Hello Morning!

I'm officially so old that I now just get to tell stories that are pure lore at this point!

As a plebe in 2013, there were few moments scarier than the seconds before Hello Night, or as my detailers constantly said, HELL-o Night. 

During the summer of 2013, as I stood inches away from the bulkhead staring at the wall, the rumbling of the over 100 upperclass midshipmen was cause for serious anxiety. Many of the current midshipmen experienced the same nervousness as they waited for Hello Morning to begin.

However, I am hearing different things regarding a Hello Night or a Hello Morning for the class of 2029. It might even be a Hello Afternoon!

Following the Plebe 10k on Thursday morning, Plebe Summer will finish.  They will then go through a "Plebe Summer transition" block where they will (likely - I don't know for certain) get their phones back and start the reform weekend as a part of the Brigade of Midshipmen.

So what was Hello Morning or HELL-o Morning?

Much like everything at the Naval Academy, it depends on the Company and the current leadership authorities. Hello Morning, at its core, was an event in which the plebes were introduced to their academic year company. However, how the plebes were introduced was completely unique to each company.  

In the past, some companies made it an event full of “physical fitness training,” which can be pretty hellish. Some made it a professional and instructional introduction, and some made it relatively ridiculous and honestly just absurd, which is much more “hello” than hell.  

My Hello Night

On my Hello Night, I had a huge pit in my stomach because I was anticipating what was about to happen. While a handful of companies send the upperclassmen in waves, 3/C (sophomores) first for about 10 minutes, then 2/C (juniors), then 1/C (seniors), my company did it differently.

One of the detailers told a plebe to ‘about face’ (turn around) and walk into the center of the P-way. Alone and skeptical standing by himself, he then sees a midshipman running at him with a mini basketball in hand. 

What is going on? 

As I assume it was probably moving in slow motion for this plebe as his life flashed before his eyes, the upperclassman took off and soared through the air as one of his friends had snuck out of a room and was now standing behind the plebe, with a mini basketball hoop in his possession.  

So how did Hello Night start for us?

With a Plebe getting dunked on.

Once the dunk had been made, it was the signal that Hello Night had started, and rather than coming in waves, all 110 upperclassmen rushed the P-way at the same time. What then commenced was MASS CONFUSION.

My Hello Night fell into the ridiculous and just honestly absurd category.

Upperclassmen tasked plebes with ridiculous requests, and on your way to complete those tasks you were stopped by another upperclassman telling you to do something different, and quite frankly you weren’t sure whether you were having fun or you were scared out of your mind.

With that being said, plebes were soon moving through the halls in “White Works Jesus,” or a made-up construct where bed sheets are used as a robe, completed with the shower shoes as sandals, and a broom in hand to be used as a walking stick, as they were carrying inside joke messages from upperclassman to upperclassman.

At this point, hundreds of people were in one hallway, people were screaming, music was blasting, and I HAD NO IDEA WHAT THE HECK WAS GOING ON… and for some companies, Hello Night was simply about mass confusion.  

At one point, the music was cut and we were instructed to enter the Main P-way where we were to be addressed by our new academic year company commander. 

And after a minute of waiting, who comes cruising down the hallway other than some random guy in a speedo (he was on the water polo team), unbuttoned flannel, and to really top it off…  roller skates.

“Good Evening, class of 2017, I am your company commander,” he shouted. 

DUDE.  I was just in Plebe Summer an hour ago, and now there is a man rolling around the P-ways telling me about the Academic Year.

To be fair, he was an amazing company commander, just a total goofball and future member of the special operations community (no surprises there), but I tell the story to express the absolute shock and sheer confusion we felt.

2016

However, while my Hello Night and many others in the past fell into the absolutely ridiculous and absurd category, that led to problems of hazing as people got out of control. In order to prevent those situations, and use Hello Night/Morning as a means to allow midshipmen in leadership positions to address their squads and platoons, a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) was issued in 2016 by the Commandant for the execution of Hello Night.  It provided an in-depth instruction of the refined purpose of Hello Night and ensured that every company fell into the professional and instructional introduction category.  

So what’s this mean for my Plebe?

So again, it depends.  With new leadership (New Commandant, Superintendent, and overall leadership), it’s appears that the Hello Night/Morning might not be happening.  It could also be adjusted to become Hello Afternoon, or it's also a possibility that each company does something informal in their own spaces. 

This is a great example of the reality of military life.  You need to be "semper gumby."  Leadership changes happen all the time, and as the people change, the culture will change, and the experience will adjust as well.

No matter the case, be sure to ask them about how their Plebe Summer Transition went, if they had a Hello Morning/Afternoon/Night and ask about what they have to do during Reform weekend!

Author’s note: I want to reiterate that my articles are my own opinion and do not reflect the official stance of the Naval Academy.  I am not endorsed by, or work for the Naval Academy, and I simply want to provide my opinion and share my experience in hopes that it can help you understand what is going on in the life of a midshipman.