Ship Selection Night at the United States Naval Academy
Jan 27, 2020
In late January at the United States Naval Academy, midshipmen who have been assigned to become Surface Warfare Officers (SWOs) after graduation participate in Ship Selection Night, an evolving tradition based in one simple factor:
SWO selects will determine which ship they will report to on their first tour out of the academy.
It is a very important night in the career of a SWO, and to truly reflect the celebration that it is, the festivities now surrounding this event remind many of a professional draft day.
On Ship Selection Night, over two hundred midshipmen will walk on to the stage at Alumni Hall and pick a ship, listed under its homeport, off of a board that has a magnetic placard for each available billet.
(Photo - Troy Thompson on ship selection night)
The Midshipmen select one after another on order based on their overall order of merit. (If you want to learn more about order of merit and rankings, check out this Facebook LIVE video I made!)
https://www.facebook.com/academyinsider/videos/516827798698314/
This structure rewards midshipmen who have performed at an extremely high level during their time in Annapolis, allowing them a much greater opportunity to select the type of ship and/or the port at which they want to be based. This process reflects one of the most advantageous benefits of a high order of merit at the academy.
Prior to Ship Selection Night, midshipmen attend Homeport Night where current Surface Warfare Officers assigned to the Academy share information and advice on various homeports. In addition, many midshipmen have been seeking information about the life of a first tour officer from mentors, friends, former teammates, and company mates now serving in the fleet on various platforms around the world to get insight into the potential options.
The available ships are grouped by homeport. The future SWOs may choose U.S. ships based out of San Diego (CA), Mayport (FL), Everett (WA), Little Creek (VA), Norfolk (VA), or Pearl Harbor (HI). They may also choose to be based on an OCONUS based ship homeported in Rota (Spain), Sasebo (Japan), or Yokosuka (Japan). Generally, the few ships available out of Rota, Spain tend to be the first ones taken (not much of a surprise there).
But these future SWOs are not only selecting a homeport, they are also the specific platform and ship on which they will serve. The available options for the conventional SWOs are Guided Missile Cruisers (CG), Guided Missile Destroyers (DDG), Amphibious Assault Ships (LHA/LHD), Amphibious Transport Dock (LPD), Dock Landing Ships (LSD), and Amphibious Command Ships (LCC). In some instances, the SWOs who have a guaranteed lateral transfer option to join the Information Warfare Community (IWC) will have the ability to pick Aircraft Carriers (CVN) for their first tour.
The history of Ship Selection Night, like most things at the academy, has changed over the years. The history includes service selection and ship selection night all being one event, in which midshipmen would select their service selection in order based on order of merit.
Then, for those midshipmen who selected SWO, they would then head over to another room to pick their ship, all in the same evening.
There have also been a couple recent changes to ship selection in the recent past:
First off, the Naval Academy has now added the concept of a “blue chip.” During a midshipman’s “firstie cruise,” a month long summer training after a midshipman’s 2/C (Junior) and 1/C (Senior) year, the Commanding Officer of the hosting Naval vessel can extend a ‘blue chip’ to a deserving midshipmen based on their performance and save a spot for them on ship selection night.
In the most recent shift in history, 2017 brought a more celebratory atmosphere to the event -- moving the Ship Selection event into Alumni Hall. In addition, they made it more personalized by adding walk down songs, photo booths, and snapchat filters to create a huge celebration for this event.
If you want to hear more about how those changes came to be, episode #025 covers that topic with Jarred Reid-Dixon ‘17 who was the midshipman in charge of planning and executing those changes. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/025-ship-selection-night-with-jarred-reid-dixon-17/id1463594323?i=1000463248194
For an inside look at Ship Selection Night, The Patriot Network produced a piece featuring my friend Sarita Condie who you was my guest on episode #004 of my podcast talking about plebe summer.
You can listen to that podcast episode here https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/004-plebe-summer-series-guest-sarita-condie-17-liked/id1463594323?i=1000438299586.
If you do decide to tune in for the event, I will preemptively try to answer some frequently asked questions:
Why is there a ship based out of Annapolis, MD on the board?
Bill the Goat, our mascot, opens Ship Selection Night by selecting a Yard Patrol (YP) boat out of Annapolis, MD.
Why are there different colored placards on the board? What do they mean?
- Short answer is that the different colors dictate who is allowed to take that specific ship.
- White means only conventional SWOs and SWO/Engineering Duty Officer (EDO) options can pick that ship.
- Blue means that ship has been blue chipped and only the midshipman who received the blue chip can select that ship. If the midshipmen does NOT want to select that ship, the ship will be replaced with a white placard, but only after the blue chipped midshipman has selected a different platform.
- Red means only the Nuclear SWOs, aka SWO Nukes, can select that ship.
- Yellow means that a conventional SWO, a SWO/EDO, or a SWO Nuke can select that platform.
- Green means that only the SWO/Information Warfare Community (IWC) options can select that platform.
I heard one mid receives a sword on Ship Selection Night, is that true?
Usually, a representative of the Japanese delegation gives a sword to the first person who picks a Japan-based ship!
May I attend the event?
Recently, the event has been open to friends and family to watch from the seats in Alumni Hall.
Will the event be streamed?
Yes ship selection 2020 may be found at https://watchstadium.com/live/the-united-states-naval-academy-2020-ship-selection/
An article I love about Ship Selection Night is from my friend Karl Smith on his blog, please check it out here. https://mykidthemid.com/2019/01/24/tune-in-to-the-usna-game-show-swo-ship-selection/
Learn More About the United States Naval Academy
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Photos courtesy of USNA Photo Archive.
