Naval Academy Chapel gets new top [Plebe uses weather balloon to put his hat on top of the dome}

Annapolis Capital ^ | 31 Mar 09 | JOSHUA STEWART

[PurpleMan]

[Midshipman 4th Class Curtis] Calabrese, from Boca Raton, Fla., was the first in decades to fulfill a tradition of putting his cover, or hat, on top of the chapel's obelisk, earning himself and the 1,200 other plebes - the school's term for freshmen - a week of relaxed restrictions.

His accomplishment wasn't about bravado or a daring climb hundreds of feet above the ground as much as it was about engineering, ingenuity and a cooperative weather system.

[PurpleMan]

Philo T. McGiffin lives. (If you don't get it, you don't get it)

BTW: Watch the YouTube, too.

[Slicksadick]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zzayRst8sv8

[massgopguy]

I always look forward to a visit from the Cadets and Midshipmen to Boston College. At one of the first football games I took my daughter to, she asked me who we were rooting for. I said “BC why?” She said, “but Daddy, isn’t that OUR NAVY”?

[Incorrigible]

Rah! Rah! Engineers!

The flying videocam was very cool.

[NonValueAdded]

give your daughter an extra hug today :)

[Drango]

GO NAVY....beat Army.

[PurpleMan]

Normal people believe that if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

Engineers believe that if it ain’t broke, it doesn’t have enough features yet.”

[BlueNgold]

Sweet!

Well done gentlemen.

Personal rant:
Anyone besides me HATE that they let them wear freakin’ ball caps with their working blues?

[ArrogantBustard]

He used wire coat hangers, duct tape and fishing line to create a device to help guide the hat into place on the obelisk.

But of course! I'd have been dreadfully disappointed, had duct tape not been somehow involved ...

[BlueNgold]

And...
USNA Engineers believe that if it ain’t broke - you haven’t properly tested the limits of the device, and further experimentation is not only warranted but could in fact be a moral imperative.

[Thrownatbirth]

We wrote the CONOPs but spent too much time over the wall to complete the mission. (Class of ‘77/30th Co.)

[RikaStrom]

for home

[MrTed]

The real question now is how do they get it down?

Back in the late sixties when I was in Jr High and lived on the USAF Academy in CO, there was a cadet that secretly shimmied up the 200ft (?) flag pole one night and put a 5 gal bucket on the top. As I remember it, they eventually asked for the cadet to come forward are remove it with no repercussions - the cost to bring in a crane to remove it would many thousands of dollars.

[PurpleMan]

Just you.

[Hemingway's Ghost]

I’m with you. Ball caps with the WUBAs are awful. The only thing that should be work with WUBAs is a burka.

[Hemingway's Ghost]

Edit: “work” = “worn”

Ho ho ho.

[wizr]

Getting the hat down reminds me of the old joke about rebuilding an air cooled VW engine at home.:

1. Jack up back of VW.

2. Remove linkage and disconnect wiring.

3. “LOOSEN” 4 bolts holding engine to transfer case.

4. Slide block of ice under engine, and remove bolts.

5. Allow ice to melt. Engine will slowly ease to the ground.

6. Rebuild engine.

7. To reinstall, just REVERSE the aforementioned procedure.

You are welcome!!.

[Tennessee_Bob]

Back in the late sixties when I was in Jr High and lived on the USAF Academy in CO

Woo Hoo! Someone else who was there. Actually, we lived on Northglenn in the Springs, but dad was back and forth between the Mountain and the Academy. We were there in the early to mid 70s. Left there for six months in Norfolk, VA. I was in sixth grade when we left.

[Deaf Smith]

"to come forward are remove it with no repercussions"

So........He just duct taped a long stick to the line to lift the bucket off the top and let it fall? Easiest way to get the up there in the first place too.

Boy Scout stuff.

[ccalabrese]

Hello, I'm MIDN 4/c Calabrese- the MIDN wearing the combo cover in the video. The reason I had the rest of the crew wear ball caps was for 2 reasons:
1) When you look up at a 75 degree angle a combo cover falls off your head
2) You have to be covered in uniform
If it weren't for the chapel being so tall- we would have looked better for the pictures