SAVE THE DATE: MILITARY BALL--FRIDAY, 6 JUNE

Just a reminder, your Military Ball has been scheduled for Friday, 6 June at Villa Venezia from six pm until ten pm.  The menu will include penne ala vodka, penne carbanora, chicken marsala, salad, rolls, and a selection of vegetables.  Tickets will be $35, five dollars less than last year.  Find a date or come alone, either way, you will have a wonderful evening. Here are a few photos from last year's ball:

Commander's Military Ball

Barone breaks out 

Formal and informal toasts

Honor Guard for the arrival of our distinguished guests and the official party.

Parading of the Beef

Twerking?  Really?

It just gets worser and worser

THE MHS NJROTC SELFIE

A short "selfie" brought to you by the cadet staff...

CONGRATULATIONS ENSIGN NEHA ATHAVALE, USN (MHS CLASS OF 2007)

Then Cadet Neha Athavale pictured as a cadet lieutenant and battalion commander.

Navy Surface Warfare Officer Qualification Badge.

Well-deserved congratulations go out to Ensign Neha Athavale, USN, of the USS Germantown who was recently awarded qualification as a Surface Warfare Officer.  Qualification as a Surface Warfare Officer (SWO) is a significant professional milestone for a naval officer and generally requires a year to a a year and a half of dedicated effort as a division officer assigned as a member of a ship's complement of officers.

As a cadet, Ensign Athavale served as Drill Team Commander and Battalion Commander.  She was selected to attend the United States Naval Academy Preparatory School upon graduation from Middlletown High School.  She graduated from the United States Naval Academy in 2012.

USS Germantown (LSD-42)

A hidden challenge:  Two cadet bonus points to the cadet who properly translates the Germantown's motto.

PIX FROM THE ORIENTATION TRIP

Forty-six cadets from Middletown High School participated in our annual orientation trip to Washington, DC, Quantico, Virginia, and Baltimore, Maryland from Thursday, 20 March through Sunday, 23 March 2014.  Here are a few of the highlights:

Interior of Lincoln Memorial

Changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknowns, Arlington Cemetery.
"Receive, obey, and pass on to the sentry who relieves me..."

"Walk my post in a military manner, keeping always on the alert..."

Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial.

Cadets handle a full-sized replica of Old Glory at Fort McHenry, Maryland.

Gettysburg Battlefield from Little Round Top

The space shuttle Discovery at the National Air and Space Museum Annex

HUMMVEE mock up in the Virtual Convoy Traininer, MCB Quantico.

National Museum of the Marine Corps, Quantico, Virginia

The standard group picture.

A NEW CADET CHALLENGE

Here's a new cadet challenge for you:

The warden of a prison with a deep, dark dock meets with 23 new prisoners when they arrive and proposes a convoluted challenge. He tells them, "You may meet today and plan a strategy. But after today, you will be in isolated cells and will have no communication with one another.  Here's the situation:
In the prison is a switch room, which contains two light switches labeled A and B, each of which can be in either the on or the off position. I am not telling you their present positions. The switches are not connected to anything.

After today, from time to time whenever I feel so inclined, I will select one prisoner at random and escort him to the switch room. This prisoner will select one of the two switches and reverse its position. He must move one, but only one of the switches. He can't move both but he can't move none either. Then he'll be led back to his cell.

No one else will enter the switch room until I lead the next prisoner there, and he'll be instructed to do the same thing. I'm going to choose prisoners at random. I may choose the same guy three times in a row, or I may jump around and come back. But, given enough time, everyone will eventually visit the switch room as many times as everyone else. At any time anyone of you may declare to me, 'We have all visited the switch room.' If it is true, then you will all be set free. If it is false, and somebody has not yet visited the switch room, you will be fed to the alligators.

Here's the question:
What is the strategy the prisoners devise?

No hints for you!

This challenge will end at 0730, Monday, 10 March.  There will be a prize.  Good luck!

This has almost nothing to do with the challenge.