The Reluctant Midshipman: Hank Turowski at Annapolis (An Interesting Life). This item is unavailable.The Reluctant Midshipman: Hank Turowski at Annapolis (An Interesting Life)

The experience of attending Annapolis is unique in all the world. It is a school like no others.Not only is it a top-ten-rated academic environment, but it is also a challenging curriculum with more than twenty course hours each week, and additional requirements in the military arts. But it doesn't stop there. There is morning reveille and lights-out, uniforms, restricted social contacts, mandatory meal attendance, inspections, marching, evening lectures, mandatory sports, and summers crammed with additional navy training.1,394 young men reported for Induction Day In my class of 1971, but only 875 (67%) completed the graduation requirements and got to throw their caps in the air on Graduation Day. That meant that 595 highly qualified and bright young men could not meet the requirements. Some left because they were not physically able to compete in that stressful environment. Some left because they were not emotionally ready for the sacrifices required of them. Others could not handle the academics. A few would not submit to the discipline. One or two became discipline problems.I found those four years to be a crucible – a testing platform – a process that tore the old Hank apart and built a new one day-by-day. And it happened to me in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Many things were changing in the world, and not all for the good.Just to put the entire experience into the context of the World Stage, these are some of the events that happened in the world and the USA in the period between June 1967 when I reported aboard and June 1971, when I graduated. All of this while I was a midshipman.•China exploded its first H-BombChe Guevara was caught and executed•Race Riots in New jersey, Minnesota, Michigan, Wisconsin, DC, and Maryland•The first Concorde flewMartin Luther King was assassinated•Robert Kennedy was assassinatedThe Civil Rights Act was passed•Thurgood Marshall was elevated to the Supreme Court•Prague SpringThe Kent State Massacre•The first TET offensive in VietnamThe ERA was drafted and debated•The My Lai MassacreYale admitted its first women•The Apollo Program landed on the moon three times•The Cuyahoga River caught fireCharlie Manson and his Family terrorized California•The first Super BowlWoodstock WalmartSesame Street•AIDS came to the USThe first 747 flew•Postal StrikesAnti-War ProtestsMonday Night FootballAmtrak•The EPA/ OSHA/NOAA/PBSAFL and NFL mergedOPECTo say that this might have been the most intense and portentous period in the history of the country would be an understatement. It was shocking even by ‘Future Shock’ standards.And these are my stories from those four years in Mother Bancroft.