graduation if I really invest in this, right? And I have an opportunity to show my value and my competency and you know the things that I'll be able to contribute to this ship and this crew. And so I think it's really cool because again, basically how it would work is on summer training, you know, I think a lot of times, and every crew will do it differently and every midshipman will have a different story. But a lot of times, you know, as summer training starts, the training officer, the XO, the captain will all kind of sit down with the midshipman and be like, hey, like we intend, we hope to give out a couple of blue chips on this ship, right? Like, we would love for you to be one of our blue chip midshipmen. So, so show us, right? Like, prove it to us. Like we want to create this environment where you want to be here. And as a result, like a lot of times it'll be like, hey, go invest in this experience. Go like learn from all the junior officers, go intermingle and learn the ways from your enlisted sailors on the ship and make the crew come to us and be like, we want midshipman wide to come back as a junior officer. Right. And and then at that point, usually again, the week before they leave, a couple days before, they'll kind of have their out out briefing meetings, like outgoing meetings, and you know, they'll they'll come up and be like, hey, is this something you'd be interested in? Like, we would love to have you back on this ship as a permanent member when you graduate. Is that something that you're interested in? And again, if the midshipman and the command team of the ship are in agreement, they can offer you a blue chip. And so as a result, those blue chips will be on the board. They'll be there again in blue, which means nobody is allowed to take them except for the midshipmen who received that. Now, there are usual, again, there are opportunities. What I will say is for any reason, if a midshipman decides that they no longer want to do that, for any reasons, and we're gonna kind of talk about how midshipmen, like what factors go into midshipmen picking ships and why they pick ships and where and all these different factors, but for any reason a midshipman doesn't want to pick that ship, they don't have to. Again, the blue chip guarantees them the opportunity to pick that ship, but they are not mandated to pick the ship. Now, with all that being said, it's in the best interest of everybody to like have that communicated way before they're actually picking the ship. So a lot of times, if a midshipman is not intending to pick the ship that they have blue chipped, they'll let the people know in advance so they can take the blue chip off the board and just leave it as a normal placard. But in the case that it's still a blue chip on the board, the midshipman does not pick it, they can pick any ship on the board, then literally, you know, like the administrator of the event, the embassy of ship selection, would literally take that blue chip off the board and then replace it with a white placard in its place, right? And so you have those opportunities to kind of see that in action. And if you witness that, that's what's happening, right? Is that that midshipman had a blue chip, they had the opportunity, the protected opportunity to be a crew member of that ship, decided not to do it. And so that's what we have there. So whew, this is fun. This is good stuff again. Color coordination. White for all your normal your normal SWOs, red for the nuke swos, green for the EDOs, blue for the blue chips. Again, those are always subject to change. This is kind of how it's been traditionally in years past. Now, a couple of cool factors, a couple of unique things to be on the lookout for is that every year, like the Japanese Navy sends a delegate to ship selection night. And so does the Spanish Navy. And as a result, they kind of have a senior naval officer from both Japan and Spain in attendance at ship selection. And every year, and it'll happen again this year, the first midshipman that picks a ship in that foreign country to be FDNF, part of the forward-deployed naval forces in either Japan or Spain, they will receive a sword, right? And I think this is like the coolest thing. And I think FDNF in general is super cool. And if you haven't listened to the episode about being an FDNF SWO, I just released one a couple weeks back with Carl Marvel, and it's like it's a really cool episode. I would encourage you to go back and take a look at the FDNF episode to learn a little bit about it since ship selection is relevant now and these things matter and they have some cool perspective. But if you were the first midshipman to go to like pick a ship out of Rota, you will receive a literal saber. You will receive a sword from like a Spanish Navy captain or admiral. It's like it's really cool. And the same thing with Japan. If you're the first midshipman to pick a ship out of Japan, you will receive a sword from that Japanese delegate. And like these things are there, it's so sick. Like when it happens, like it's so cool to witness that happen. And it's pretty awesome. Now, there are a lot of opportunities to be an FDNF sailor, right? There are a lot of opportunities to go to Rota and go to Japan. More in Japan than Rota. You know, roughly again, these always subject to change, but roughly about 15 people per year, 15, 1.5, um, have opportunities to go to Rota. And who doesn't? I mean, it's pretty sweet. Opt tempo's high, we say op tempo, operational tempo, the amount of time you're out to sea away from home. It's really high when you are a forward-deployed naval force sailor. But you're like you're sailing in the Mediterranean, your home is Spain, the southern coast of Spain and in Rota, like really close to Sevilla, it's like it's so spectacular. It's really cool. So, like, anyway, Rhoda, Rota usually flies off the board, right? Like, if you're if you're in the top, if there's 15 Rhoda spots, I would be surprised if they are not completely off the board by like the 35th person, right? Like, it's just like, it's pretty sweet. Again, if you have, again, some reason to keep you in the United States, I get it. Like, people will pick and want to be in San Diego or want to be in Hawaii or want to be in Virginia for whatever reason. No shade of Virginia. But like, Rhoda goes fast, and so does Japan. Specifically Yokuska. So there's two bases in Japan, Yokuska and Sasebo. Both are really cool. Literally every friend that I have from the Naval Academy who went to Japan is now like in love with Japan, right? Like, and not again, and I mean this, I talk about this in everything that I do. Here's the shameless plug for the fact, again, that I I am a real estate agent by trade. Like, this is what I do for my job. Whenever I'm telling people about like using real estate agents, I'm like, you should use the person that other people rave about. Not like, oh yeah, they were okay. Oh no, it was fine. Like, no, you should find the people that rave about a real estate agent. It's the exact same thing with Japan. I like I swear that the vast majority of midshipmen that I know, the vast majority of naval officers now that I know that did their first tours or did their first and second tours in Japan freaking raved about it. Like thought it was the coolest experience ever, loved Japan. I literally, I'm about to go to a wedding this summer with a dude who went to Japan for his first tour, then loved it so much he stayed for a second tour, met a Japanese national, ended up getting like falling in love with her, getting engaged. Got out of the Navy, stayed in Japan, played professional basketball in Japan, and now they're coming back to get married in Annapolis, and I'm going to the wedding this summer. How sweet is that? Ah, dude. Anyway. Anyway, Japan really cool. There's about 50 billets. There's about 50 billets to go to Japan. Again, that could be less at times. It's just there, there are a lot of opportunities to get to Japan, which is really cool. Then you're also gonna have opportunities again to get to like Norfolk, Virginia. You'll be able to get down to like Jacksonville, the Mayport, Florida area. You know, obviously San Diego, Bremerton, Washington, potentially, you know, Pearl Harbor opportunities, lots of cool stuff. So it's all a really great opportunity. Alright. Now, what goes into picking a ship, right? Like when those midshipmen are going up to the board, this is not just something that they're like, oh, that ship name sounds cool, right? Like I'm gonna pick that ship based on ship name. I mean, maybe, I guess, but but not really. Like, I want the remainder of this episode to be really about like how much thought and research and conversation and due diligence goes into a lot of what these midshipmen are doing when it comes to picking their ship. And, you know, I'll start with like the basic one, which is home port. Now, home home port matters a lot. It really does. Like, that's where that's where your home is. And for a lot of people, especially West Coast folks, again, being a California kid, I was always like, man, I want to get back to San Diego. There are so many folks that want to get to San Diego, but San Diego is incredible. It's where I live now. I love San Diego. Like San Diego is a great place. And so there are a lot of people who are like, what's more important for me than the ship or the ship schedule or what they're doing is the home port. Like I want to be in San Diego and I will adjust and adapt to whatever my ship is doing based on the fact that I get a B in San Diego. On the flip side, there are other people who are like, hey, what the ship is doing, the ship schedule is way more important to me. And this can go one of two ways based on what that person wants out of the Navy experience. There may be some people who are looking at a ship schedule. And to put this in perspective, again, another really incredible piece of all this is we're talking about the idea of ship schedules, is that the midshipman will literally receive a secret level brief about the ship's movements and ship schedules into the future. Now, bear with me because a ship schedule six months in the future is it's a bit ridiculous because the ship schedules change all of the time. But with all that being said, there are good opportunities and especially big events, right? And I'd say if there's a milestone event, right, I think a lot of times what sometimes get underlooked is that you could go up to a ship or be looking at a ship that's technically listed under Norfolk, Virginia, right? Like that ship is home ported in Norfolk. But then based on the ship schedule, and you see this in the ship schedule brief, that they are planning a permanent home port shift. They are going to become an FDF ship in Rhoda in like eight months, right? And so if you're lower on the list, you may be like, holy smokes, like that ship isn't in rota, but it's going to be in rota, right? So I have to put up with a year in Virginia and then I get to go to Rhoda. So there's really cool opportunities along actual home port shifts that you might discover in the brief. But it's also about like what the ship is doing. Is the ship gonna be on deployment in the first six months? Is the ship gonna be in the yards? And again, based on what a midshipman wants, some midshipmen may want like, hey, when I commission, I wanna go to sea. I wanna learn my job, I wanna qualify as fast as I can, I wanna be out there doing the thing. And so a ship that you know is gonna be on deployment may be a high priority for you. And if you know based on the ship's schedule brief that that ship is planning on going on deployment in the next six months, right after you commission, then awesome. Like what a great opportunity to pick a ship that's gonna be operational. On the flip side, if you know you have a couple of really important events in your life or there are things going on that you really want or need to be home for, then hey, a ship that might be in the yards for the first year, again, literally in the shipyard going through maintenance and overhaul and all this different stuff, it might be the right fit for you because you're gonna be able to like take care of whatever you need to take care of, still go to work, still take care of your job, and then after the first year, you know you're going to see. But all those things matter. And so, again, when it comes to picking ship, you're gonna be looking at its home port, you're gonna be looking at its schedule, and then you're gonna be having conversations with people about the culture of the ship and the crew of the ship because there is distinguishable culture in the service warfare community. And there certainly is a different culture from ship to ship based on the command, based on the history of commands, based on the people that continue to be on the ship and how that morphs and evolves. But there's also more generalized culture dynamics between different types of platforms. And again, I'm not a swell. I was not a swell, so take it all with a grain of salt. These are just things that I've heard through the grapevine, right? But a lot of times the ships that are known as amphibs, amphibious landing ships, amphibs, and LSD and LPD, some of these different things, are almost more notoriously like a little bit more low-key, a little bit more relaxed. They're bigger ships with more crew. They oper on a operate on a duty schedule where you're like only standing duty once every six days instead of like one every three days on you know on a smaller ship like a destroyer. Quality of life is usually a little bit higher, right? Like these are the things that are in its favor, but also amphibs, they're really like marine transport ships versus like destroyers that like you could be shooting missiles, dude. Right. And so, like the the mission and what the ship does versus the quality of life and the culture of the ship, like all these things play a factor into what a midshipman may want to pick or may not want to pick. And so, again, all these things are really cool. And as we have these conversations, especially as you're talking with your midshipmen about what they want to do, I hope this provides just a little bit of perspective of like how you can ask questions. What made you want to pick this ship? Are they having any home ports? Are they gonna be doing anything cool in the future? You know, do you know about the captain? Do you know about the culture? Do they have a good command climate? You know, is is you know, like all these different things, asking about the crew, the culture, you know, the ship, you know, it's home port, all these different factors can be really cool. And, you know, I think it's really great. So anyway, that's the event. It's super fun. So many people show up from the midshipmen to grads to local Annapolis community, like that alumni hall will be packed, dude. Alumni hall will be packed. It's so cool. There'll be people making signs for all their friends, going crazy. It's like a high school graduation or college graduation. When your friend's name gets called, everyone goes crazy. It's just, it's a blast. And then after that, they usually have liberty, they usually get liberty after where they can all go into downtown Annapolis and have a couple drinks and have fun and party and celebrate. Because again, it's not just the midshipmen. The vast majority of times we talked about like the Spanish Admiral and or the Spanish delegate naval officer, the Spanish naval officer and the Japanese naval officer are coming. There are so many people from the fleet who come back for ship selection. Quite literally, captains of ships will send a bunch of junior officers up to Annapolis on like TAD orders, like official Navy orders to be there to celebrate and welcome their new crews, right? To be there for them. And a lot of times the captains are them are there themselves, right? Like it's really cool. You just have this massive gathering of the surface warfare community in Annapolis for ship selection, and it's really, really cool. So anyway, that's kind of what happens after. It's super fun. You know, again, Academy Insider is something that I love doing. And, you know, but if you want to support me and you want to support Academy Insider, again, it would really mean the world to me, especially as you know, these midshipmen and naval officers are getting ready to move to their next place. If buying a home is something that you're interested in at all or considering, again, I would love to have a conversation with you, consult you, connect you with people wherever you're going. You know, that's kind of the business that I've created and allows me to do Academy Insider, you know, with my actual job and how I make a living, is really by connecting military families with real estate professionals that I personally trust all across the country. So I appreciate you letting me get my shameless plug in there. Would love the opportunity to help you consult with you, work with you, and for all the midshipment families, that goes for you too, right? Like you are a part of this Naval Academy family. If you're thinking about buying or selling a home, please let me know. I would love to be able to help consult and be a part of that process. Amazing. Well, y'all, thank you so much. I hope this is a really cool opportunity to go through a lot of what is going to be happening on ship selection night. I'm sure I missed a couple of details. If you have any questions, let me know. Otherwise, I hope you enjoyed the episode. Have such a great rest of your day, and thank you so much. Thank you so much for listening to this episode of the Academy Insider Podcast. I really hope you liked it, enjoyed it, and learned something during this time. If you did, please feel free to like and subscribe or leave a comment about the episode. We really appreciate to hear your feedback about everything and continue to make Academy Insider an amazing service that guides, serves, and supports midshipmen, future midshipmen, and their families. Thank you.