Marines march on after 155 years at the academy

[thedrifter]

Marines march on after 155 years at the academy
By EARL KELLY and ELIZABETH LEIS, Staff Writers
The Capital, Annapolis, Md.

A 155-year tradition will come to an end at 0530 Sunday, when Lance Cpls. Edward Voumard and Kyle Boeser turn over their guard post at Gate 8 of the Naval Academy to sailors.

They will be the last Marines to guard the academy.

The storied company is being abolished and the Marines reassigned to bases in California and North Carolina. It marks the end of an era at a school that embraces its history and traditions - the unit is one of the few that has battle streamers from the Spanish-American War of 1898 and the Cuban Pacification from 1906 to 1909.

Marines have stood sentry at the crypt of John Paul Jones, patrolled the Yard and the naval station across the Severn River and guarded the academy gates from behind sandbags after the Sept. 11 attacks.

"These changes always bring some nostalgia," said retired Maj. Gen. Tom Wilkerson, CEO of the Naval Institute on the academy's grounds. "I love going through the gate every day and saying, 'Good morning, Marine.' "

At a ceremony at Memorial Hall this morning, the 48 members of the company faced a crowd of Marines, civilians, and Navy personnel. Vice Admiral Rodney. P. Rempt, the superintendent of the U.S. Naval Academy, congratulated the company on its professionalism, toughness, and ready smile.

But he said he understood they were needed elsewhere.

"In the global war on terrorism, it is these young men we put our trust in," he said in a speech followed by a standing ovation for the Marines.

While none of the Marines has been ordered to Iraq or Afghanistan, Col. T. M. Lockard, the commanding officer of the Washington Marine Barracks, said they were "in the queue."

"It is an end of an era, but because this nation is at war and Marines and sailors play a prominent role .... (it was) decided the marines were more needed elsewhere," he said.

The move is part of a Marine Corps initiative aimed at increasing the Corps' fighting strength.

The Marine guards stationed at the academy are infantry, but the sailors who will take over are military police, said 2nd Lt. Elle Helmer, a Marine spokesman in Washington. The Corps still will have a presence at the academy, as Marines will continue to serve as trainers and instructors.

The academy unit is the second oldest in the Corps, surpassed only by the guard posted at the Navy Yard in Washington. Marines have been assigned there for security since 1851, three years after the academy's founding.

During some eras they provided general security for the school and the naval station across the Severn River; at other times they have guarded the gates to the academy.

Marines at the academy constituted a detachment until the end of World War I, when the unit was redesignated Marine Barracks, Annapolis, according to the academy. In 1994, they were redesignated again, as the U.S. Naval Academy Company, Marine Barracks, Washington, D.C.

Two former commanding officers of the barracks went on to become commandants of the Marine Corps: Major Gens. John H. Russell and Ben H. Fuller.

Marines historically provided a number of services at the academy, including maintaining weapons and running the armory and physical fitness courses.

Over the years, they lived in various barracks and aboard at least seven ships on the Severn River, said James W. Cheevers, Naval Academy Museum senior curator.

As part of their ceremonial duties, the Marines guarded the Naval Academy Museum and the crypt of John Paul Jones until the early 1990s, when they were needed for war in Iraq, Mr. Cheevers said.

The Marines also have been a colorful part of local history, and one of their more memorable leaders was Lt. Col. McLane Tilton, who grew up in Annapolis and served in the Civil War and in the 1871 invasion of Korea.

Col. Tilton was known for keeping a coffin in his house on Maryland Avenue.

"The story is that he would hop into it sometimes, to make sure it still fit," said longtime Annapolis resident Elaine Spencer Underwood, who owns the house now.

When Col. Tilton died, his children declined to bury him in the homemade affair, painted battleship gray, opting for something presumably nicer.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

January 13, 2006
Academy commemorates 155 years of Marine Corps service
by JO2 Matt Jarvis
Trident Staff Writer

The Naval School was established in 1845 and became the U.S. Naval Academy in 1850. In 1851, the United States Marine Corps made its first appearance on the school's grounds.

Now after 155 years of service on the Yard, the United States Naval Academy Company, Marine Barracks, Washington, as it is now known, will be disestablished in a ceremony today in Memorial Hall at 10 a.m.

The ceremony will commemorate the service of excellence Marines have provided for so long, said Marine Corps Capt. Andrew Frantz, company commander of Naval Academy Company, Marine Barracks, Washington.

"We have been part of the academy for a long time," said Frantz. "Just the fact that a Marine Barracks or a Marine security unit has been here for that long is remarkable. We are the second oldest post as far as duty stations in the Marine Corps and that is pretty significant when it just goes away."

Since 1851, Marines have been quartered aboard seven different ships and in three of their own buildings. The ships include the training vessels USS Preble, Macedonian, Savannah, Constitution and Winnepec and the station ships, USS Santee and Reina Mercedes.

A new building or Marine Barracks was built in 1881, along with a house for the senior Marine officer, on the first Porter Row. It was razed when the Naval Academy was completely rebuilt between 1899 and 1908.

Halligan Hall, near Gate 8, was built in 1903 as the new Marine Barracks, and the three yellow brick houses across the road as Marine officer's quarters. Later, this Marine Barracks became the site of Navy's Postgraduate School, and a new Marine Barracks was built at North Severn in 1918, and later named Fuller Hall for Maj. Gen. Ben H. Fuller, who graduated from the academy and served as commandant of the Marine Corps from 1930 to 1934.

In 1919, the Marine Barracks, Annapolis, Md., was reformed and quartered aboard USS Reina Mercedes until it was renamed as Marine Detachment, USS Reina Mercedes in 1931 until reformed again as the Marine Barracks, U.S. Naval Station, Annapolis Md., in 1947.

In the early years the company was called "Marine Guards" which was formerly established on Aug. 31, 1865. The term "Marine Barracks, Annapolis Md.," came into use after the Marines moved ashore for the first time during the 1880s.

Only a few Marine Barracks had members participate in the Spanish-American War of 1898, the Cuban Pacification from 1906 to 1909, World War I and World War II. The unit at the academy was one of them. The barracks was awarded battle streamers for each conflict and victory streamers for the two World Wars, along with the National Defense Service streamer with one Bronze Star.

"We don't carry the streamers only because that was earned by Marine Barracks, Annapolis which was disestablished in 1994," said Frantz. "It is our lineage but those aren't our streamers as a unit here. We don't fly them because we don't rate them

technically as a company. That is all going to the Marine Corps Museum."

Marine Barracks, Annapolis Md., retired its colors Feb. 19, 1994, becoming known by its current name, United States Naval Academy Company, Marine Barracks, Washington. With the name change, the unit became part of the oldest post in the Marine Corps, Marine Barracks, 8th & I, in Washington, D.C.

Navy Sailors will take over all the security operations that the Marines currently hold, said Frantz.

"There is not going to be any difference except for the fact it is Sailors instead of Marines," said Frantz. "We have been working with these Sailors for over a month now. They are just as much of a professional group of Sailors as we have been a professional group of Marines. There isn't going to be any difference as far as security is concerned. The Sailors are a motivated bunch and are very well trained."

Marines assigned to the Naval Academy have maintained a standard of excellence and professionalism with selfless dedication to duty, said Frantz. This is the legacy of the Marine Corps unit in Annapolis that the Navy security personnel from Naval District Washington will have no problem living up to.

"The Navy guards who are here will make their own history. They will be fine," said Frantz. "I don't think there is going to be any problems at all. The only thing that is going to change is the pattern of the camouflage and the emblem on the uniform. I think the same professionalism will be maintained at the gates that the Marines had.

"Security-wise, everything will be the same. The protection level here at the Naval Academy and security won't be diminished by any means just because the Marines aren't here."

Marines will continue to be assigned to the Naval Academy to support the educational aspect of the academy in such capacities as the deputy commandant of midshipmen, director of the humanities and social sciences division, faculty members, company officers, senior enlisted advisors and drill instructors.

The Marine Company is being disestablished as part of a Marine Corps-wide initiative to realign its forces to better support Marine Corps combat units. Half the Marine Company will report to 29 Palms, Calif., and the other half will go to Camp Lejeune, N.C.

The Marines are ready to go, said Frantz.

"Gunny tends to run them pretty hard. They are more ready than they think they are. They are all excited to go out there. Mentally, the Marines are certainly all ready to go to the fleet. All they talk about is going to Iraq. They are excited."

Marine Barracks, 8th & I, in Washington, D.C., will still provide the academy with ceremonial support.

http://www.dcmilitary.com/navy/trident/newspics/2586_one5901.jpg

Known as the Marine Barracks from 1903 to 1917, the building is now known as Halligan Hall.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Marines Leave Behind Naval Academy Watch
Combat Troop Shortage Ends Tradition
By Elizabeth Williamson and Ray Rivera
Washington Post Staff Writers
Saturday, January 14, 2006; B04

In a ceremony that began with a prayer and ended with tears, the U.S. Naval Academy sent its Marine sentries off to war yesterday, ending a 155-year tradition at the school because of the demand for combat troops.

"Pray for them, for many of them are going into harm's way," a chaplain said in an invocation as the four dozen Marines, scarcely older than the midshipmen they guard, stood in quiet formation behind him.

Since before the Civil War, Marine sentries have provided security for dignitaries' visits and special events on the Annapolis campus. They also performed largely ceremonial duties, including standing guard outside John Paul Jones's crypt and the academy's museum.

The sentries were most visible, however, at the academy's gates, where "they maintained day-to-day vigilance . . . but they've done much more, in their ability to look tough but remain pleasant," said Vice Adm. Rodney P. Rempt, the Naval Academy superintendent.

Turning to the Marines lined up behind him in the academy's Bancroft Hall in Annapolis, Rempt said: "You've become a part of us. God bless, fair winds and following seas."

The Marines are being replaced by Navy enlisted personnel.

Dozens of military installations across the nation have turned to civilian security officers in recent years, and the Navy is leaving that option open for the academy. The Army's U.S. Military Academy at West Point and post at Fort Meade brought on private security firms in 2004.

The sentries' departure reflects the strain on U.S. forces stretched thin by deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan.

"Obviously, we can use those Marines in more significant roles," said Gary Solis, a West Point professor and former official historian for the Marine Corps who frequently lectures at the Naval Academy. "But it's too bad a tradition like that has to end."

Marines have been providing security for the Naval Academy since 1851, six years after its founding. Back then, they were quartered aboard ships in the Severn River, which borders the 338-acre campus.

Michael I. Christman, a 1985 Naval Academy graduate who serves on the Annapolis City Council, taught his 2 1/2- year-old son to shout "ooh-rah" to the guards when the child passed through the gates to visit the campus. "It was just a way to pay respect to the guys standing duty, because it's not necessarily fun duty," Christman said.

The ceremony yesterday closed with a reading of the formal orders for the company to turn over its weapons and records. The academy band played a few bars of "Auld Lang Syne," then "Anchors Aweigh" and "The Marines' Hymn," as people in the crowd of 100 wiped their eyes. Dismissed for the final time, the young men wandered away.

Ellie