Thursday night, graduating midshipmen picked their ship assignments. 256 midshipmen who chose to be on a ship, will become Navy Surface Warfare Officers upon graduation. In 5 months these men and women will be officers in charge of others but, the only thing they're in charge of is having a good time.
It was like the NFL draft night but, unlike the NFL draft where a team picks you, each midshipmen first class gets to pick what ship they want. In the NFL some teams have better records than others but here, every one of these "teams" is undefeated.
They get to pick by class merit, they also pick their walk up music...the first up with the best grades was Mathew Vogel.
Midshipman Vogel chose the USS Porter, a destroyer based in Rota Spain.
One by one the excitement continues. Like the NFL these guys get recruited. Commanders of ships from around the world try to get the best of the best to choose their ship. The commander of the USS Carney gave midshipman Josh Ten Eyck a sword and a hat for picking his destroyer.
Ten Eyck says, "I was very surprised. People coming around me and handing me a sword. It was pretty awesome."
The whole four years the Midshipmen are here they're told where to go, what time to get there and what to do when they get there. Tonight, they got to make their own decisions.
Anne Fisher chooses to be on the USS Carney based in Rota Spain,"It's very nice to finally be a little bit control of my life and definitely culminating."
Ten Eych explains, "You actually get one say what in you are doing with your future, you can't beat that. It's great."
Rachel Labuda will go to Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, "It means the world. It's like the culmination of everything at the Naval Academy."
