'Plebes No More': Naval Academy Class of 2024 Puts Cover at the Top of Herndon Monument
Naval Academy freshmen, or plebes, climb the Herndon Monument, a tradition symbolizing the successful completion of the midshipmen freshman year, May 20, 2019. (Josiah D. Pearce/U.S. Navy)
24 May 2021
The Capital, Annapolis, Md.
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By
Danielle Ohl
The Naval Academy Class of 2024 almost set a new record in their effort to scale the Herndon Monument — just maybe not the one they had hoped for.
The now 4th class midshipmen Saturday recorded the second-slowest Herndon Climb in Naval Academy history at 3 hours, 41 minutes exactly.
As the plebes fought their way to the top of the 21-foot obelisk, slick with water and shortening, the cannon signaling three and a half hours had passed boomed out over the Yard. Groans and chants of "we suck" rippled through the exhausted hoard, covered in grass, mud and sweat. But in the final hour, the class hugged tightly together around the gray granite, forming a more stable base than the one they'd cobbled together over the previous three. Forty-one minutes later, a skinny Tennessean named Michael Lancaster scrambled atop the fleshy pyramid.