YP Memories

Tradition once dictated that after graduation of the senior class, midshipmen at the Naval Academy finishing their first year weren’t plebes anymore, but weren’t yet full-fledged youngsters until they saw the Chapel dome after returning from their summer cruise.  The tradition dated to the days when the brigade would depart en masse after Commissioning Week for their summer training aboard Navy ships, which would travel up the Bay and stop in Annapolis to pick up their mids.  The summer routine had long since changed by the time I finished my plebe year, but a first session Yard Patrol Craft (YP) cruise departing the week after graduation ensured I would experience one of the Academy’s oldest traditions.

Although I knew long days of watchstanding and hard work were ahead of us, I was excited to get underway knowing our itinerary included New York for Fleet Week, Newport for some shore-based damage control training, and finally Halifax, where those of us fortunate enough to have birthdays in the first half of the year (and were therefore 19) could legally drink.

Fleet Week in NYC was a blast.  Docked at South Street Seaport we took full advantage of our free time to get out and explore the city … when not on duty, of course.  What struck me most about the city was how incredibly friendly everybody was.  It wasn’t my first trip to Manhattan but it was the first time I had to wear my summer whites.  Nearly everywhere we went strangers picked up our tabs and admissions to museums were discounted or free altogether.  On numerous occasions guys would stop to shake our hands and ladies would hug us.  You’d half expect this today but this visit was nearly a decade before 9/11!

The next leg to Newport was considerably shorter than the first, but it was no less memorable considering the “visitor” we had.  Somewhere off of Long Island a great white shark shadowed us for several minutes just below the waterline.  From my vantage point on the bridge the shark appeared to be half the length of our boat!  Looking back it couldn’t have been that big though (50ft), right?  Newport, despite not being as liberty-intensive as New York, was full of good times, consisting mostly of hands on damage control training in the DC simulator. 

I’ve spent a lot of time on boats of all sizes and am proud to say I’ve only gotten sea sick twice.  The second time was a few years ago, working off-shore during marginable weather in a small, open boat, after a, um, night of excess and a cheese steak sub breakfast from Subway.  The first time was on the Newport to Halifax leg of my first YP cruise.  Ten foot following seas will do that to you, I guess.  I held out as long as I could but there was little I could do after watching our chief finally give in.  My watch section fared the best of the three, however, and we were rewarded by assuming our regularly scheduled mid-watch two hours early and turning over four hours late.  Halifax, with its picturesque town center and coastline, and its liberal drinking age, couldn’t have come soon enough.  It was in a Halifax bar late one night that my buddy Todd taught a table of mids and local girls the timeless drinking game, Zoom, Schwarz, Pafigliano.

The final leg home from Halifax to Annapolis was the longest of our cruise, allowing plenty of time for practicing squadron formations, man-overboards, and celestial navigation.  We spent our final night at anchor off of Greenbury Point, arriving before sunset and within sight of the Chapel Dome.  We were now youngsters …

Two summers later I would elect to do another YP cruise, this time, as a firstie, in charge of a watch section of youngsters.  The OIC of my YP was the female lieutenant commander who sponsored my roommate, and we had a mix-gendered crew of both midshipmen and enlisted.  NYC was the first stop again, this time with the squadron berthed next to the USS Intrepid.  A friend of mine on our boat, Joe, grew up in the city, so we had a personal tour guide.  Only last week Joe, who’s back living in Manhattan, reminded me of the “macerator incident”, of which I’ll say no more.  We just missed Fleet Week but our summer whites got us into Shea Stadium to see the Mets.  We finished the cruise in Boston, where our summer whites did the trick again, getting us into a sold-out Fenway Park to see the Red Sox play.  As luck would have it we also had a Boston native on our boat, who found us the best cannoli I’ve ever had walking through Little Italy on our way back to the Coast Guard Station one evening.

I didn’t service select surface warfare but my experiences and the lessons I learned from the two summer YP cruises helped define the leadership characteristics I took with me to the Fleet.  I wouldn’t trade those summer cruises for the world.