Military

Annapolis

The Annapolis Area Complex is composed of the US Naval Academy, the Annapolis Naval Station, and tenant commands. Its' mission is to provide support for the training of midshipmen. Tenant Commands: Naval Construction Battalion (Unit 403) Naval Surface Warfare Division (Annapolis Detachment) Naval Medical Clinic Marine Barracks Navy Resale Activity DECA (Commissary Store) Personnel Support Division(PSD) / Customer Service Desk Dental Joint Spectrum Center. Population Assigned-Served: Active Duty Officer: 560 Active Duty Enlisted: 850 Family Members: Unknown Retirees: 8000 + Civilian Employees: 1800 +

The US Naval Academy [USNA] at Annapolis was founded in 1850 as the undergraduate college of the U.S. Navy. The current curriculum consists of four consecutive years at Annapolis with training during the summer. The Academy is a 338-acre complex with a Brigade of 4,000 midshipmen, and 580 faculty members (military and civilian). Eighteen academic majors are offered leading to a Bachelor of Science degree for all graduates. The USNA prepares midshipmen morally, mentally, and physically to be professional officers in the Naval Service.

The Academy is set on 338 acres between the south bank of the Severn River and historic downtown Annapolis, the state capital of Maryland. Annapolis is 33 miles east of Washington, D.C., and 30 miles southeast of Baltimore. The Yard, as the campus is called, features tree-lined brick walks, French Renaissance and contemporary architecture and scenic vistas of the Chesapeake Bay. The Bancroft Hall dormitory complex, the Naval Academy Chapel and other 90-year-old buildings make the Academy a National Historic Site. Facilities such as the multi-purpose Alumni Hall for brigade activities, Nimitz Library with more than 500,000 volumes, Rickover Hall engineering complex and Hendrix Oceanography Laboratory give the Academy ultra-modern educational resources.

Annapolis is twenty-seven miles from both Washington, DC and Baltimore City. The City is located on the Severn River, and the United States Naval Academy is located on its northeastern border. In 1694, Governor Sir Francis Nicholson redesigned a new Capital City for the Province of Maryland to replace the original seat of government in St. Mary's City. Named to honor the future Queen Anne of England, Annapolis literally translates to "Anne's City." All of this early town is within the designated National Historic Landmark area. On November 22, 1708, Governor John Seymour, acting in the name of Queen Anne, granted a charter to Annapolis, making it the oldest incorporated municipality in Maryland. During this period, Annapolis was the site of the nation's first State House, the establishment of the first parochial libraries and of King William's School (later St. John's College), the first printing of the Maryland Gazette, the resignation of George Washington, and the signing of the Treaty of Paris which officially ended the American Revolutionary War. For a short period, between November, 1783 and August, 1784, Annapolis served as the capital of the United States. In 2000, the U. S. Census Bureau reported a population of 35,838. This figure does not include 4,264 residents at the Naval Academy.

In 1825, President John Quincy Adams urged Congress to establish a Naval Academy "for the formation of scientific and accomplished officers." His proposal, however, was not acted upon until 20 years later. On September 13, 1842, the American Brig Somers set sail from the Brooklyn Navy Yard on one of the most significant cruises in American naval history. It was a school ship for the training of teenage naval apprentice volunteers who would hopefully be inspired to make the Navy a career. However, discipline deteriorated on the Somers and it was determined by a court of inquiry aboard ship that Midshipman Philip Spencer and his two chief confederates, Boatswains Mate Samuel Cromwell and Seaman Elisha Small, were guilty of a "determined attempt to commit a mutiny." The three were hanged at the yardarm and the incident cast doubt over the wisdom of sending midshipmen directly aboard ship to learn by doing. News of the Somers mutiny shocked the country.

When the founders of the United States Naval Academy were looking for a suitable location, it was reported that then Secretary of the Navy George Bancroft decided to move the naval school to "the healthy and secluded" location of Annapolis in order to rescue midshipmen from "the temptations and distractions that necessarily connect with a large and populous city." The Philadelphia Naval Asylum School was its predecessor. Four of the original seven faculty members came from Philadelphia. Other small naval schools in New York City, Norfolk, Va., and Boston, Mass. also existed in the early days of the United States.

Through the efforts of the Secretary of the Navy George Bancroft, the Naval School was established without Congressional funding, at a 10-acre Army post named Fort Severn in Annapolis', Maryland, on October 10, 1845, with a class of 50 midshipmen and seven professors. The curriculum included mathematics and navigation, gunnery and steam, chemistry, English, natural philosophy, and French.

In 1850 the Naval School became the United States Naval Academy. A new curriculum went into effect requiring midshipmen to study at the Academy for four years and to train aboard ships each summer. That format is the basis of a far more advanced and sophisticated curriculum at the Naval Academy today. As the U.S. Navy grew over the years, the Academy expanded. The campus of 10 acres increased to 338. The original student body of 50 midshipmen grew to a brigade size of 4,000. Modern granite buildings replaced the old wooden structures of Fort Severn.

Congress authorized the Naval Academy to begin awarding bachelor of science degrees in 1933. The Academy later replaced a fixed curriculum taken by all midshipmen with the present core curriculum plus 18 major fields of study, a wide variety of elective courses and advanced study and research opportunities.

Since then, the development of the United States Naval Academy has reflected the history of the country. As America has changed culturally and technologically so has the Naval Academy. In just a few decades, the Navy moved from a fleet of sail and steam- powered ships to a high-tech fleet with nuclear-powered submarines and surface ships and supersonic aircraft. The academy has changed, too, giving midshipmen state-of- the-art academic and professional training they need to be effective naval officers in their future careers.

The Naval Academy first accepted women as midshipmen in 1976, when Congress authorized the admission of women to all of the service academies. Women comprise about 13 to 14 percent of entering plebes--or freshmen--and they pursue the same academic and professional training as do their male classmates.

Naval Station Annapolis is located across the Severn River from the Naval Academy. The Commanding Officer is in charge of enlisted personnel assigned to the Naval Academy. The mission of the Naval Station is to provide material, personnel and service support to the Naval Academy by maintaining small craft, equipment and facilities for midshipmen training and by providing logistical support to the Naval Academy in its midshipmen professional development program. The station provides general support, including underway seamanship and sail training; small arms weapons familiarization; and navigation and engineering professional development, for midshipmen enrolled at the U.S. Naval Academy. To accomplish this, the command maintains a fleet of over 250 Yard Patrol and sail craft; operates an Industrial Repair Department consisting of electronics, hull, sail loft, carpentry shop, and rigging divisions; employs divers who ensure the underwater integrity of all operations; and provides more than 90 points of various competitive, combat, and general use pistol and rifle ranges.

Naval support to midshipmen began in 1851, six years after the founding of the U.S. Naval Academy, when the USS PREBLE arrived at what was then, Fort Severn, for duty as the first training ship. Upon completion of the Naval Air Station at Greenbury Point in 1911, Annapolis became the home of naval aviation, having both the first naval air station and the first flight from a naval air station to add to its illustrious history.

The first Yard Patrol Craft arrived in 1939, and the Naval Station began to take shape as we know it today. The involvement of the United States in World War II prompted the establishment of the Severn River Naval Command in 1941, to provide efficient and centralized military control over the functionally diverse, yet geographically associated, activities located around the mouth of the Severn River. The Naval Air Facility was reestablished the same year at the present site of the Naval Station to enhance naval aviation indoctrination of midshipmen.

In 1943, 123 additional acres of land were purchased to improve undesirable living conditions for the 800 men living aboard the USS REINA MERCEDES and USS CUMBERLAND, part of the Naval Barracks Command responsible for the enlisted men assigned to the Naval Academy. That same year, the Boat Repair Facility and the Boat Basin were built.

On May 15, 1947, Rear Admiral J. L. Holloway, Jr., father of one of the former Chiefs of Naval Operations, formally commissioned the Naval Station Annapolis. Many large structures were built that year, including the first land barracks, Building 46. The Severn River Naval Command was now expanded to include Naval Station Annapolis, Naval Small Craft Facility, Naval Air Facility and Naval Barracks Command. Each of these commands had a Commanding Officer who reported to the Commandant of the Severn River Naval Command.

In 1962, the Severn River Naval Command was disestablished and all missions and personnel were transferred to the Commanding Officer, Naval Station Annapolis. Today, the Naval Station is home to more than 600 military and civilian employees representing the Naval Station staff, the U.S. Marine Corps Naval Academy Company and the Navy Exchange.

Anne Arundel County offers year-round vacation living. The county has 437 miles of Chesapeake Bay shoreline and Annapolis claims 17 miles of waterfront. Beyond the waterfront you will find rolling countryside with both established neighborhoods and new suburban communities, most an hour or less from the big city bustle of Washington DC and Baltimore, MD. The county government is headed by a County Executive and a County Council elected for a 4-year term. The City of Annapolis is governed by a Mayor and City Council.