#060 Ask G 001: Insight into Midshipmen Ranks at the US Naval Academy

Curious about the Rank Structure at the United States Naval Academy?

In this episode we answer Bonnie's question: "Can you explain the Midshipmen ranks? Are there are any differences from the Navy Ranks?"

This episode of the Academy Insider Podcast is your definitive guide to understanding midshipman ranks. From the initial days as a plebe to the heights of becoming a firstie, Grant unpacks the journey of a Naval Academy student with clarity and insight. He not only explains the distinctions between written abbreviations and verbal communication but also dives into the leadership opportunities available to first-class midshipmen.

Whether you're a prospective midshipman, a curious parent, or someone fascinated by military structures, this episode promises a thorough and engaging breakdown of midshipman ranks. Tune in and get the lowdown on all things related to the Naval Academy's rank structure!

The mission of Academy Insider is to guide, serve, and support Midshipmen, future Midshipmen, and their families.

Grant Vermeer your host is the person who started it all. He is the founder of Academy Insider and the host of The Academy Insider podcast and the USNA Property Network Podcast. He was a recruited athlete which brought him to Annapolis where he was a four year member of the varsity basketball team. He was a cyber operations major and commissioned into the Cryptologic Warfare Community. He was stationed at Fort Meade and supported the Subsurface Direct Support mission.

He separated from the Navy in 2023 and now owns The Vermeer Group, a boutique residential real estate company that specializes in serving the United States Naval Academy community PCSing to California & Texas.

We are here to be your guide through the USNA experience.

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:06

Hi Grant. This is Bonnie Dudley from New Hampshire. I'm familiar with Navy ranks, but can you explain the midshipman ranks? Are there any differences? This episode is a part of the Ask G series here on the Academy Insider Podcast, where we're answering your Naval Academy questions as efficiently and concisely as possible. If you like this format and you wanna ask a question of your own, you can head to our website, wwwacademyinsidercom, navigate to the top of the page and click on the Ask G tab and it'll direct you to where you can submit your question. To receive the latest information from me and the Academy Insider team, please be sure to subscribe to our newsletter at wwwacademyinsidercom. Backslash newsletter.

Speaker 1: 0:50

All right, let's talk midshipman ranks. So when it comes to ranks at the United States Naval Academy, again, the midshipmen are active duty members of the United States Navy, so these are real military ranks. Now, when you're going through your time at the Academy, you'll experience four different ranks. You'll have the midshipman fourth class, midshipman third class, midshipman second class and midshipman first class. So it goes up in ascending order. So when you start out as a freshman, you are a fourth class midshipman. When you go up and become a sophomore, you become a third class midshipman when you go up, junior year is a second class and senior year is a first class and it does go up in that ascending order again. So your fourth class is freshman, your first class is senior.

Speaker 1: 1:28

Now it's my goal with Academy Insider in these videos to keep you all hip. I want you to keep you up with the lingo and what we actually say at the Academy. You know, even though our rank when written is abbreviated as a midshipman, like a fourth class would be a 4C, like a fourth class would be a 4C, sophomore, 3c, junior, 2c, midshipman, first class, as a 1C, that's just the written abbreviation. It'll always be spoken as fourth class, third class, second class or first class. So again, I'm trying to keep you all hip here. You will never hear a midshipman. You will never hear a midshipman say, oh, I'm a midshipman 3C. No, we just don't do it right. You would just say, hey, I'm a third class midshipman or I'm a second class midshipman. So that's how it would be overall spoken.

Speaker 1: 2:10

Now, with that is, we generally have nicknames associated with our rank at the academy, right, the most iconic is a plebe. When you're a freshman at the academy, you're a plebe and you're going through your plebe year. So you really wouldn't even say midshipman, fourth class, all that often. You would just say, hey, I'm a plebe, but that's that. When you go up to your sophomore year you become a youngster. When you go up into your junior year we don't even have a nickname. Then you just say I'm a second class, I'm a second class mid right, and so that's kind of the bump up there, no fun nickname for that one. And then when you become a first class midshipman, you're a firstie.

Speaker 1: 2:40

Now within the first class rank you can have different leadership billets that may change your rank as a first class midshipman ensign, which again is just that one bar, singular stripe, all the way up to a midshipman captain and there's only going to be one midshipman captain, six bars, six stripes, and that would be the brigade commander for that semester. So you'll only have one six stripe at a time, but you can range anywhere through there. So again the firsties have the ability to have a billet. This term billet just means like a role or a leadership job within the brigade of midshipmen that establishes their rank for that semester. So again, you have fourth class all the way to first class. The first class can have additional rank based on the job or billet that they hold in the brigade of midshipmen and you have the names associated with it. So I hope that helps.

Speaker 1: 3:38

Hope it was a quick rundown of the overall midshipmen ranks. And again, remember I'm out here trying to take care of y'all. Keep your hip. It's not a 4C, it's not a 3C, it's a third class or a fourth class midshipman. So hope this helps. Let me know if you have any other questions and thank you so much for submitting this. Let's get this Ask G going. Appreciate it. Welcome to season two of the Academy Insider podcast. Academy Insider is a 501c3 nonprofit organization that serves midshipmen, future midshipmen and their families. At its core, this podcast is designed to bring together a community of Naval Academy graduates and those affiliated with the United States Naval Academy in order to tell stories and provide a little bit of insight into what life at the Naval Academy is really like. I hope you enjoy it. Thank you so much for listening and reach out if you ever have any questions.