CONGRATULATIONS TO NEW SAILORS

Congratulations to former cadets Robert Ferguson and Arthur J. Geagley, both MHS 2013, who recently graduated from Navy Boot Camp and are now in follow-on technical training at the Great Lakes Naval Training Center near Chicago, Illinois.

Typical recruit graduation cermony.

Beat Army!

THE MIDDIE BLOG IS BACK!

I have been working with the help desk to rectify a couple of technical issues with our blog and believe I have them fixed.  We'll see.  Either way, I will try to post more updates and challenges.  So here is cadet challenge # 3:

For new cadets:  Who would you find in the ship's goat locker?  Congratulations to Cadet Madden who correctly answered that one would find chief petty officers in the goat locker.  Good job!  That's three for three.

For upperclass cadets:  Write a haiku correct in form and style that describes a Middletown cadet in his or her standard NSU rig.  Congratulations to Cadet Soriano who wrote a rather insulting little ditty about one of his classmates.

These challenges close out at 0730, Friday, 27 September.  Good luck!

CONGRATULATIONS TO CADET ROBERTO SORIANO

Congratulations to Cadet Roberto Soriano who correctly answered Cadet Challenge #2 by noting that a ship's galley smokestack is known as "Charley Noble."  Good for him.    Expect Cadet Challenge #3 to be issued next week.  Be prepared.

Not so well prepared.



CADET CHALLENGE #2

To date, no one has solved the first cadet challenge.  Here is the second:

• For new cadets:  Who is the commander of the Naval Education and Training Command?  Congratulations to Cadet Madden who correctly answered RADM Quinn.
• For returning cadets:  On modern ships, the galley is generally all electric, but on old ships, the stove burned wood or coal and had a smoke stack.  What was the traditional name of the smoke stack for the ship's stove in the galley?

This challenge will close out at 1430, Wednesday, 11 September.  There will be a small prize.  Good luck.

The galley smoke stack on a sailing vessel.



NEW CADET ORIENTATION AUGUST 2013

When Middletown High School NJROTC conducts New Cadet Orientation, you know summer is almost over.  After considerable preparation buy the staff, we conducted orientation for new cadets on the 27th, 28th, and 29th of August.  Each day featured some class time discussing how to succeed as a cadet and as a high school student, some drill time, and a few other focusing activities.  Special congratulations are due to Cadet Seaman Recruit Madden who, under the tutelage of Cadet "Boats" Barone, made an excellent 12 o'clock report.  No cadets were harmed in the taking of the following images:

The XO stands ready.

The CO instructs new cadets in basic drill procedures.

Looks like a gaggle to me.

Master Sergeant makes a point.



A new cadet is questioned by two cadre members during The Maze.





Commander makes point (probably something weighty such as "Success is good.")



Orientation at the Naval Academy was larger than ours...

...but our Pizza was better than theirs!



This is the gorilla that everyone will now swear they saw.



Don't eat that marshmallow!

SEAPERCH--WHAT A DEAL!

We have been awarded a grant that will allow us to participate in the SeaPerch challenge.  SeaPerch, sponsored by the Office of Naval Research, is a competitive program that requires teams to build a submersible Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) capable of beating the competing teams in an underwater challenge. 

I anticipate that we will have two local teams competing against each other.  The winning team may then go on to regional and even national competition. Each team will represent a company that wants to sell the U.S. Navy a ROV requested by the Navy to complete certain challenges.  The teams will have to build the ROV, make a presentation, and actually operate it in competition.  The process will take approximately four months from about October to about February (exact dates are yet to be determined). 

For planning, each team will consist of four or five cadets with at least one senior, one junior, and one sophomore cadet as follows:
  - Team Leader
  - Structural Tech
  - Mechanical Tech
  - Electrical Tech
  - Support Tech

We will start with an overview presentation, select participants, and then host a kick-off of the build season. The public will be invited to the presentation and competition.

Interested?  Stay tuned! 

SeaPerch Construction

SeaPerch in operation.

Close-up

Army JROTC SeaPerch

GET READY

The start of the new school year is just around the corner.  Enjoy those few remaining days of summer, sleep late, watch TV, go to the pool, the beach, hangout--whatever.  Get it all out of your systems and be ready.  For staff, that means show up for orientation on the 15th and 16th of August.  Staff photos will be taken on Thursday 15 August.  For the cadre, new cadet orientation will be 27, 28, and 29 August with a staff prep day on Monday the 26th.  As a reminder, we wil be participating in the annual Night Out Against Crime on 6 August and the color guard will support the summer school graduation on 16 August.  We will also support Middie Move-Up Day on the afternoon of 28 August.   

For juniors and seniors, the first uniform day will be Tuesday, 10 September--that's the second day of school.  We will find out early this year the the non-hackers are and offer there billets to others.  Sophomores will have one more week to square themselves away. 

New midshipmen report to the United States Naval Academy.