"I brought Admiral Miller's [former Maritime College president, FLOYD 'HOSS' MILLER, Class of 1953] congratulatory e-mail to Spain along with yours and those of his classmates who had e-mailed me when they heard about the Change of Command.... Carl has asked me to thank his classmates and the Admiral for their very kind good wishes- they mean a lot to him. He doesn't have an e-address right now and is currently aboard the flagship of the Sixth Fleet. He said he will be there for either two weeks or two months; time will tell." [Ed. - Visit the Sixth Fleet at to http://www.c6f.navy.mil]

MIDSHIPMEN UNDER GUIDANCE - Paragraphs relating to mug life in the last three issues of NFFS ('Cold Mugs' - "Mug Memories Back When' 'Good Old Days? Or Bad Old Days?') have engendered a variety of responses and a range of emotions. One, JOHN McLEAN, Class of 1965, has a very concrete response: "Ref what we all had to have in our possession at all times as mugs - 42 years after being issued it, I still have my old 'Camp King' - not with me every day, but in the tool box on the workbench!"

The comments by CDR ALLEN STUBBLEFIELD, Commanding Officer of the Naval ROTC unit at the Fort Schuyler, generated a number of more extended responses. For example, "I read CDR STUBBLEFIELD's comments about mug-beating with mixed feelings," writes BOB PRESTON, Class of 1947. "I was Class of '47, the last of the great Personal Servitude/Physical Hazers. We had the pleasure of ventilating our pain on the Class of 1948, and a brief encounter with the gents of '49, before ADMIRAL LEARY and CAPT OLIVET 'slammed the door' - HARD !!!! I was given the choice of 6 months restriction until graduation or 'out the door', for having ED DANGLER, Class of 1949, carry my bedding topside."

"All that added NOTHING to our leadership abilities, as he suggests, but it welded us into a cohesive group of comrades, who have remained a 'family' for 58 years. SUNY serves a much different function today, and much of what our classes endured are inappropriate for a REAL school, but the method by which they 'Made Mugs into Men,' still remains in my memory as the Best Years of my Life!"

On the other hand, taking very strong exception to CDR Stubblefield's comments was STUART H. FITZ, 'Proud Mug and Grateful Graduate of the Class of '53.' Here are some excerpts from his e-mail: "As Mugs, we all came from different social, economic, political, religious and educational backgrounds. Mug year leveled the playing field for us all. We had to do what we were told when we were told - without questions (and by God, we did have questions). We quickly had to learn to answer to authority and respect it. Just look at the motto in the Sallyport. We were being trained for a career that would often require split second decisions and for us to tell people under us what to do, and when - without being challenged. Our safety, our ships, our cargo, and yes, our lives could depend on it."

"As Mugs, we learned how to take orders; as upper classmen we learned how to give them and we had one huge plus in our favor. We knew what it was like to be low man on the totem pole and we were able to adjust our demeanor accordingly through our lives after the Fort."

"Smoking "Recruits", making square corners, memorizing the motto, carrying a knife, matches and a Crescent wrench, calling upper classmen "Sir" were all part of the training package that made us the people we are today. I have NEVER heard any one of us in the Cadet/ Licensing program speak out against the Mug program. Oh, yes, at get togethers over the years we may "bitch" about it, but only in jest. We wouldn't trade it for anything. It was necessary and has stood us well. Just ask Arne Bocksel '36 how it helped him thru 4+ years in a Japanese prison camp."

"Look at the caliber of the officers and industry people that our glorious school has turned out. No, CDR Stubblefield, you [are being] short-sighted ....."

MAJOR MOVE - Bob Preston, Class of 1947, sends "Greetings from our new home in Florida...After 15 glorious years in Colorado, we ran out of snow, water, and knee cartilage simultaneously , and headed 'home' to bike as flat-landers." [Now he can get his glucosamine directly from those Florida sharks.]

WAR IS IN THE AIR - A website address is passed on by DENNIS BOYE, Class of 1985, who writes: "...you can visit the Department of Defense web page at http://www.defendamerica.mil/nmam.html and sign a brief message thanking the men & women of the U.S. Military services for defending our freedom. The compiled list of names will be sent out to our soldiers at the end of the month."

War as 'Reality TV' concerns Dr. JULIE WOSK of the Humanities Department. The following letter 'To the Editor' appeared in the 26 March issue of the New York Times: "Listening to 'embedded' reporters and watching their live, close-up coverage of American infantrymen engaging in firefights in Iraq...is indeed but the latest and most disturbing version of reality television. Feeding our seemingly unquenchable thirst to get an intimate view, this real-time coverage turns us into voyeurs and war itself into spectacle."

Whatever your point of view, you can get in-depth commentary from the U.S. and abroad from such sites as: http://www.weeklystandard.com and http://www.truthout.org

Meanwhile, at Vatican City in Rome, Pope John Paul II is reported by the Catholic News as continuing to urge "...the faithful to pray for peace, saying that he's following the news of the war in Iraq with a 'heavy heart. '" For full details, go to http://www.cathnews.com/news/303/149.php.