Turns out that some things do in fact change at the Severn River Trade School:
The U.S. Naval Academy is taking a new approach to educate students about the effects of alcohol: a 21st birthday dinner with enough booze to put a midshipman over the legal limit.
Capt. Margaret D. Klein, commandant of midshipmen, yesterday told the academy’s Board of Visitors the new program appears to be having its desired effect: Midshipmen learn it does not take many drinks before they reach a 0.08 blood-alcohol content, the legal standard for drunken driving in Maryland.
“The resounding feedback I’ve had is that most midshipmen had no idea how few drinks it takes to get them to that .08 limit,” Capt. Klein said…
Under the new program, Capt. Klein sends out letters to midshipmen in the month of their 21st birthdays. “In addition to asking them to consider their new responsibility, we also invite them to a dinner,” she said.
The meal is served near the academy’s dining area, King Hall, and alcohol is provided.
The academy wants the midshipmen to drink enough to at least reach the 0.08 limit and uses Breathalyzers in the process.
Oh, to be young again, and learn new things.
And, having gotten the mids midly soused, there are now plans to feed them.
The marvels of our modern world.
Birthday Mid #1: “Thanksh for the nicsh dinner. Yeshh, thish is really good wine. You know Commandant, for an older woman, you’re really not bad looking at all. Pass that bottle down the table. Do you mind if I call you Maggie?”
Lord, I wouldn’t have made it to commissioning in the modern Navy.
They should implement this at many colleges, possibly even at freshman year (get the laws changed). Too many kids on this campus tip back far too many and then proceed to do foolish things. Taking the mystique and showing what the legal limit is would do nicely to curb it.
“Midly soused”
Har!
Call me a cynic, but seems to me that this is just a way to get some free booze and free food. Which is good officer training in and of itself, but probably would not have stopped me from heading out to Dino’s the very next weekend and doubling the legal limit.
Then again, I was lucky enough to have come of age when things were not so intense and the drinking age was 18…….as it should be.
Do you get credit for it? Like a bio lab? Sheeesh…
Since when do we have to teach responsible drinking to 21 year olds who have volunteered to give over their future to the US military? More manifestations of the Nanny State embedded and implemented by a Nanny O-6.
Sure, I read the news reports about outrageous behavior from time to time but this is like hitting a mosquito with a sledge-hammer. A social engineering one at that.
Another sellout to the vast insidious, PC machine. Spin it any way you want.
b2
I dunno, $6.95 per head just doesn’t go that far these days.
I mean, you can’t get a decent rat for that price, let alone proper hardtack to go with it. Weevils are extra.
badbob
If there ever was a “class” that was needed it would be “Responsible Drinking 101″. Think about it this way. If you go about it legally one day you can’t drink and then the next day you can. Twenty-one is right in the middle of that time when you think that you are invincible, that nothing bad can happen to you. I was fortunate enough to have parents who that the 21 drinking age was BS. I was allowed to drink beer in our house from the time I was 16. By the time I enlisted I had a pretty good idea what my capabilities were, then I was fortunate enough to have some good PO’s and CPO’s to rein me in until I learned what I was doing. “Drinking 101″ not a bad idea at all.
Knowing a little something about USNA, I find this latest endeavor to be a buch of crap. Any Mid worth their salt already knows how many drinks will make him/her drunk. The problem is not so much awareness as it is individual control.
You want to get blasted, which is something no institution can stop, make sure you are in a safe place so you don’t fall out a window, get run over by a car, raped, etc… I think the idea of placing the burden on your shipmates is a good one.
Isn’t teaching squids to drink like teaching fish to swim?