Herndon I

"Herndon" is the informal name for the annual Plebe Recognition Ceremony. Since 1957, each Plebe class sprints to the Herndon monument, a 21-foot high obelisk, and scales it to replace the "Dixie cup" cover (sailor hat) with an officer's cover. When the class places the new cover on top of the monument, the Mids are officially and forever "Plebes-no-more." To make the whole thing very nearly impossible, the upperclassmen coat the monument in advance with 200 pounds of lard. This year, they even taped down the Dixie cup cover with half a roll of reinforced packing tape before piling the lard on. 

Upperclassmen pile on the lard and write encouraging words for the plebes. (usna-net.org photo)

More lard! More words! (usna-net.org photo)

A 4,000,000,000-calorie masterpiece. (usna-net.org photo)

The plebes charge the monument. (usna-net.org photo)

They tear off their uniform shirts and shoes and throw them at the monument, hoping to get some of the lard off. (usna-net.org photo)

Here's a panoramic view of the proceedings. (USNA photo)

Here's a look at the basic structure: It takes five stories of plebes to put someone in the position to pull themselves up to reach the cover. 

An early first attempt. 

Before the Mids can get to the top, they have to get rid of most of that lard. 

Even getting that third story together takes tremendous effort.

One Mid got pretty high, and cleaned off a lot of the lard. 

Kevin was heavily involved in building the base and getting Mids up there. Most of the time he was buried, but after about a half hour, he emerged into view. 

Kevin pulls another Mid up to the third story.

Kevin and his classmates make progress in building the tower.

Hanging on.

About 40 or 50 times, the Mids built a tower that went crashing down like a house of cards. The Surgeon General is right: Lard is dangerous.

Huge Mids form the base.

It takes a lot of Mids to scale Herndon.

One Mid uses Kevin as a stepladder, with one foot on his shoulder and the other on his head. (USNA photo)