In The Navy

Via the Navy Times:

Naval Academy Superintendent Vice Adm. Ted Carter issued a challenge to the 2018 plebe class Monday afternoon: Try to beat the 1 hour, 20 minutes it took his class of '81 to scale the Herndon Monument and replace the plebe Dixie cup with a midshipman's cover, signifying the end of the grueling plebe year. The fourth classmen came close at 1 hour, 38 minutes and 36 seconds, when 19-year-old Javarri Beachum stretched his 5-foot-7-inch frame to nudge the cover over the top of the obelisk as the few thousand spectators roared their approval. Beachum, a native of Port St. Joe, Florida, told reporters he knew he'd be the one to get to the top. "My sponsor was the first one — I told her, 'Don't worry, I'll be the one to put it up there,' " he told reporters.

The clip below is by the Naval Academy. Odd musical choice.

Smooth Sailing At Annapolis

The Baltimore Sun reports that since the repeal of DADT, life has gotten a lot easier for gay midshipmen at the Naval Academy.

Eight months after the repeal, midshipmen both gay and straight describe a quiet but significant transformation at the Naval Academy. Gay midshipmen are seeking recognition for a student club. Last month, for the first time, faculty members and staff attended an off-campus dinner that had been organized secretly every year by and for gay midshipmen. And Atwill and his boyfriend, classmate Nick Bonsall, planned to go together Saturday to the Ring Dance, a formal ball held each spring for third-year midshipmen. "It's been really great, actually," Bonsall, 20, of Middletown, Del., said of life at the academy since repeal. "Everyone has been really accepting of us."

(Tipped by JMG reader Tim)

MARYLAND: Openly Gay Cadets Attend Naval Academy LGBT Alumni Event

Gay history was made this weekend. Via USNA Out:

Ninety-four U.S. Naval Academy (USNA) Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) alumni, midshipmen and their guests gathered here Saturday to recognize alumni and midshipmen accomplishments over the last year, commemorating seven months since repeal of the law commonly known as “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”. Thirty-one midshipmen of all four classes and their guests attended, along with 34 members of USNA Out – the LGBT organization of U.S. Naval Academy alumni. Sixteen of the midshipmen are seniors, who will graduate on May 29 and be the first class at Annapolis to graduate under the new policy that now allows gay, lesbian and bisexual military members to serve without fear of discharge. The new policy became effective in September 2011, a few weeks after classes resumed for the year at the academy.

There are now "more than 40" openly gay cadets attending the Naval Academy. Most are members of USNA Out.

GETTING IT RIGHT: Naval Academy Honors Gay Marine's Burial Request

The Naval Academy has honored the final wishes of a gay Marine who had told his husband that he wanted his ashes interred at the USNA Columbarium. John Fliszar was a 1971 graduate of the Academy, but what's so heartwarming is how the Academy treated his husband, Mark Ketterson.

The memorial coordinator asked about his relationship to the deceased. Ketterson said that John Fliszar was his husband. “They were always polite, but there was this moment of hesitation,” Ketterson recalled. “They said they’re going to need something in writing from a blood relative. They asked, ‘Are you listed on the death certificate?’ ‘Do you have a marriage license?’ ” He was and they did, the couple having been married in Des Moines when gay marriage became legal in Iowa two years ago. Ketterson sent a copy of the marriage license. That changed everything.

“I was respected,” he said. “From that moment on, I was next of kin. They were amazing.” The USNA alumni association sent Ketterson a letter expressing condolence for the loss of his husband. The USNA says Fliszar’s interment followed standard operating procedure. “His next of kin was treated with the same dignity and respect afforded to the next of kin of all USNA grads who desire interment at the Columbarium,” said Jennifer Erickson, a spokesperson for the academy. “We didn’t do anything differently.”

There's more to this great story, hit the link.

TRAILER: Out Of Annapolis

Out Of Annapolis, a documentary about the LGBT alumni of the Naval Academy, continues the rounds of the nation's gay film festivals with a New Fest screening tomorrow at 2:30PM in Manhattan.

Obama And McCain

John McCain IV, that is, meeting the president after his Naval Academy graduation yesterday.

Asking And Telling

Former submarine captain Steve Clark Hall is making a documentary about gay and lesbian graduates of the U.S. Naval Academy.

One captain in the Marine Corps had to sign the confining orders to send a lesbian to jail, but was so disturbed that the next day the officer, who was also gay, submitted his resignation papers. Another man, from the Naval Academy Class of 1958, was kicked out of the military because his name was found in the address book of a "known homosexual." Other gay men and lesbians left the service because like Steve Clark Hall, a nuclear submarine captain who retired after a 20-year Navy career, they could no longer bear the burden of harboring an enormous secret about their identity. "I was tired of being single and not being able to live life the way I wanted to," said Hall, 54, who has begun gathering these stories for Out of Annapolis, the documentary film he is making about gay and lesbian alumni of the Naval Academy.

[snip]

"When I was a midshipman, there were no gay or lesbian role models," he said. "All we ever heard was when someone was kicked out." He hopes the film will help people see that gay service members exist and have achieved great things, and that the "don't ask, don't tell" policy - which requires gays in the military to hide their sexual identities or risk expulsion - is a "folly."

"This is another way to tell our story and unveil the masks of who we are. We need to educate our fellow alumni and anyone who will pay attention," said Jeff Petrie, the founder of the gay alumni group USNA Out, who has agreed to be interviewed for the film. "When I look back at how other minorities were treated in military history and how far we've come with how those people are now part of an integrated team, I know the same will be true for us one day. And I want to take advantage of every opportunity I can to move that along."

Hall hopes to have the film ready for the festival circuit this summer.

RELATED: I was tipped to this story by JMG reader and USNA Out founder Jeff Petrie (quoted above) who notes that news of the documentary has been posted on the Naval Academy's alumni association website, which Petrie says is "a big deal for us."