Maguire to join Naval Academy

By Zach Bergevin,
BlueDevilHUB.com Staff–

Beginning in late June, senior Darby Maguire will be inducted into the Navy on the first day of summer training with an oath. She will serve for four years as a midshipman in the Navy as a commissioned officer candidate.

Although the Naval Academy is also four-year public college, it has a completely different lifestyle than the average university. During the summer, which the Naval Academy calls “Plebe Summer,” Maguire will take part in the seven-week long program to learn the basics of a military lifestyle.

Aside from learning how to follow military protocol and maintaining fitness, “Plebe Summer” encompasses activities such as boxing, sailing, self-defense, swimming. Speakers also come to talk to the students.

Directly after Plebe summer, Maguire will enroll as a freshmen. She will have to balance academics along with the additional obligations of military life such as drills, company workouts, watches and professional knowledge quizzes.

Serving in the military comes with strict rules and regulations even when the plebes are in college.

“As a plebe, we also have special rules we have to follow like squaring our corners, which is basically just making a sharp turn whenever you walk,” Maguire said.

Maguire said that other rules include walking in the middle of hallways, on the outside of stairwells and holding hats when not wearing them.

Even though there are many boundaries and rules to follow in the Navy, for people like Maguire, it is worth it.

“Everyone is there for the same reason and we all want to serve our country,” Maguire said.

The Naval Academy is free; students actually get paid a stipend while attending the academy. This is not all that important to Maguire, however. She cares about all the other advantages of the military.

“Joining the military is an incredible opportunity to see the world and help the world,” Maguire said.

The goal of the freshman year is to learn military rules and how to be a follower before becoming a leader. Students still focus in on a certain topic of academic study as their major and may choose a subordinating category of study as a minor; military procedure and learn how to be an officer is just added onto the workload.

In order to meet the requirements that the navy sets, all students must graduate in the four years. As a student advances each year, they receive different names instead of freshmen, sophomores, juniors and seniors to match the military lingo. After the first year of being a plebe is complete, a student will move on to be a youngster, then second class and finally first class as a senior.

Some of the rules are very restrictive, including rules banning listening to music and not closing room doors unless changing or showering. However, according to Maguire, the rules become less restrictive as the student advances through the ranks of the Naval Academy.

All students are required by the institution to play a sport, whether it be at the Division 1 level, a club sport or an intramural sport.

“I’m planning on joining the boxing team or playing field hockey, maybe both if I have time,” Maguire said.

In addition to the sporting events that the will-be-officers participate in, they also work each summer in military and leadership training that narrow into more specific categories once the student focuses in on a particular branch or community that they intend to transition into.

Serving in the military at Naval Academy draws the students closer to each other as people as well.

“You get so close with all your classmates. My summer seminar detailer said that by the end of the summer, he knew his classmates so well that he could tell you what they would order at a restaurant before they did it,” Maguire said.

After four years in Annapolis, Maguire will acquire her degree as well as become a commissioned officer in the Navy as an ensign or in the Marine Corps as a Second Lieutenant.