On 11 March, we lost three of our alumni in an aircraft accident near Spokane, WA: LTJG Valerie Cappelaere Delaney ’09, USN, LTJG William Brown McIlvaine III ’10, USN, and LCDR Alan Ashe Patterson ’00, USN. They were crew aboard a Navy EA-6B Prowler assigned to Electronic Attack Squadron 129 (VAQ-129) at Naval Air Station Whidbey Island, WA.

“A History of the Navy in 100 Objects” premiered recently on the Naval Academy website. It is now going to be a twice-weekly podcast and video series. The series, about artifacts (“tangible links to our past”) like those found in the Naval Academy Museum, is the brainchild of ENS Chris O’Keefe ’12, USN, who developed it during his first class year. For the past two years, he and cameraman Matt McMahon filmed dozens of interviews and conducted research into the 100 objects.

Sharon Disher ’80 and Stefanie Goebel ’80 were two of the 81 female plebes to arrive in the summer of 1976, members of the first class that included women who entered a climate that was not very welcoming. They discuss their experiences with each other in this video, as did their classmate, Tim Kobosko ’80. What they encountered “made me dig in,” said Goebel. “Once I realized that people wanted me to leave, I thought, ‘I’m definitely staying.’”

In the Hart Room on 1 April, the Academy’s exhibit, “Seas, Lakes and Bays: The Naval War of 1812” opens to the public. This exhibit combines two collections from the Naval Academy Museum and William I. Koch, highlighting amazing artifacts from our country’s “second war of independence” fought heavily on water (and don’t forget the War of 1812 Walking Tour is still going strong as well).

“The Devil’s Dosh,” written and directed by Zachary Guerra ’00 and produced by Brian O’Hare ’88, is one of the selections in the 2013 Annapolis Film Festival running March 21-24. Some documentary films of interest: “Lost Reunions” about WWII PT veterans meeting for the last time in 2010; “High Ground” following 11 veterans during their expedition to climb Mt. Lobuche; and “Soldiers of Paint,” 5,000 annually restaging the D-Day invasion of Normandy with paintball guns in Oklahoma.

This goes under the category of “Great idea! Wish we’d thought of it.” It started with Stephen Hershman ’00 dealing with identity theft while on board KENTUCKY. It took him months to sort out what had been done by one person sifting through his trash. After burning though home shredders, his desire to find a better way led to a self-serve kiosk. Pretty smart.

Will Gury ’01 was drawn to CrossFit because it combines many of the things he did while training to play baseball and tennis at the Academy. “I like the intensity, the group phase and the competitive part, too,” he said. Apparently he also enjoys insane fitness competitions where you need to be good at everything. He and his team are gearing up to compete in the CrossFit Games.

Major Barbara Wujciak ’84, USAFR, chief optometrist with the 916th Aerospace Medicine Squadron at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base in Goldsboro, NC, offers her perspective on her time at the Naval Academy and serving today. Read the March-April issue of Shipmate Magazine for the full article.

The USNA Polar Science Program is in Barrow, AK, for Spring Break, lounging by the pool and ... wait, no, that’s normal students. Our mids are part of the Ice Experiment (NAICEX) to “help increase understanding and predictions of weather and climate in the Arctic region,” while being spied on by seals, listening to whale songs and living on ice. Keep up with them via the NAICEX blog or their Facebook updates.

CAPT Cal Sutliff ’60, USN (Ret.), was recently the national champion in five different classes of single shell rowing for his age group (over 70-something), and two of these were world championships. A fellow crewbie who won a national championship as plebes with him calls this, “both mind blowing and irritating.” The fact that his weight is the same as when he rowed for the Academy has nothing to do with that, surely.

Bob Ravener ’81, executive vice president, chief people officer at Dollar General, served six years in the Navy as a submarine officer as well as time in the Reserves. The challenges and sacrifices he faced in the Navy helped him zero in on what was important and what the mission is while managing 90,000 people in a $15 billion-dollar company. “People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.”