Today it may be something more prosaic like "The mortgage is paid."  But for a thousand young men in the summer of 1959, there was no question   -   absolutely nothing sounded so good as ....
"Carry on, Mister!"

Six (6) apples, cored and peeled
One-half (1/2) pound of granular sugar
Cinnamon sugar (Ground Cinnamon and granular sugar mixed, to taste)
One quarter (1/4) pound of butter (recall the Academy only served us butter)
Pie Dough - Six (6) Ounces, or of sufficient quantity

Hard Sauce:  Place the granular sugar and butter into a mixing bowl and
beat them until they are thoroughly mixed.  Add either Vanilla or Rum
flavoring (to Taste, as the Flavor Gods demand) to the sugar-butter mix and
stir it in.  I recommend the Rum Flavor - no cracks from guys with long
memories of Cruises and O'Clubs!

When the apples are baked, place a good, healthy dollop of Hard Sauce on
top of the apple-in-crust. Then, eat the whole thing remembering fondly
those few times you were allowed to eat Cannon Balls while in the blissful
state of "Carry-On".

Hard sauce is simply flavored thick texture cake frosting.  Confirm with the ladies that 'from scratch' icing is made a lot easier with confectioners than granulated sugar.  It makes smoother stuff regardless of beating and takes a lot less beating effort to dissolve in the butter.

"Men of Annapolis"

    Bud Alexander, Class of '56, wrote this article for Shipmate on his research involving the "Men of Annapolis" TV series televised back in 1957 - 58.   Bud compiled quite a bit of information about the evolution of the series, the stories involved, and the reaction of the alumni from the classes of '62 - '68.  He requested members of the classes of '62 - '68 to e-mail any recollections of the series and any comments they may have on the impact the series might have had on influencing them to attend the Naval Academy.  Bud was  impressed with the response.
    Comments included:  "Men of Annapolis planted the seed...",  "...first introduction to the fact that such a school existed", "...absolutely and unequivocally the reason I went to USNA".  Many similar comments were submitted.  A retired flag officer e-mailed:  "The 'Men of Annapolis' had a profound effect on me....I came home from the fields one evening, saw this wonderful place somewhere far away on the East Coast where the guys wore white uniforms and carried swords, and I said, 'that's for me!' "
    The distribution of the first 91 responses:  '62 - 3, '63 - 5, '64 - 25, '65 - 4, '66 -10, '67 - 43, '68 - 0, '69 - 1.   Almost universally, the responses credit "Men of Annapolis" with being a positive influence on the alumni's knowledge of and interest in attending USNA.  The project resulted in an article for the November "Shipmate".    Contact Bud at Budalxandr@aol.com.

1,206 entered the Class of 1963 on 7 July 1959

876 graduated, 319 did not

As of the 25th Reunion, 102 remained on active duty.
As of the 30th Reunion, 19 remained on active duty.
As of the 35th Reunion, 2 remained on active duty.
As of today, none of our classmates remain on active duty.  [On 3 June 1999, Denny Vaughan, USNR, retired and passed the reins of PEO Mine Warfare to Rear Admiral Curtis Kemp, USNA '72.]
(Denny Conley was the last USN officer on active duty.)

Five appointed positions within Executive branch agencies:
    Steve Duncan was an Assistant SecDef for Reserve Affairs under the Reagan and Bush administrations (considered four-star equivalent, as a senior position  in DOD).
    Roger Mehle was an Assistant Secretary of the Treasury under Don Regan (Secretary of Treasury) during the Reagan Presidency.
    Mario Fiori, Assistant Secretary of the Army
    Tom Hall, Assistant Secretary of Defense
    Dave Oliver, Principal Deputy Undersecretary of Defense
    (Tom Hall and Dave Oliver are also Navy Flag Officers)

Started         1,206     100%
Graduated      876        74%
Admirals           19          2%
 

46% OR 11 OF THE 24 COMPANIES HAD FLAG OFFICERS

54% OR 13 OF THE 24 COMPANIES DID NOT PRODUCE A FLAG OFFICER

2 COMPANIES HAD 3 FLAG OFFICERS EACH
 - 6 out of 19 ADMIRALS CAME OUT OF 2 COMPANIES
 - 32% OF THE ADMIRALS CAME OUT OF 8% OF THE COMPANIES

4 COMPANIES HAD 2 FLAG OFFICERS EACH
 - 14 out of 19 ADMIRALS CAME OUT OF 6 COMPANIES
 - 74% OF THE ADMIRALS CAME OUT OF 25% OF THE COMPANIES

5 COMPANIES PRODUCED ONE FLAG OFFICER EACH

Question:
   What was the factor that made the 8,24,3,13,20 & 23 companies produce all those flag officers?

Carl Doughtie was the first United States Naval officer, the first USNA graduated aviator, and the first member of our class to die in the Vietnam War:  10 June 1965.

Our oldest classmate was born on 3 March 1937.
Our youngest classmate was born on 26 June 1942.

The youngest child:  Millie and Jeff Niss's daughter, Kyla Louise Niss, born November 13, 1994.
Based upon circumstantial evidence, it is estimated that the oldest child was born during our second class year.

In terms of average class rank, the top company was 7th, the anchor was 23rd.
    (Note:  23rd produced 2 Admirals).

Plebe [calendar] Year:
    *  16 February 1959:  Fidel Castro becomes premier of Cuba
    *  9 April 1959:  NASA selects the first 7 US Astronauts
    *  9 June 1959:   1st ballistic missile sub launched [USS George Washington (SSBN- 598)]
    *  7 July 1959:  The best damn class enters the best damn school in the world
    *  19 September 1959:  Krushchev loses temper when denied trip to Disneyland
    *  2 October 1959:  "The Twilight Zone" first appears on TV
    *  2 November 1959:  Van Doren admits receiving answers to TV's $64,000 Question show
 

Secondclass Year:
    *  13 August 1961: Construction of Berlin Wall begins
    *  23 August 1961: East Germany curbs travel (East to West Berlin)
     *  5 October 1961: JFK advises Americans to build fallout shelters
     *  11 November 1961:  First official American military arrives in VietNam:  2 Army Helicopter cos.

Firstclass Year:
    *  5 August 1962: Marilyn Monroe dies three days before scheduled re-marriage to Joe Dimaggio
    *  5 June 1963:  The best damn class graduates from the best damn school in the world
    *  24 June 1963:   1st demo of home video recorder (BBC studios)
    *  Entire year of 1963:  That Was The Year That Was ...  (events from throughout 1963)

rasputniks:  Our white shirts used a stud in the back and another in the front to moor the collar.  Shirts and collars were laundered separately and heavily starched collars were returned with rasputniks (wooden studs) in the button holes closing the front.  As a plebe, did you ever wager any rasputniks with an upperclass?

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1/c weapons exam:  Most of the stresses in our life have paled compared to our 1/C Weapons Exam.   Chuck Adams reminds us,

In the first semester of our first class year (1962-1963), our entire class endured a course entitled Anti-Submarine Warfare and Detection Systems.  It was the first time the Weapons Department had offered the course.  The syllabus included a heavy dose of material on underwater acoustics.  We all learned about snapping shrimp.  As the course progressed through the semester, it apparently became a worry to the Weapons Department faculty that their students were just "not getting it." and if they didn't do something, the failure rate for the course would be quite high.  The "something" was to make the final examination "open book."

The day of the examination, those of us in the Thirteenth Company arrived at our examination rooms with one book in our stack of references that our other classmates did not have - Thermodynamic Properties of Steam. At a prearranged time during examination, we all took out our copies of Thermodynamic Properties of Steam, removed and unfolded our Mollier diagrams and pretended to obtain a bit of information from the diagrams.  The Mollier diagram, of course, had little or nothing to do with underwater acoustics nor anything else in the course or the examination.  I took the examination in the large classroom on the top deck of Luce Hall.  There were about six other of my company mates scattered about the room.  As we consulted our diagrams, the look of pure panic on the faces of our other classmates was unforgettable!

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overload courses:  We were the first class to complete four years of Overload Courses.    John Morgan obtained from the USNA Archivist:

 The class of '63 was the first to have the advantage of the full four years of the majors program. From our class, 106 fulfilled those requirements. There were eight majors to choose from.  By 66-67 school year, there were 21 majors and 23 minors to choose from. The classes of '64, '65, '66 fulfilled  requirements for majors with 152, 209, and 412 respectively.

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Carry On! This page updated:   July 18, 2008

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