NStar Articles

We’re a small band of brothers and sisters. Just 1,200 USNA midshipmen are accepted into the U.S. Naval Academy each year, and a bit over 1,000 of us will graduate four years later. We’re a hardy lot, accustomed to long hours and late nights, tough physical training sessions and hard leadership lessons. While we enter as plebes, we leave as commissioned naval leaders, ready and equipped to help protect our country and preserve its freedoms. Along the way as midshipmen (and as midshipgoat) for our four years here, we learn what it takes to survive and thrive. We also learn the tips and tricks that get us there.

For many of the one million plus people who walk through the gates of the U.S. Naval Academy each year hoping to get a glimpse at what makes this place so special, “The Call to Serve” movie at the USNA Visitor Center is their first good look at midshipmen life. When you enter the Armel-Leftwich Visitor Center, you’ll find this movie in its own theater. Approximately twelve minutes long, it plays every fifteen minutes throughout the day, starting at 9:00 AM and continuing until the last visitor leaves at 5:00 PM. It’s estimated that  85,000 people take the tours annually, and a significant number of them also watch, “The Call to Serve.”

Many of the intriguing artifacts that dress the Yard have significant meaning, and several of them still play an integral role in daily life at the Naval Academy. The historic bells that flank Bancroft Hall are two such living relics. Known as the Enterprise Bell and the Japanese Bell, they come to life towards the end of each semester  to be rung for each sport that Navy has dominated over Army. When they’re not being rung, they are heavy with the histories that they bring to this special place.