The U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis is one of five service academies in the country. Students who graduate from the academy become commissioned officers in the armed services.
The university had an undergraduate enrollment of more than 4,500 students in 2021, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.
Commissioning Week
Since its founding in 1845, around 90,000 midshipmen have graduated from the academy, according to USNA data. In May, 1,018 Navy officers graduated from the academy, with 744 of them going into the U.S. Navy and 257 being commissioned into the U.S. Marine Corp.
Of this year’s graduates, 267 are women and 751 are men.
This year’s graduation also saw the return of the Blue Angels for their annual performance during Commissioning Week.
The celebratory week kicked off with Sea Trials, a capstone event for the freshman, or fourth-class midshipmen, designed to test their teamwork and reinforce their bonds as a company and class. This approximately 14-hour evaluation is designed similarly to the Marine Corps Crucible and the Navy’s Battle Station recruit program.
The Sea Trials are concluded with the Herndon Monument Climb, in which hundreds of first-year midshipmen take turns scaling a 21-foot obelisk covered in vegetable shortening. The class works together to replace a hat — known as a Dixie cup — with an upperclassman’s cap.
This year, the Class of 2026 completed the feat in about 2.5 hours, more than an hour faster than the class the year prior.
At the end of the week, the fourth-year midshipmen participate in a graduation and commissioning ceremony. The affair is marked by a keynote address by either the president, vice president or secretary of defense.
This year, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin III was tapped to deliver remarks. The retired four-star general acknowledged the challenges the Class of 2023 has faced since they arrived on the Yard in the summer of 2019, namely the onset of the COVID pandemic.
Twenty-five members of the graduating class hailed from Anne Arundel County.
Induction Day and Plebe Summer
Additionally, the incoming class of 2027 was inducted into the academy in June to start their nine-year service commitment.
Of the 1,200 inductees who reported to the academy for Plebe Summer, the six-week indoctrination that prepares the freshmen for life at the academy, 813 are men and 371 are women.
The number of women inductees has consistently remained in the 300s in recent years, with the Class of 2026 including 332 women , and the Class of 2025 having 348, according to academy data.
New superintendent
In April, the academy announced Yvette Davids, an academy alumni and career surface warfare officer, was nominated as the 64th superintendent. She would be the first woman to serve in the roll.
The U.S. Senate must confirm Davids’ nomination, a process that was stalled over the summer by a Republican senator.
If confirmed, Davids will replace Vice Adm. Sean Buck, who is set to complete his four-year term this summer.
A 1989 graduate, Davids’ career began during Operation Desert Storm, when she served as an electrical officer, combat information center officer and communications officer aboard the combat stores ship USS San Jose.
She went on to become the first woman of Hispanic descent to command a Navy warship when she took the helm the USS Curts, leading the guided-missile frigate through the Western Pacific and Arabian Gulf in support of Operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom.
Ship Selection
Each February, academy seniors, or midshipmen first class, participate in Ship Selection.
This year, more than 250 midshipmen participated in the annual tradition held in front of peers, faculty and family who have seen them navigate nearly four years at the academy. During the ceremony, which has a similar atmosphere to a sports draft, announcers call midshipmen one by one to select from a lengthy list of ships stationed at naval bases around the world. The draft order is based on a combination of academic, military and physical conditioning achievements.
Four Anne Arundel County residents were among the first 50 to select their station, including Sarah Blank, 22, of Millersville, the fourth midshipman to pick her destination. Blank selected the USS Dewey, a destroyer ported in Yokosuka, Japan.
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