No MORE TEARS....You're in the navy now!

Now, I realize why she (My Mom) had tears in her eyes earlier during the day.  The prospective midshipmen incoming class consisted of 74 Blacks mixed among 1,347 plebes for the class of 1976.  I said my goodbyes to my brother and kissed my mom and said: “Don’t worry, I’ll be ok.” I would not see my brother and parents again until Christmas break.  They could not return during the mid-August Plebe Parents Weekend.  I said my final goodbye and reported to the 17th Company area.  This separation from my family was my first time.  My home was some 840 miles to the west in Saint Louis, Missouri. Things are real quiet back in the dormitory, but not for long. Some of us will find out the hard way about the consequences of not following orders. 

The concluding activity that night was a snowflake drill.  We were instructed to go and get all of our underwear and placed them in a pile in the middle of the hallway. Then with only one minute left before lights out, we were instructed to get it out of the hall and be on the rack before lights out.  Everything was grabbed and placed into the nearest room there was no time for anything else.  Laundry would be put outside your room on Sunday evening and picked up by the laundry personnel before five in the morning.  If you marked your gear you got it back, else you had to buy new ones only after wearing the same underwear for about two weeks until payday.  11 p.m.: Lights Out.  This thing called Reveille would get us up at 0500 in the morning.  
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