A few awesome things I learned about the Naval Academy: 1) A typical student's day begins at 6am and ends at midnight (classes, drills, sports and studying). Summers are not off. 2) A maximum of 25% can enter the Marines from the academy. This has been maxed out every year for the last number of years. 3) Rather than dropping, applicants spiked after 9/11. After the academy, they head off to a minimum of 5 years of service. These young men and women are amazing.
The lamp-posts are poetical...the lamp-post really has the whole poetry of man, for no other creature can lift a flame so high and guard it so well. --G K Chesterton, London Times July 24, 1909.