NAVY
Naval Academy class of 2023 to take turn at Herndon Climb after COVID cancellation last year
BY HEATHER MONGILIO THE CAPITAL AUGUST 17, 2021
Midshipman 4th Class Michael Lancaster, 19, from Signal Mountain, Tenn., places the midshipman cover atop the Herdon Monument. The class of 2024 completed the climb in 3 hours and 41 minutes, the second-slowest recorded time. The class of 2023 will get their chance to complete the climb Sunday, Aug. 22, after the climb was canceled in 2020 due to the pandemic. (Dana Legg/U.S. Navy)
ANNAPOLIS, Md. (Tribune News Service) Midshipmen 2nd Class will get their chance to climb a greasy obelisk and place a cap on the top.
The Herndon Climb is back, for the second time in 2021. This time, instead of greasing the monument, the U.S. Naval Academy's class of 2023 will be the one attempting to climb to the top.
The climb, which typically marks the end of the plebe year, will return Sunday with formation starting at 1 p.m. and the actual climb beginning at 1:30 p.m. The event will be opened to the public, unlike the climb in May, and will be live-streamed.
The climb was canceled in 2020, when the class of 2023 were plebes, due to the pandemic. Superintendent Vice Adm. Sean Buck and then-Commandant of the Midshipmen Rear Adm. Thomas R. Buchanan instead did a modified version of the climb on behalf of the plebes. The two men climbed ladders to replace the plebe cap on top of the Herndon Monument and declared plebe year over.
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The class of 2024 finished in 3 hours and 41 minutes. The class was led by the 14th company, which earned the first run at the obelisk after winning Sea Trials.
The Class of 2022 will grease the obelisk, as it would have if the climb had taken place in 2020, with up to 50 pounds allowed, Wrightson said. Companies will be lined up numerically. Typically, the first company to take a run at the monument is the one that won Sea Trials. In 2020, the Iron Company honor was given to the 12th Company, which won E-Trials, a modified version of Sea Trials due to pandemic restrictions.
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