For the Incoming Class

Jamzmom · 05-31-2008, 03:53 PM

Some thoughts from some Graduates.
First the famous Hobbs Letter:

Quote:

First, in my biased opinion Kings Point has to be the hardest of the Service Academies.

The regiment is tough and it's demands are sometimes ridiculous. Athletes are hardly pampered compared to other service academies. Academically you're looking at, on average, 18 credit hours per trimester. Each trimester is 13 weeks long. Compare that to EVERY other academy who has the semester system. You spend 9 trimesters in residence at Kings Point taking academics. Other colleges, academies included only have 8. Then wrap a year of academics into 360 days at sea with no instructors.

You'll spend a year at sea, travelling around the world. You'll be in a very micro environment with different standards and different people. You'll go to foreign lands and work with some of the smartest and dumbest people ever. Basically, you'll be in the real world learning your trade which is the safe navigation of a vessel, it's crew, and ithe hundreds of millions of dollars of cargo across an entire ocean. I've never been an ROTC cruise or academy cruise but I suspect it's not the same. The level of responsibility between a young 22-year-old 3rd Mate, fresh out of school, standing watch, at night, in the fog, on a 95,000 ton tanker is quite different from that of a fresh Ensign who is a Division Officer on a navy frigate. To say your better trained coming from Kings Point in terms of shiphandling, navigation, seamanship, all things related to the water, when compared to your USNA/ROTC Counterparts is an understatement. You will have the opportunity to intern with a F/A-18 squadron, or spend a month on a Nuclear Carrier.

The academics here are difficult, and somewhat narrow. You're not going to find a English or History Major, but on graduation day you'll find 180 new officers who have experience that is underrappreciated by them, and uncomparable to their ROTC counterparts.

What does this have to do with Plebe Year? You must be ready physically, and mentally. There have been stronger athletes who have cried and failed in the first day. There have been weaker kids who've made it where that guy failed, and graduated without every approaching PT stud status. Knowing your taking on a superior challenge and knowing you'll leave here with some of the best training available will hopefully give you all something to reach down inside for when you've been brought to the edge and your ready to quit. You'll find new meaning to motivation, spirit, discipline, and pride.

Indoc is no where near the end. In fact it's the easiest time you'll have here. Guaranteed. Plebe year will test your endurance, morally, mentally, and physically. Your accountable to someone, if not several people at all times. However your only responsible for yourself. Moving through your senior year you may find yourself looking after 150 different people, their welfare, their training. At the end of the four years you'll look back and wonder how it could pass so quickly and transpire so lengthily at the same time. You'll change physically. You'll be sharpened mentally. You'll be hardened morally. And you may not realize any of this until you step out of the gate when you see the type of person you've been molded into in this 4-year crucible stacked up to your 'nasty civilian' counterpart. No, civilians aren't nasty, but you'll definitely experience something that very few people have.

Kings Point's small size produces one of the best, varied, tight-knit, and powerful alumni anywhere. Kings Point graduates have been to every war. They've been around the world and across the oceans. They've been to space. They've run companies and made millions. Anyone read "Rich Dad, Poor Dad"? They've worked for NATO, the White House, Exxon, you name it. And no one will mean more to you than the guys and girls you came here with and made it through here with. NO ONE makes it through alone.

Most importantly perhaps, Kings Point is not for everyone. Your going to find a broad variety of people here. Army and Air Force have their future 2nd Lieutenants. Navy and Coast Guard have their future Ensigns. Kings Point has 180 young men and women who came here for 180 different reasons and could be employed doing 180 different things.

Why am i telling you all this?

Four years ago i sat where you all sit wondering if i should take the leap. On the 20th of June I'll graduate. A scant 48 days away, after 4 long, sad, strange, wonderful, amazing, painful, short miserable, awesome years. The fine details about plebe year will all come and go before you know it. Enjoy your life now because if you take this journey you'll finish as a different person.

Good luck.

***************

Next, from a dear friend's son:

Quote:

This is Kpmom06's son. I just graduated on june 19th, and thought that i would give a recent perspective of the school after indoc. Life only gets harder. Academics kick in and its like your first time being thrown into a pool when you don't know how to swim. The chances are your kids are going to have to adapt to it or get out. As a "Straight Deckie" plebe year was definitely my hardest year academically. I was very weak in calculus, but managed to get by with C's. Fortunately made friends with an engineer who had already had 2 years of calculus, and he helped me out a lot. Turns out i later roomed with him, and he was my sea partner both times. No one can go through academics alone, and yes there will be complaining about Kings Point. But that only gets worse with the more time spent there. I did it just as much as anyone else. While you are at the school, there are a lot of things that will start to bother you. Especially if you end up joining the century club (100 demerits or more) your second class year. The best advice that i received was from my dad one break. I came home in a horrible mood, angry at the school and a lot of the BS that goes on there. My dad just said to me, "Shut the **** up and just deal with it" It was the best advice that i had had. Just got to grin and bear it through. Coddling a midshipman is the worst thing that you can do. All it will do is make them miss home more and detract from focus of their studies.

Sea Year is an interesting time. It changed my perspective on life. I originally wanted to go and fly for the Navy, but after my second day on a ship decided that i wanted to sail. Your kids need to go out with an open mind and be willing to try something new. Sea is like nothing else they will ever experience, or have. Unless they grew up on the water or have a parent who is in the Merchant Marine, it will be a complete culture shock. I know when i saw my first ship pull into port i thought it was huge. Turns out it was one of the smaller ships that i was on. Before he/she leaves to go on a ship, encourage them to consider sailing, just so they are willing to ask questions of the officers. I had a bunch of really good officers while i was at sea. And when they asked the infamous question do you want to sail? I didn't give the canned answer that the school gives you and say "Yes, that is definitely what i want to do." I was honest and told them that when i first got to the school i wanted to fly but i'm getting more and more interested in sailing everyday. Turns out it is what i really want to do, and i hope to work my way up to Captain someday. As for communication, give their email address out, to a few people that they will appreciate hearing from. it does get lonely out there, and you can't always call in port i.e. Africa. one email a week from the parents is enough, just a simple hey whats goin on, and tell them how life is at home. Again don't write the "are you ok?" "We miss you soo much" type of email cause it will make them feel even farther from home. And remind them to do their sea project.

The Sea Project is very outdated. Many times i would ask the Captain for help on a question and he would say that he hasn't used this type of system since the early 80's. Advise your kid to get a pony. Don't have them copy it, but use it as a guide. When a cadet first looks at the instructions which are as confusing as a suduko puzzle is, it is overwhelming. A pony gives the proper style of layout that the school likes, especially one that got an A. I didn't do that well on my sea projects, but i passed them. I just banged them out and was finished the first sea project in 3 weeks, and the second year within a month. I figured that would give me more time to learn about the actual workings of a ship and do my job without having to use the excuse,"I need to work on my sea project." Plus it was really nice coming back to school with it done, and bound from Office Max, while the rest of your class mates are pulling allnighters to finish it. I just hung out and played video games while they were rushing to finish. Ironically however i did notice one thing about my class when we came back from sea, at least with the deckies, is that the people who did nothing at sea but worked on their sea projects, usually had the least amount of nautical know how, and had to study the most when it came to License.

When sea is over life at KP becomes hard. First Class year is no picnic, especially the third trimester with license prep. I personally didn't find it too hard because i made a trimester long study plan. A lot of my class mates who didn't pass on the first go fell into the Lapware trap. (Lapware is the computer program for deckies that asks Coast Guard questions) My advice for license study is read through the Murphy books, then go onto lapware to reinforce what was learned. I breezed through license prep, and found license to be a lot easier than i expected. I think that is due to non stop studying leading up to license week, and not having to cram during it.

Finally as has been said before, Play Rugby. Probably the best group of guys at the school. The team is like a brotherhood, and surprisingly has some really smart kids on it that are willing to help each other out. Also if your son is looking for a sport and is athletic, the team is looking to have a repeat of its undefeated Championship season from last year.

I hope that this is helpful. I'll be in the South Pacific on a Cable repair ship starting sometime this week. I wish the best of luck for your Cadets.

suzannegra · 06-05-2008, 08:32 AM

What is your friends son doing now? Is he sailing? That's a great letter and good advice to all.

Jamzmom · 06-05-2008, 10:56 PM

Kpmom06's son is still sailing the ocean blue from last I've heard. A Tyco cable laying ship. Perhaps she'll stop by to give us an update soon. I believe that he is a 2nd Mate now as well.

I agree that it is great advice. I do find myself saying "Shut the bleep up & just deal with it" alot. I thought that was the best part of all.

kpmom06 · 06-06-2008, 11:47 AM

My son just got off his ship last week, so yes he's still sailing, and he upgraded his license to 2nd mate in January. So far he's only sailed as 2nd for a short time, because you can still sail as a 3rd even with the 2nd's license, depends on the openings available if you stay with the same company. Now he'll be home all summer and will probably drive us crazy soon! Although he usually ends up visiting KP friends here and there when he's off, so he's not around all the time.

weski · 06-23-2008, 02:25 PM

bump as you might have missed this

MountaineerMom · 06-23-2008, 09:52 PM

kpmom06...You don't know how I sighed when I read that your son is going to be home ' all summer now' and probably bugging you. Mine got off his ship end of April, and goes back in August. This is a new life for me...He's been to GA, FL, TN twice, San Diego for Naval Reserves Training in May, Pocono Raceway, had a fellow KP grad come here from NH so they could drive to the Outer Banks and camp for nearly a week. I know I will see him this weekend, as he is Best Man in a wedding, and his dad and I are invited. So, I guess as a mom, I must go with the flow. None of this 9-5 stuff for now. I just have to get my brain to change gears and accept it. It was nice to see you mention YOUR summer visitor hanging around. I feel so much better! (cough, cough) MountaineerMom

kpmom06 · 06-24-2008, 08:58 AM

MountaineerMom--yes, it is 'new' life, since both my H & I have pretty regular 9-5 jobs. I tend to go with the flow more (just keep the house neat!), my H is already starting to go nuts and assigns daily jobs to my S just like when he was a kid. It's not going real well in that respect! So we'll see how the summer goes--this will be the longest he's been here since graduation 2 years ago! At least he's cutting the grass!