(Updated January 2021)
Three and a half years after entering the Academy and becoming Midshipmen, prospective Surface Warfare Officers take the first step toward joining the surface fleet. Soon after graduation and commissioning, these Midshipmen report for duty, decked out in their brand-new Summer Whites or Service Dress Blues, with orders in hand. The ship each Midshipman reports to will become their first command, setting the course of their Naval careers.
At the end of the nineteenth century, Colonel Robert Means Thompson commissioned Ernest Flagg, already a renowned architect, to create a design that would revitalize the Naval Academy. His ideas resulted in a Beaux-Arts style design that would make up the heart of the Naval Academy, with the Chapel serving as centerpiece of the design.
Air shows are an opportunity for aviation enthusiasts to not only watch unbelievable aerobatics and airspeed demonstrations, but also get up close and personal with static aircraft displays and pose questions to the flight crew. Often the highlight of the event, drawing in spectators young and old, is the world-renowned Navy Blue Angels flight demonstration squadron.
