The sky is just starting to get dark, and the lights on Stribling walk are flickering on for the night. As the minutes go by, the red brick paths are filled with tired midshipmen making their way to Alumni Hall. The mids are exhausted from their usual Monday classes and sports practices, and now they must sacrifice two hours of their evening to a Forrestal lecture, an event in which an honored guest is asked to the entire Brigade of Midshipmen. Unlike in the past years, however, they have a spark of excitement and laughter among their conversations on the way to the mandatory event. Because after the Forrestal, there will be enough material for the memepages on Instagram.
“Memes? In my Naval Academy?”
Memes, defined in the Merriam-Webster dictionary as “an amusing or interesting item (such as a captioned picture or video) or genre of items that is spread widely online especially through social media,” are a staple icon in the millennial era of Internet culture. “Memelord” is a slang term for individuals who collect and distribute memes to others in their community. Memes most commonly are shared within a close-knit group or community that shares inside jokes and significant values or experiences together; therefore, midshipmen use memes as a form of expression to share their jokes and experiences while living through the strenuous daily routine at the Academy.
The Instagram meme account, navel_akademy, expresses their perception of their Chain of Command’s behavior when Mids are too relaxed. Credit: Instagram
Instagram meme account offgoingmcmo displays the struggles of being on CMOD watch as a Midshipman. Credit: Instagram
The most used app for Academy memes is Instagram, where mids create memepages, or accounts that post memes as content. Instagram was an easy platform to display and share memes, so a large number of midshipmen meme creators began sharing their jokes online with usernames that joked about common Academy slang and everyday phrases only heard at the Academy, such as offgoingmcmo, clappingdiesdown, bancroftbandit, attentiontoannouncementsatease, siq_withclassoption, restrictionmuster, nimitzcoffeebar, eol1800insdbs, midnxyz, melwood_memes, allthewaydown_bothsides, and many more. All the Instagram memepages are set in private; to gain access to their posts, a request to follow their account must be sent to the account user. All the users behind the memepages remain anonymous until the account becomes inactive or when the user graduates from the Academy and no longer is a midshipman.
Several Midshipmen rely on sports energy drinks, such as Xyience, to combat against the tiredness they experience during their daily routine. Credit: Instagram
Group 1 and 2 majors, which are heavily STEM-focused, tend to have harder 12-week exams than the Group 3 majors, which are more focused on liberal arts, including political science and English. Credit: Instagram
This post was put up on the week of graduation, and expresses the 1/C’s shock of graduating the Naval Academy and becoming a naval officer in an upcoming Friday. Credit: Instagram
The memepage offgoingmcmo, run by Navy Ensign Peter Hinsa, had been “signed off” with a post revealing his identity—a selfie with the caption:
“All good things come to an end, and as much as I or any other meme account like to joke about the Academy, it’s been some of the best four years of my life. I hope this page has brought you some laughs, but seeing as I am no longer a Mid, I think I’ll ‘retire’ it and let those more in touch with Mother B run the show (conduct staff dependent, of course). Good luck to all of you on the rest of your journey, and to the Class of ’23 people who follow me, see you out here on I-Day. Come prepared. Thank you all for your support, it’s been an honor to stand this ‘watch.’”
Once I learned his identity, I asked Hinsa how he got the memes that he posted on his page and he answered, “Most of them were OC [original content], although a few were given to me by Joe and Ben,” who were two of his closest friends from the Drum and Bugle Corps. Like the other Instagram memepages, ENS Hinsa enjoyed sharing cynical but lighthearted banter about the Academy within the close community of the Brigade.
Memes in the Military
Memes are the most common form of humor that exists in the community of the U.S. military—there are military-focused social media accounts, such as the multimedia page Decelerate Your Life, which is on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram with content that is relatable to active-duty members. In fact, memes have existed throughout most of military history: during World War II the men in the U.S. forces found time to share humorous jokes and banter to increase unit morale—there was the viral drawing of Kilroy and his phrase “Kilroy was here” all over Europe that was spread by U.S. army troops, and scared Stalin:
“One of his most daring appearances may have been at the Potsdam Conference in 1945. During the summit, Harry Truman, Winston Churchill and Joseph Stalin had exclusive use of a VIP bathroom. One day, Stalin reportedly used the facilities, and came out demanding to know from one of his aides who Kilroy was, having found the drawing on one of the walls.”[1]
There was also the common practice of inscribing projectiles with addresses to Hitler as a friendly gift from the U.S. forces; a famous photograph of two U.S. soldiers with ammunition labeled as “Easter Eggs for Hitler” and one that says “Happy Easter, Hitler” reveal the sense of humor the U.S. forces during World War II, and it was shared with the other branches as the Coast Guard did a similar practice to their own ammunition.
Technical Sergeant William E. Thomas and Private First Class Joseph Jackson of the 333rd Field Artillery Battalion display their Easter gifts for their enemy with a sense of humor. Credit: National Archives
A US Coast Guard member enscribes the mail address for the German dictator on naval ammunition. Credit: U.S. Naval Institute
Humor, in several different forms of laughs and jokes, plays an important role in the history and traditions in the fleet—just observe any Dining In ceremony where the crew of a command shares a meal with laughs and jokes toward their experiences together, or the tradition of the First Watch: the junior officer that stands the midnight watch during New Year’s must record all their observations in the log in poetic rhyme.[2] Although many of those traditions did not survive to this day, the spirit of making good fun of military experiences lives on in the new generation of the Navy.
Memes in the Academy
Memes were common in the history of the Naval Academy as well, especially with the satirical magazine the LOG. Like the memes of today, many of the jokes in the magazine were related to the struggles of midshipman life. In fact, the memepages of Instagram act similarly to the anonymous Salty Sam of the LOG—using a satirical identity to make jokes and comments on the Academy routine.
In the Valentine’s Day issue of the LOG in 1942, a mid wrote a satirical poem for the laundry service of the Academy. Credit: U.S. Naval Institute
Using a Spongebob Squarepants reference, a Mid makes a modern, satirical jab at the laundry service. Credit: Instagram
Retired Navy Commander Ward Carroll, Class of ’82, described his experiences as a cartoonist for the LOG as “a chance to laugh at ourselves, at officers who attempt to overreach, but not with mean-spirited commentary.” Carroll was the creator of “Morty Mid” cartoons in the LOG, in which Morty was an average mid trying to live the life of a college undergraduate in the Academy. Carroll explained that as a mid, he experienced “FOMO” (Fear Of Missing Out) when college students at other schools were able to have fun, drive around, and live the classic college life while he was at a military institution. “The guys at State U had more fun. Here [at USNA] we cram a week’s worth of fun in a day and a half.” Writing and submitting satirical cartoons was his way to express this frustration with a sense of good humor.
The hardest part of providing entertainment for the Brigade, according to Carroll, was learning to tell a joke without attracting the wrong audience, such as conduct staff or any authority on the yard. This difficulty, however, is a key component in developing as a leader. As Carroll recalled his experiences as a LOG cartoon creator, he described the times when his cartoons received negative and positive feedback from fellow midshipmen, as well as a time when the Commandant of Midshipmen, who was then Admiral Locklear, cancelled the LOG for including an offensive joke. “The LOG gave us a chance to fail and grow,” he explained. “Humor in the face of pressure is fundamental. Every great commanding officer I’ve ever worked with was able to make a joke at the face of a bad situation. Life is funny, but life is also serious. You just need to know when to have a laugh.”
Currently the memepages of Instagram face the challenge of being punished by the conduct system if their identities are discovered. Although the anonymity of the memepages creates a more humorous atmosphere, they should not be fear being punished for making funny content that can entertain the Brigade. Being funny makes you a better leader, and the harsh routine of the Academy becomes more memorable and a little easier to bear with a few jokes.
Endnotes
[1] Soniak, Matt. “What’s the Origin of “Kilroy Was Here”?” Mental Floss. June 19, 2013. Accessed May 31, 2019. http://mentalfloss.com/article/51249/whats-origin-kilroy-was-here.
[2] USNI Proceedings https://www.usni.org/magazines/proceedings/1959/january/first-watch
