The Academy Insider Podcast - Your Guide to The Naval Academy Experience

#073 Pro-Know!! Learn about the Professional Knowledge Program at the United States Naval Academy

• GRANT VERMEER • Season 2 • Episode 73

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Brayden Scharfe, USNA '26, shares insight into the power of professional knowledge, or "pro-know," as we explore its impact on shaping resilient, informed military leaders. Discover how the Naval Academy's rigorous exams and training opportunities serve as a launching pad for future military careers, setting the stage for lifelong learning and friendships.

Learn about "come arounds," where midshipmen get quizzed by the upperclass midshipmen in preparation for the pro-know quizzes on Sunday nights.  But most of all, learn about why the professional knowledge program is so important.  We talk about how it's the foundation for establishing mentor relationships and preparing yourself for summer trainings.

Join us as we journey through the exhilarating summer training experiences that Brayden recounts, from navigating nuclear submarines to engaging in intense exercises at the Mountain Warfare Training Center. Feel the camaraderie and excitement as he shares unforgettable moments from competing against other service academies to forming lasting bonds with fellow midshipmen. This episode is a testament to the enduring friendships and supportive community at the Naval Academy, capturing the essence of resilience and growth within the formidable walls of this esteemed institution.

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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Speaker 1:

Welcome to Season 2 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. Hey everyone, and welcome back to the Academy Insider Podcast.

Speaker 1:

Today I'm joined by my shipment second class, brayden Scharf, and we're going to be talking all about professional knowledge. If you've heard this term pro-no, you may have heard your plebs say hey, I have a pro-no quiz or a pro-no exam this week, or I have a come around tonight with my third class or second class and you have no idea what that means. Then check out this episode Because, again, on top of being a university with their academic course load, there is military professional development that needs to happen at the Naval Academy as well. So these professional knowledge exams are the way to build the base of knowledge in military themes and areas for the plebes and, again, for the rest of the midshipmen at the academy, and so if you're interested in learning about that professional development program as well as specifically kind of as it relates to the life of a plebe, the prono exams and how it impacts future summer trainings, then check out this episode. If you know someone who may be interested in something like this or interested in topics about the Naval Academy, then subscribe to the YouTube channel, subscribe to the podcast, because we will continue to put out content with a little bit of insight into the unique aspects that are being a midshipman at the Naval Academy and life at the Naval Academy. So if you're interested, again, please do that. Otherwise, I hope you really enjoyed the listen. Thank you so much and have a great day. You so much and have a great day.

Speaker 1:

The Academy Insider podcast is sponsored by the Vermeer Group, a residential real estate company that serves the United States Naval Academy community and other select clientele in both California and Texas. If I can ever answer a real estate related question for you or connect you with a trusted Academy affiliated agent in the market which you're in, please reach out to me directly at grant at the premier groupcom. You can also reach out to me on my LinkedIn page, grant premier, and I'd be happy to respond to you there. Thank you so much, and now let's get back to the episode. All right, hey everyone, and welcome back to the Academy Insider Podcast, brandon. Thank you so much for being here with us today. Before we get started, if you don't mind just giving a quick introduction of yourself, where you're from, how you ended up at the Academy, and then a little bit about your midshipman self, your company, any activities you're in, et cetera.

Speaker 2:

Wonderful. Thank you, grant. As stated, my name is Brayden Scharf. I am from Virginia Beach, virginia. I'm currently a second class, which is a junior at the Naval Academy. And let's see, I came to the Academy because of my community. It's a Navy-based community. The largest Naval base in the world is in Norfolk, which is right nearby. And growing up there and seeing those people around me plenty of neighbors or friends, dads were all in the military. I wasn't a military brat myself. That, being of a military family, of a direct parent, is what military brat means, in case anyone doesn't know, know and I saw those people around me and I really looked up to that community. I wanted to give back, ultimately and additionally, my grandfather. He was a naval academy grad. He's grown up with his stories. It inspired me to come here. He retired as a captain, he was an eod, so he spent 20 years doing some cool stuff and inspired me to pursue a career from him and the people around me.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, so came here, loving it. So far Two years and some change done. Right now, a year and some to go and loving it. I'm a part of the combat arms team, so we're a shooting team that practice close quarter shooting or combat shooting. We're moving around while firing our pistols, rifles or shotguns. Sometimes we'll shoot multiple guns at once and have our pistol and our holster and our rifle slung around our neck, shooting that until it goes dry and grab our pistol and all under, like you know, behind cover or moving in between, and it's a lot of fun. I've learned a lot. I never shot, really, before coming here, so it's taught me some valuable lessons about attention to detail or simple shooting in general, or just being a part of a team where safety is paramount.

Speaker 1:

That's sweet A question. Do you guys compete for that, Like? Are there competitions around that, Like, and who are your competition Like? Who do you go against for stuff like that? That is a fantastic question.

Speaker 2:

So it's training for combat roles in the fleet one day is, like you know, main goal of the team. However, we do have competitions. So I actually just back from michigan this past weekend where we shot against hillsdale college, a small, small christian school up there that has a combat shooting team and we shot a combat pistol match with them where we're moving around uh targets and you know shooting things as fast as we can and as accurate as we can. That's how you win oh, that's awesome.

Speaker 2:

It was a lot of fun. And then, uh, every year in the spring we have a tournament against the other service academies and big ROTC units. They have their own version of our teams and we go to Six Hour Factory in New Hampshire where we have a big competition up there. That's a lot of fun. It's a good time shooting against the other academies.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I was about to say do we have a big rivalry against West Point in that factor too?

Speaker 2:

Is that your?

Speaker 1:

Sanders team. Is that their version of Combat Arms Do team? Is that like the kind of their version of combat arms you have?

Speaker 2:

any idea. I feel like I know they have a separate sandhurst team, their, their sandhurst team. Their main goal is just that working out and doing the specific training for the sandhurst events. The combat arms team here and their combat weapons team is what they call it at west point they practice three gun shooting and maneuvering, and and speed and similar things that we do. Their main goal is shooting and they work out on the side because a lot of these things require physical activity where we're having to do some kind of physical exercise right before shooting to simulate what it's like in combat. Yeah, uh. So yeah, we do have a big rivalry with west point. Every year it's. You know, it's really close between us and west point. Last year they got us. This year we're gonna get them. I'll prove it to you next time I love it.

Speaker 1:

I love it well, way cool. Thanks for Thanks for being here and doing this. And again, the funny thing as much as I'd love just to continue the discussion about the combat teams here, the combat shooting team, but today is all about prono and we're driving it back to Plebes and talking about professional knowledge, aka prono, at the Naval Academy. And so you know, the first question just kind of set the foundation for what we're talking about today is what is Prono right? And so when a midshipman is talking about Prono or professional knowledge to their parents or to their family, what are they talking about and what are the topics that are kind of encompassed in this idea of Prono?

Speaker 2:

That's a fantastic question, grant. I heard about Prono before coming here and I was like that sounds weird. I don't know what that is. It's strange, but PRONO stands for professional knowledge. It refers to a structured program aimed at building foundational knowledge required for midshipmen at the academy. This is the professional knowledge to become an adequate Naval or Marine Corps officer. So it's a program that focuses primarily for the plebes or the freshmen here. It's a program that focuses primarily for the plebes or the freshmen here I'm going to name for plebes and includes weekly or biweekly now quizzes and verbal assessments on various military, navy, naval warfare, military customs, financial literacy just a variety of topics that are important to be a good officer, yeah no, absolutely no-transcript capabilities of tanks, et cetera.

Speaker 1:

Right, there's a whole wide gambit that is involved in professional knowledge. That is really cool, and so you know. The question back to you is, as you're going through this, why do plebes do prono? As you mentioned, it's kind of hyper-focused and on the plebes. What's the point? What's the purpose? Why are we doing this? Because, as you mentioned, like this is additional knowledge, additional studying, additional time that plebes have to spend learning information that's outside of their academic curriculum.

Speaker 2:

Absolutely yeah, that's a good point. Academic curriculum Absolutely yeah, that's a good point. And the purpose is to immerse these plebs in the culture, the fleet, the things of the Marine Corps fleet that they'll be putting into and graduating, commissioning into one day. So you have these different chapters that we have. These bi-weekly exams are focused on a different chapter. They can relate to anything specific like surface warfare community, the Marine Corps corps, or even niche communities like the special warfare community such as navy seals or eod.

Speaker 2:

And it's really important because they want you to know as much as you do, like as much you can, before you go on these summer trainings. So every year at the academy, we we have two blocks of. We have, you know, our summers divided into three blocks. Two of them have to be done with military training. That third one can be your time at home on leave. Those two other blocks are spent developing as a midshipman to prepare you to become an officer and those are spent as cruises.

Speaker 2:

So, like this past summer, I spent time on a ddg dg which is destroyer, ddg 85 out of yukosuka, japan. It was a fantastic experience, but what was really important was that I took PRONO beforehand because I knew what the DDG was. I know what DDG stands for the destroyer and I learned everything about that ship. I knew it was a Flight 2A Alpha, which means that there's a hangar bay into it, that it's a newer generation than the Flight 1, but older than the Flight 3. And it has what capacity it has for its crew, where the different berthings are the different parts of the ship.

Speaker 2:

Someone says port starboard, aft, foc'sle. Those are all things that are important, that you really ought to know, and this is what PRONO teaches you, not to mention the different rates in the Navy. So one thing that's part of the surface warfare chapter is knowing the Navy enlisted rates and ranks and all of the different parts that encompass the crew. Someone tells you that they're at OS2, you should really know what that means and that it's it really shows them that you care and want to be there and, you know, are dedicated to becoming a good officer while you're at the academy.

Speaker 1:

If you show that, you know what that means.

Speaker 2:

That's been really cool and I think it's beneficial for that reason 100%.

Speaker 1:

I always thought like for me again. It seems silly in the moment, at times like when you're a plebe, why am I doing this?

Speaker 1:

But then like you get out to a ship, right, and one of the things on the pro no, like knowledge base was like, how would you actually board a ship? Like, right, what is the proper procedure to go ahead and board a ship? Cause, again, if you just like walk up there all willy nilly like people are going to be like dude, what are you doing? Right, again, I think you, you mentioned it and you really hit the nail on the head, which I love, which is it just sets the foundation and gets you prepared to be able to like fully embrace and learn during your summer trainings. Right, it allows you to have the knowledge base to be inquisitive, to be curious, to be asking intelligent questions, right, and really get to learn what you're doing in the fleet. Right, which I think is again just, it's a, it's a really cool thing and it is important.

Speaker 1:

Right Along the profession, again, the academy it's a university, 100%. You have these academic courses, but it's a military training institution, it is a military academy and, again, there is a level of knowledge on military aspects that you need to know and go through as well, and so you know, with that is, does it continue all four years? I know we mentioned that it's kind of the vast majority of the education is directed towards plebes, but does it continue all four years and how does it change kind of between being a plebe versus being a, you know, being a third class, second class or first class?

Speaker 2:

That is a great question because a lot of people don't understand that. It doesn't really stop after your plebeian and the main part of where the weekly quizzes, or bi-weekly now, or the comearounds, where you're having to meet with your upper class if that's the sophomore, junior or senior you're assigned to, that does stop. However, as an upper class you still require to have those meetings with your freshmen and that's a good refres refresher so that learning is always keeping you up to date and keeping you on top of your knowledge, that you're retaining it. But every semester as an upper class that being a sophomore above we have something called a PCA. Pca stands for the professional competency assessment and that is a. It encompasses everything you learn from your fourth class, your plead freshman year, and it adds everything every time. Every year it adds some more stuff to it that goes a little bit more in depth. So this year or this past, last year, as a third class or a youngster or a sophomore there's a lot of different names of classes we have here.

Speaker 2:

You had to learn more about the Marine Corps and MOS and what specific MOS is meant to a tighter grade than just the overall first two numbers.

Speaker 2:

You had to learn the first. You know the four numbers and what they were, to different rates in the Marine Corps, and MOS, which is the Military Occupation Specialty of the Marine Corps, where you're designated as if you're an infantryman, or if you're a logistics specialist, or if you work with aviation, whatever you may do, and that's something I had to learn last year on top of what I learned about the Marine Corps the year before. So every semester, at the end of the semester, you'll take this PCA assessment as a sophomore and as a junior, your senior year you are done with your professional knowledge and you don't have to take it, though, however and yeah, this is used to ensure that men shouldn't have the necessary knowledge, professional knowledge, competencies in their respective areas and continue for their future leadership as an officer 100%, and you kind of mentioned that plebes take exams, you know, or biweekly, and which we'll dive more into, like the specific plebe curriculum here towards the end of this episode.

Speaker 1:

But for and you mentioned this idea of a come around where you're going and testing your knowledge throughout the week before you actually take the exam Is that similar as an upperclassman? Not necessarily the full exams, but do you need to get, for lack of a better term, a checkout or a signature from a Marine on the yard when you're talking about the Marine Corps? How does that work and has it led to any really cool life and leadership discussions with some of the staff on the yard as a result of the professional knowledge?

Speaker 2:

Yes, we do have that. So, as a second class or a third class, we have a set of an MQS is what we call it the shipment qualification standards, where you have to, based on this new knowledge, you have to get assigned by someone who is an expertise or a subject matter expert in those areas. So if it's talking about the different MOSs in the Marine Corps, you might have to go to a Marine enlisted or Marine officer and talk to them about these different MOSs. You might have to find someone in those MOSs to go talk to, and those can stem and start really cool stories.

Speaker 2:

I've been able to talk to a drill sergeant who was also an infantry marine and talking about their time in their field, their time where they spent overseas in the middle east, and that was really unique and it brought up just me having to pursue them, to find them, to get their signature, to prove that I actually know what this means and, like the they're like you know they'd explain why it was important to them, why they take pride in their being being an 0311, which is, you know, the infantry MLS code and what that means to them. So it showed you their passion and it showed you why it's really important as an officer to know those things, because it's their passion, it's who they are, it's how they find their identity isn't part of those things, and that was really valuable, also hearing their story.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, 100 percent. Again, I think this is one of the really special things about professional knowledge at the Academy and it's something I talk on about. In my opinion, what makes the experience in Annapolis such a life-changing, generational-changing opportunity is the access you have to these military again, senior officers or senior enlisted leaders who have this real-world experience. They have life experience. They have life experience, they have military leadership experience and they share these stories. So you may go and bring this book and say, hey, can we talk about the range of an M-16 or whatever it is, but it's going to lead to real life discussion. It's going to lead to leadership discussion.

Speaker 1:

Right, this MQS and this professional knowledge program at the Naval Academy fosters communication. Right Again, I, probably, as great as the Naval Academy curriculum is, I probably learned more as a young man and leader through those conversations. Right Through the genuine mentorship and conversation that is a result of a lot of the professional knowledge aspects of the academy, right, and I have a lot of parents kind of reach out to me and they're like how does my son or daughter find a mentor? Like this is a great way to do it, right? Like, I just want to let you know that the academy is fostering this. They're creating this environment where midshipmen can go to the senior enlisted staff. They can go to the senior officers and have these conversations and find someone that they resonate with, find someone that they kind of want to emulate and continue those conversations.

Speaker 1:

Right, and so it's super cool from that perspective. But I do want to switch back a little bit to you know how it impacts a plebe in the day to day life of being a plebe, because this is it. This is such a heavy demand on time. From time to time you mentioned this term come around. What is a come around? And when it comes to that plea, how does it change between a come around with a third class versus a come around with the second class or first class? Do you mind kind of walking us through the process of what come arounds are?

Speaker 2:

Yes. So come arounds are weekly meetings. Even if it's a bi-weekly exam, it only happens every two weeks. We have to have weekly meetings with our underclass. So tonight I'm meeting with my plebe, ms Golden. She is a freshman at Naval Academy and we will be talking through the next chapter. This next chapter is another part of surface warfare and we'll be going through the intricacies of that chapter and the details and what I highlight as these are some really important things.

Speaker 2:

This is what I've experienced from my time in the summers. You know this is my time on this ship Like this is why it's important to know these different types of ships, or these are different questions that you can like from your knowledge here. This is how you go from point A to point B is like you ask those in-depth questions based on that basic knowledge you already have. It can make it more valuable experience, as was we talked about earlier. So, yeah, we'll go through that and, like the first week, since it's biweekly now, I'll kind of really go deep into that with her and talk with her through the content and that second week now I use quizzer We'll talk about these new questions and I really try to get really deep and quizzer hard and sometimes up to an hour worth of time, generally around 30 minutes though, so that by the time she gets to her senior, her firstie, first class, I'm a shipment that she knows all the information and that's like a check.

Speaker 2:

The second class are really tasked with making sure they know the knowledge and teaching them that knowledge. And the third class, their youngster. They meet with the four. They have to meet them in order, so they have to meet with their sophomore and then their junior and then their senior. Every week they have to meet them with that order. So the sophomore really should be introducing things and is more of an emotional and, you know, day-to-day, just like check up how are you, like these are, how's your plea, you're going, how's these things, these struggles? I was there just a couple months ago myself, like they're supposed to be, that first emphasize empathizer that can relate to them and help them out with different things. That's academic, so that's pro. Now they can give them tips for studying. They can go into the chapter some as well.

Speaker 2:

I remember doing that and talking about just. You know, I came from ProTrimid, which is a summer experience where you experience submarines, surface warfare, aviation and Marines, all in like a four-week span. You spend a week at each one and you learn about the communities and during my you know, come around as a youngster when I was a sophomore at the academy I'll be with my plebe. I'll just talk about those experiences and why it was important with them. Then now I'm testing that knowledge. The next year I'll be checking that knowledge. That's kind of how that rolls around. You have to schedule those ahead of time. My plebe schedules them on Sunday night and gets the whole week planned ahead. She texts me Sundays like hey, can we meet Wednesday night at eight o'clock, or twenty hundred in our terms? I was like sure, sounds great.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, no, I love that. It's a great. You did a great job recapping that again. That third class one is that first initial mentorship Right. You kind of talking about what things they should be focusing on, kind of sharing some stories, just getting them prepared and guided. That second class is really a big check Right, like you're, you're kind of teaching them, instructing them and doing that check before you know they go and have that come around with the first class, which is really like that last step to make sure, like, ok, yeah, you're prepared and ready to take the exam. Right, the actual exam or quiz for the week. And so, with that is, when are these exams?

Speaker 2:

I know you mentioned that they've become kind of a biweekly every two week type thing. But what days are they on? What are the exams like and how are they administered? What does a pro-no exam look like? Great question and foremost, I want to recognize like the reason that they are bi-weekly now is that they've condensed some of the chapters and they are bigger than they used to be. So that's why they're giving you a two-week period to really get into that chapter and deeper. And also I think the two-week period helps you re-emphasize things and learn them more, like to a greater degree, not just kind of brain dump, but really have to know the knowledge. So that's been, that's been beneficial. And they take these exams on that sunday of the second week. So they have, you know, a full two weeks and that sunday they'll take the exams at 1900, so seven o'clock at night, and they'll all get in the hallway. We call them b-ways. They'll get in the hallway, face the face, the wall, and on our computers we'll log in, take a Google form and take the test.

Speaker 2:

The test generally consists of multiple choice and fill in the blank and sometimes free response.

Speaker 2:

But more recently we've been doing just multiple choice, which is very fortunate for the current fleas.

Speaker 2:

I had to do a lot more fill in the blank back in my day, but who knows, it changes all the time and they're corrected automatically. They're graded automatically, okay, from the google form and then any question that's wrong. The upper class will generally go in, or the ones who administer the exam will go in and check what they got wrong and see if it was a spelling error, like if the spelling was generally given the points unless it was egregious, and otherwise you know they'll get it wrong. And on top of that, the person who makes the exams is generally an upper class of the entire brigade. So the entire body of students, student body, that the person who makes the exams is generally an upper class of the entire brigade. So the entire body of students, student body. There's one person who is the brigade trainer is what we call them. They're in charge of developing these tests and administering them to the entire brigade. So they and their subordinates will develop and create this test.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, yeah, a hundred percent man, first of all. Just continuing doing these interviews just keeps making A hundred percent man First of all. It just continued doing these interviews Just keeps making me feel old man, cause we were yeah, I mean that makes sense to do it on a Google form, right, like what? What an efficient way to do it. When I was a plea man, we were taking it like handwritten they print out the pieces of paper and we'd write on the pen and that made it. That made it a little bit easier, especially when it came to spelling errors. You like scribble a little bit and be like, yeah, no, I was trying to write Robinson. You're like that, I don't know about that, but maybe all right, half credit, but yeah, no.

Speaker 1:

And again, there is especially for my varsity athletes out there too, again, obviously I'm kind of speaking from my experience as a basketball player Like we would play on Saturdays, right, like Saturday night road game at Lehigh or at Lafayette.

Speaker 1:

You know we're in Pennsylvania, we're coming back and you know you have that pro-no exam on Sunday. And so, like my bus ride home, I just have like such concrete memories of like sitting and studying and reading your pro-no book on that bus, ride home to prepare for that exam, to take care of your pro-no, and so it is such a kind of an iconic and foundational piece of the Plebe experience. So it's interesting Now, with that being said, this is the Naval Academy and you need to do well. So the question is what happens if you don't do well? Like what are the standards when it comes to prono, what kind of scores are expected of the midshipmen and what are either the remediation or kind of again the path back to being sat on pro-no if they don't go well? Like kind of what is that process if someone you know fails a quiz, and how do we kind of get back on track from there?

Speaker 2:

Yeah. So foremost I want to say yeah, there is a lot of advance here. You know, we have a lot of mandatory trainings or a lot of classes, most most plebs especially taking 18, 17, upwards of 19 credits, and that's a lot on top of all their their other business and craziness they have going on, especially with their athletics or what it might be, morning workouts, and so it's a lot. It can be hard, you know. I remember having to squeeze things like if I would get to a class early, I would just sit down, pull out my proto book and start studying or just reading through the chapter. I would read through the chapter a couple times, maybe five times every chapter, just so I could really understand the conversational knowledge and the stuff I need to memorize. I would start memorizing. That was beneficial. That's something we, as upper class, make our plea to do is we make them carry their proto books around with them everywhere so that they just have no excuse not to open it up. And why I hated carrying my book around everywhere. It proved to be really beneficial because I had no excuse not to just open it up when I had some time before brief started or before, you know, class started or wherever it may be. So that was great, but now, so yeah, I would say I don't get that time in, or you know, I just totally didn't see a page or something. I forget and I did poorly on a test.

Speaker 2:

The pass you need a 70. That is pretty. It seems pretty low, but that's the majority of the content and that shows that you know a lot of it, but not all of it. It's not just a check in the box. We still don't want to see a 70. We want to know that you're really dedicated to learning this stuff and are trying to become the best officer that you can be upon commissioning. So we still kind of flag that, as that's not something we want to do. So we have something called a company pass, a battalion pass and a brigade pass. A brigade pass is like a 70%, a battalion pass is 80% and then a company pass is 90%. If you get a 90% or above, you're pretty much good to go and no worries there If you get a battalion. So anywhere from 80% to 90%, we want to have an extra come around with you so that you know this next chapter a little bit more. That's really about it. We just want to take a little bit more time. But if you just get a 70%, maybe two more come arounds a little bit more time.

Speaker 2:

Just kind of there's that linear trend where it's more time based on the lower score you got, but that last time, if you fail, you're gonna have to meet with several people beyond just your chain of command we call it the fire team beyond just your squad leader, your first, your first, your senior, sophomore and junior. Besides just meeting them, you have to meet with your platoon, platoon commander, which is another first you have to a higher rank. It has a lot more people underneath them. You're gonna have to meet with your battalion sergeant or your battalion like like xo, commander, whatever it may be different people you're gonna have to start meeting with and they're gonna have a lot harder come around, so they might be doing all right, every question get wrong. You're going to do three push-ups with me. We're going to do them together and like that's that's kind of annoying and that's hard sometimes you'll be doing you don't know your stuff. You'll be doing a lot of push-ups and that's just to teach you like this stuff is really important and we we really care about it, so we want you to as well.

Speaker 2:

Those are some of the things, and if, if you failed one time, they're just going to make sure you're back on top for the next time, if you keep showing a pattern of failing, that's when they'll put you up for an aptitude board and that shows that, like you know, maybe you don't really have this priority in the right place. Yes, school is important. Professional knowledge and becoming a good officer is why we're here to like a hard degree. Like you know, we're here to learn, but we're here to commission ultimately. So this stuff is really really just as important in some ways. And if you show you don't really care and that's reflected on your scores that are consistently below, like 40 percent, 50 percent, 60 percent, whatever it may be, then you'll be put up for a review board behind your company for your company officer, an O3 lieutenant or a captain a lieutenant in the Navy or a captain in the Marine Corps to kind of talk to you about all right, what's going on? How do we fix this? Because this is not acceptable.

Speaker 1:

That's when it gets to a serious issue, sure, but, like you're saying, there are so many steps between that point, right, like you're saying and the amount of involvement from all over helping you not arrive at that point right. And again, it's really interesting. I don't know if you've heard, or anyone listening has heard, admiral McRaven's speech that he gave at the University of Texas, the commencement speech. It's all about where the book, like Make your Bed, comes from. But he talks about, he shares, a story of you know a couple of guys going through BUDS who are having a hard time and they're not meeting the physical, like fitness requirements. They're not doing enough pull-ups, they're not doing enough push-ups, aren't doing enough pushups. So, as a result, right, they have to do more. Right, they have like additional training that the rest of the guys who are going through buds and kind of meeting a certain level are doing. But over time they started becoming the ones who were like exceeding and excelling and kind of leading the pack on the fitness side because they they were putting in that extra work.

Speaker 1:

And again, that's where those things mentioned right, like if you get an 85, yeah, now you're not just doing a come around with the person you know your fire team leader, your squad leader, et cetera. Now you have someone from the company level staff that's doing it. And then again, same thing If you fail at the battalion level, you get a 75. Like, yeah, now you have a battalion staff member doing an additional come around with you. And that's not fun because it takes extra time and it's stuff that the rest of your company mates are not doing, but it's just getting you prepared and giving you the extra investment and involvement to make sure that you're getting back on the right track.

Speaker 1:

Right and so, but it's still not fun. But it's still not fun. So, but yes, again, what I would just encourage, as people are listening, is that, like, if they have a rough week, it's not the end of the world. Right, it's not the end of the world, and there are plenty of resources and systems in place to make sure that the plebs are, you know, being taken care of and getting the extra assistance that they need to start excelling with it. But as we kind of wrap up here, I do just want to shift now to again, if you have any stories or anything you remember from either your summer training or this process, as like going through PRONO, a specific conversation with a staff member that really kind of was was memorable or special to you. Just to kind of highlight again what makes professional knowledge at the Naval Academy a really special program.

Speaker 2:

Absolutely. Yeah, there's something unique about the Academy, just that summer training idea. Like a lot of, a lot of other schools or commission programs, you get exposure. You might have a little bit of time in the summer to go learn about different communities, but the Naval Academy you have a lot of time and you dedicate a lot of your time here and in your summer to that.

Speaker 2:

I remember just going through Prono and having my upper class just talk about their experiences being on a nuclear submarine with nuclear weapons for days on end and what that was like. I just remember that being super intriguing. This is why it's important, because these are the people you're going to be talking to. This is the mission you have at hand. You're protecting the national security, you're protecting the world, with just having that threat, those weapons out there. That was very intriguing and just inspiring to me in some ways. Uh, just hearing those stories. But um, or just like I remember you know just funny acronyms. There's a lot of different things where you know you have to. You have to memorize different parts of national security strategy, for instance, and you know you just create something funny to remember it and like those are a lot of the parts where it's like. You know, there's a lot of stuff, you have to memorize a lot of things, things that are hard, and the funny acronym is what got me through it and I would always be thinking of that every summer. Yeah, something I did that was super cool.

Speaker 2:

Two different summer experiences that really stand out was that were unique to me. I had every year going into your junior year you have to spend time on a cruise either a surface cruise on a ship on top of the water or a subsurface cruise on a submarine. I chose to do on a surface cruise and I was fortunate enough to get the location of Japan. Originally, I thought I was just going to go to Japan and, you know, maybe be on a ship a little bit and then be on the shore the rest of the time, but actually I flew into South Korea and I got on a ship there and I was able to go to Japan after.

Speaker 2:

You know, we took some days in between and we had a really cool experience being underway, going from South Korea to Japan and just being able to experience different cultures and be able to experience the life on a ship and, you know, seven days underway, like it was really really unique experience and from what I learned, like knowing all the professional knowledge about the DDG, the DD85, the Flight 2 I was on, or knowing how to interact with the crew, or like what the crew did and their backgrounds, and based on just their job title, the different components of a ship, the different how the ship's laid out, with, you know, a captain versus the divos, the department heads, and what all those different roles meant and what it entailed the lead buddy officer, the chief buddy officer or whatever it may be, the command master chief, knowing all their roles and and that was really cool, so that was an awesome experience.

Speaker 1:

So another one keep going. I was like it's so sweet, right like that. Uh, it's so cool.

Speaker 2:

Oh my gosh or, yeah, just when you get to. You know, I got to yukonosuke naval base, which is a huge naval base in japan, and you know I saw a ton of different ships where I was able to identify them and know what their missions were. That was amphibious ships, if that was like carriers, if that was cruisers, whatever it may be and you could tell the ship's meant for this type of warfare anti-submarine warfare the carrier air wing is on that ship and it's really cool just being able to identify that and experience it. It makes it a lot more exciting when you know those are more than just ships and what they're used for. Or just when you're on the ship you can understand their defense system. This is the aegis defense system. Like I know exactly what this does, how it attacks, and the different missiles like there's got to be sm2, sm3 missiles, yeah, whatever, maybe sm6 inside the ship right now. That's really cool to think about and see.

Speaker 2:

And so, yeah, another like another experience I had was my after my plebeian, I did a two-week exercise with the marines in mountain warfare training center where they it taught us so much about how to live in a wilderness and environment and move people across a terrain and we learned stuff about land navigation, which we briefly go over, and professional knowledge or we talk about just like the marine corps and the essence of getting down to gritty and like what these different like roles are like. We worked with people in the infantry, we worked with recon marines, with marsauk marines, and they were all there and like they show us what like these different skills that they have and they learn. So being able to read about that stuff and then see them out there with their, their skills, their weapons and understand the complexities, go into it like it's. It's really eye-opening, it just makes it really awesome, like just super cool.

Speaker 2:

It's like when you, you know sometimes it's like when you, like you know, read a good book and then you see the movie and the movie's just like the book, like that never really happens, but like it's not. Like that you get to see it and like you read it, which is good, but then, like, sometimes, watching it and seeing it unfold is like this is awesome, like the excitement you get you know 100.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, now, summer training, summer training at the academy is incredible for that like, it gives you so many eye-opening things. Like for me. I've had a wild hair. I was like, oh man, maybe I could be a Marine. And then I had to go sleep in a field for a week and I was like, no, no, I'm not built for this, I'm a. I'm a little, I'm a little too bougie for that. Put me on a, put me on a ship or something, man, but no, yeah, I. I couldn't agree more Right.

Speaker 1:

And I think, again, just really doubling down on the facts of knowledge at the Naval Academy is the best way to set the foundation for midshipmen to be smart enough to ask questions, to be curious, to be inquisitive during their time during summer training, to get the most out of the experience, to relate, to be able to ask, like you were saying earlier, to be able to ask the OS2 about his systems, to ask him about his equipment, to ask him about his life. So that way you get a really good experience while you're out to sea and get a good sense of what life in that community may be like. Right, because, again, these are big decisions. Like these are the eye-opening pieces that will kind of be the again, the building blocks that make you submit your preference for service selection, right, like they may be the game changing things that say like no, yeah, like I do want to be a Marine, or I do want to be a service warfare officer, or I do want to be a submariner, Right.

Speaker 1:

And again, all of this is it's part of the process right, it's part of the process, and way cool. So, brayden, thanks so much for taking the time to be here with us today and talk about the professional knowledge program, the pro-no stuff at the Academy. Final thing, before we wrap up, is something I ask everyone who comes on the show, which is one how has your experience in the Naval Academy been, and what would you say to the young men or women, the high school students out there that may be interested in the Academy, about why they should consider a service Academy education?

Speaker 2:

Well, foremost, I love it here. It challenges me and it pushes me to be greater, but the experiences you have here are just phenomenal and unmatched. Like the fact that there are so many officers here, some people with great wisdom and experience that are just at your fingertips, is remarkable, and that's something that the academy offers. That's very unique to the Naval Academy or even West Point or Air Force. Like they all have a plethora of just wisdom, experience and knowledge that you can tap into just by conversations. That's the key aspect of mentorship we have here, which I find so special. So I have plenty of different mentors if that's my company officer, if that's some teachers I've had, or just people I happen to interact with and then I get their email and I've emailed them and met with them a couple of times, asked about their career, and they pour into me because they want me to become the best I can be, and that's just so special. I think ROTC is a great opportunity as well, like the Reserve Officer Training Corps that you can do for the different services, but you don't have the same resources like you do here in terms of just like the sheer amount of officers. So that's something I find really special to the academy and a reason I would say, like you know, pursuit service academy. It really offers that opportunity for that, that mentorship mix, just right here at your fingertips. Yeah, you know, I think last week I was I was meeting with one of my marine mentors who was one of my teachers. I just talked to him just a little bit more about his career. He's got promoted to major and you know, I was just like, sir, like this is a big milestone. Tell me about why you decided to stay in after all this time, like, and why you're going back to the fleet, like what's really your draw, and just having those conversations is something that's really important. It helps you decide, like, what you want to do and what to pursue. Yeah, so that's one reason about the service academies.

Speaker 2:

But in terms of like, like you know, like my time here, yeah, I really enjoy it like. Yeah, there's definitely some times where you know it's hard to school and the demand, mandatory football games, you can't go home for different things, you don't have much time at home for breaks, summers, whatever it may be, but the experiences you'll have and the friendships you'll make are limitless. We talk about every Friday night. I feel like I'm always doing stuff. My friends, it started plebeian when we were locked in. You couldn't leave on a Friday night so you'd play games If that's games out in the field, playing football, or if that's card games, whatever it may be and then just kept going like as a junior, I had fridays off, but almost every friday.

Speaker 2:

So my, my guys and I and my company will go out and like just have some food, a couple beers downtown, just like you know, not like just just hanging out and like just because we had that repetition and that's something that's super cool. Here is like you just get these super tight bonds and friends like no other. Yeah, a hundred.

Speaker 1:

A hundred percent. I I'm glad you brought that up. I feel like it's something I actually don't touch on enough on here, which is, again, I talk about all the incredible things about the Academy, like you're saying but friends right, like you make incredible friends here right, like it is tough. This experience is really hard but as a result, because of all that, like the friendships that you build here to this day, even as an old guy now, like my best friends are still my company mates right, they're my roommates from the academy A lot of people go throughout life like not feeling that bond, not feeling a sense of friendship and like again, when you come to the academy, like you're going to have friends, like real friends for life, right, and I think that's a really cool aspect. So I appreciate you sharing that.

Speaker 1:

I appreciate you talking about your experience and everything pro no at the Academy. I know you probably a little bit of the voluntold to come on here and share the wisdom about professional knowledge. So I appreciate you and your time and stealing probably a free period from you. But I'm just, I'm really grateful and I just want to say thank you for taking the time to be here with us today. Absolutely, grant. Thank taking the time to be here with us today.

Speaker 1:

Absolutely, grant. Thank you for having me. I really appreciate it. Yeah, of course, and the Academy Insider audience. Thank you so much for listening and please let me know if you ever have any questions. Thanks, thank you so much for listening to this episode of the Academy Insider Podcast. I really hope you liked it, enjoyed it and learned something during this time. If you did, please feel free to like and subscribe or leave a comment about the episode. We really appreciate to hear your feedback about everything and continue to make Academy Insider an amazing service that guides, serves and supports midshipmen, future midshipmen and their families. Thank you.

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Grant Vermeer

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