The Purpose of Plebe Summer at the United States Naval Academy

The Purpose of Plebe Summer at the United States Naval Academy

At a high level, the purpose of plebe summer is to lay the foundation for a naval officer. The academy staff is there to break the habits of high school kids and develop those young men and women into the future of America’s military leaders. And then on top of that, they are also there to mentor the detailers as they go through their first real military leadership experience. 

Put simply, the 3 main goals of plebe summer are

• Indoctrinate civilians into the military way of life.
• Create basically-trained midshipmen that are ready to join the brigade of midshipmen at the end of plebe summer
• To provide a defining leadership experience for the detailers

I think many people overlook the importance of Plebe Summer as a training evolution for the detail staff as well.  Part of what makes Plebe Summer so special is the authority Midshipmen are given to drive the training of Plebe Summer.

During my time as the Regimental Commander of Plebe Summer, Commander Mike Murnane was the commissioned officer in charge of plebe summer for the USNA class of 2020.

Commander Murnane, a graduate of USNA class of 1995 became a naval flight officer upon graduation and his highly successful career brought him back to the naval academy as a senior officer. 

Commander Murnane is a leader I hold in the highest esteem and still consider him one of my greatest mentors and influences in my leadership development. 

In our episode of the Academy Insider podcast, we share so many stories about the behind the scenes of running plebe summer and give a great insight into plebe summer and the naval academy.

That episode and many other tremendous resources about plebe summer and the United States Naval Academy may be found on our website.

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Grant is a graduate of the United States Naval Academy class of 2017. He is also the founder of Academy Insider. You may reach out to Grant with questions at [email protected].  

To learn more about the Naval Academy through the perspective of a midshipman/recent graduate - subscribe to his podcast the Academy Insider Podcast with Grant Vermeer on Apple Podcasts, Google Play Music, Stitcher and Spotify.

Academy Insider is not affiliated with the United States Naval Academy. All thoughts and opinions are my own and do not reflect those of the United States Navy or the Department of Defense.