At least for a month or so.
The plebes scaled the monument in 2 hours, 35 minutes and 59 seconds, about twice as long as the better times in recent years.
It is an old military aphorism that no battle plan survives first contact with the enemy, and if the Class of 2011 had a strategy, it rapidly fell apart against the monument’s stout defense.
Like plebe year – like many things in the service – climbing Herndon is hard, and it takes teamwork.
Then suddenly it’s over.
I understand that the plebes in ‘69 did the job in just 90 seconds. Could that be true? If so, how was it done?
The statue didn’t used to be greased, that’s where some of the really fast times came from.
I heard from my room mate that this year’s cover was a female cover from one of their classmates that passed away during the year. Nice gesture, if you ask me…
~Ens Tim
I have to say, I always knew a female cover would make it up there (my year, one was handed up to the top, and very obviously hurled with force back to the bottom). . . this is probably the best way it could have happened. Nobody wants his/her class to be “that class.”
Peter- I believe ‘69 was the year when one plebe brought a cargo net and threw it over the top, then climbed it like a ladder. Such hijinks are now verboten, although every couple of years some guy tries to make a rope ladder out of everyone’s discarded whiteworks. Never seen it work, but the falls it causes are entertaining.