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

#114 The Dark Ages - On The Yard (007)

• GRANT VERMEER • Season 3 • Episode 114

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What Parents Need to Know About Naval Academy's Toughest Season

Ever wondered what midshipmen mean when they talk about surviving the "Dark Ages" at the Naval Academy? This episode pulls back the curtain on one of the most challenging periods in a midshipman's year - the return to Annapolis after winter break.

As someone who experienced those brutal Annapolis winters firsthand, I'm sharing the reality of what makes this time so tough for midshipmen and their families. We'll explore everything from the practical challenges of navigating icy campus walkways to the emotional toll of returning from the comfort of home to the demanding Academy environment.

What You'll Learn About the Dark Ages

  • Why January through early March earns this dramatic nickname at the Academy
  • How Annapolis weather truly impacts daily life for midshipmen
  • The underground tunnel system that becomes a lifeline during harsh weather
  • Why the transition back from winter break hits so hard emotionally
  • How uniform policies have evolved to better support midshipmen during cold months

Practical Insights for Families

  • Understanding the "commute" challenges midshipmen face getting to class
  • How weather delays and snow days actually work at the Academy
  • The incredible support systems available through MDC, chaplain services, and medical resources
  • Why that drive over the Naval Academy Bridge can be so emotionally difficult

Looking Ahead to Spring Semester

I also share what exciting events are coming up that help midshipmen push through this challenging period, including ship selection for firsties and major selection for plebes. These milestones provide hope and motivation during the coldest, darkest months.

The Vermeer Group is a residential real company matching military families with trusted real estate teams across the country.  If you have any real estate questions at all, please text Grant at (650) 282-1964 or email grant@thevermeergroup.com

To stay most up to date with Grant, Naval Academy updates, and real estate insights, follow him on LinkedIn

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. 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 residential real estate company that matches service academy families with trusted real estate teams all across the country. Text (650) 282-1964 with any real estate questions.

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SPEAKER_00:

Hello and welcome back to the Academy Insider Podcast. I hope everyone had an incredible holiday break, a fantastic new year, and are ready to take on 2026. And in this first episode, we are gonna be talking all about the dark ages at the Naval Academy. This is a fun and exciting topic now for us to learn about. It's a little bit less cool to actually live through it and experience some of those really short and cold days at the Naval Academy. But we're gonna explain some of the terminology around the dark ages at the Naval Academy, what it really means for midshipmen and how much their life is actually impacted by this, and then discuss a little bit about what's coming forward in the spring semester. So I'm really looking forward to it. If you are new to Academy Insider, thank you so much. I really appreciate you being here. If there are ever any questions that I can answer for you, let me know. Otherwise, I hope you enjoy the episode. Have a great listen and happy new year. All right, the dark ages. So when a midshipman is talking to their family about the dark ages, what are they referencing? And yes, it does tie and correlate a little bit to, again, the official Dark Ages being the end of the early, again, in the early Middle Ages, kind of the collapse of the Roman Empire, the end of the Roman Empire. But again, there's not any blood or violence going on at the Naval Academy in this case. It's just a satirical name for the return of the spring semester. And again, it kind of gets this name, especially Dark Ages, because in Annapolis it gets it gets cold, right? When we are in January and February, we are in peak winter in Annapolis. It gets cold, it gets frigid, it gets icy, it snows at times, and the days are really short, right? The sun, again, sun, sunrise is later in the morning, sunset is very early in the afternoon. So it is a long period of time where, again, the days are short, the days are dark, the days are very cold. And this will generally range again from January through early March, is really gonna be the dark age period. And what's funny is I'd encourage you to actually go back and listen to the sailing episode we do with Andrew Shea, because he actually talks about the Navy sailing program and how the sailing, like actual all the sailboats, get moved out of their basin in the in the Shedon River at the Naval Academy campus because of how cold it gets, and they get returned basically in that early March timeframe. And so that peak winter, that period of time is really what we're referencing as the Dark Ages. And again, the Dark Ages can be really tough, especially because if you're listening to this episode right now, and your son or daughter, your grandson, granddaughter, your whoever your midshipment is to you, they just left home after being home for a good two and a half weeks, which is really the first time that they've been that way since plebe summer, right? And again, there is a difference between going home for a long weekend, there's a difference between going home for Thanksgiving and going home for winter break. Because when you actually have two and a half weeks, you start just at the very inkling, you start to feel normal a little bit. You get used to wearing civilian clothes, you get used to hanging out with your friends and family. The stress of being at the Naval Academy is just like relieved and relieved long enough to almost make your nervous system feel like that's normal again. And then boom, just like that, you return to the Naval Academy campus, and the semester starts immediately. Like there's no time to waste. You'll come back, you'll do a little bit of a again, a kind of a secondary reform for the new semester. You'll have your syllabus week for the spring semester, but it gets going, right? It gets going right away. And so this is can be really tough because again, you've been out of the routine of the suck, right? And this is a very real thing about the military world in general. I think, as we all know, is that we get used to comfort, we enjoy comfort, we want to be in comfort. And the Naval Academy is a very uncomfortable place. And so when you go back home for spring break, you leave uncomfortable, you are comfortable again for about two and a half weeks, you were having an incredible time, you were celebrating with your friends and family, and then you return back to immense discomfort. And again, probably the most uncomfortable that you'll be because of the weather and because of the long days, etc. And so you have that like drastic dichotomy of experience, and this is kind of the big purpose of what we're talking about when it comes to the dark ages, and this is why it's so difficult because you have just tasted that freedom for the first time in a long time, and you're snapping right back into it. Now, again, what's funny is that a lot of people talk about the Annapolis area in general, like the city of Annapolis. And one of my favorite views of all time now in my life is if you were to take Route 2 from Glen Burney, like near the airport, down to Annapolis, like you pass through Saverne Park, you pass through Arnold, like the Arnold area, and you come down into Annapolis and you drive over the Naval Academy Bridge. That is one of my favorite views of the entire Naval Academy. You're able to see almost the entirety of campus from kind of an elevated vantage point. You're able to see to Seven River. It is beautiful. However, however, it has taken time for me to really appreciate that view because actually, normally what happened and what I associated that view with was the return from like a leave period. My association of that view specifically is of like pure sadness and despair. We would normally, again, sometimes if it was, you know, heavy traffic on 97, you would take that route to to get down to Annapolis. And that was like the last moments of your freedom were driving over that Naval Academy Bridge before you returned to the Naval Academy campus. You were on the yard and you were back to normal life at the Naval Academy, right? And so it's so funny is that view that passing over the Naval Academy Bridge, literally, I can still feel the like turning in my stomach of like, oh my god, I just I don't want to do this. I don't want to go back into this and start living this experience again. Like I have no desire to do it. And so, again, as as as some of the midshipmen are returning now, again, probably might be having some of that feeling of passing over, like seeing the Naval Academy from the Naval Academy Bridge. It it is devastating. It is devastating. But all right, let's talk a little bit again about when we're talking about the dark ages at the Naval Academy. First of all, how cold does it actually get in Annapolis, right? Like when we're talking about this, you know, again, it's funny how everything is perspective. When I was growing up, I grew up in Northern California. I grew up in the Silicon Valley, you know, right in the San Francisco Bay Area, where the weather was very temperate. The weather was very consistent. Like we would we would have sweatshirt weather during the winter. Like, you know, it got it dropped down in the 40s and 50s and we were a bit chilly, okay? But then it and then it got up to, you know, normally like high 80s, low 90s, sometimes 100, but like very dry weather, no humidity during the summer. So we had like a very consistent, almost ideal, perfect climate. Like I was so used to this just wonderful weather. And so for me, when I showed up at Annapolis, the Annapolis winters to me were like the worst. Like absolutely the worst. And they was so freaking cold. But really, in reality, again, Annapolis will usually range again. I don't know that I ever saw temperatures in the negatives when I, again, we're talking Fahrenheit here, right? But I never saw temperatures in the negatives when I was at the Naval Academy. A lot of days that were in the 20s and 30s, sometimes it would drop down into the teens, but normally you're in that again, it where it's cold, right? Like again, we'll use maybe not quantitative metrics here on numbers, but like when you step outside and your your nose starts to hurt and your ears start to hurt, and it's like you got like your lips dry out in a second, your skin dries out in a second. Like, that's the type of cold we're talking about. Again, I'm sure and I know that there are places that are much colder. And I know because again, when I ended up actually getting into the Navy and commissioning into the Navy, I ended up, I was stationed in Connecticut. I did two years in Groton, which is really on like the Rhode Island border, and really in the heart of New England. Again, we're I was an hour train ride from Boston, right? Like we experienced real winters up there and real snow up there. And so I know that in in again, in comparison with everything in perspective, you know, the Naval Academy winters are bad, but they're not horrendous. But again, when you maybe you grew up in again, California, Texas, Alabama, whatever it is, like in some of these warmer states, it's gonna feel completely foreign to you to experience those cold winters for the first time. But that's that's kind of how it happens. It doesn't snow a ton, you know. I think there were some years where we never had a single snow during one of the years, and then others, again, just kind of depending on the seasons and how the weather patterns and storms go. There were a couple years where we had multiple snow days, others where we had no snow days. And so it'll kind of depend on again the weather and weather patterns in terms of what actually happens in terms of the Naval Academy climate for that time. But how does that affect your midshipment? On just again, instead of it just being like freaking cold, right? Like what actually changes? And the answer is like not a ton. Again, what's really interesting is like the Naval Academy now versus then situation. When I was there from 2013 to 2017 versus what it is now, we had done an episode earlier last year, again in the first semester, about uniforms. And uniforms is a really interesting piece here because when I was a midshipman, we never wore our end ubs. Again, as reference end ubs being meaning your navy working uniform, the camouflage uniform. We never really wore those. So we were in our working blue uniforms every single day, which is tough because when it is icy, when it is snowy, when it is really cold, like wearing your leather dress shoes is like not ideal. It is not great. I I kid you not, there were so many times we used to joke that, like, oh man, they're like, you better be careful. There are snipers on the Naval Academy campus today, because you just see people walking down Stribbling Walk, it would get again a little like you know, there'd be a little precipitation, whatever, and it would freeze and you would get ice on stribbling, and you would just see midshipmen slip and fall and just eating it all the time. It was like, it was literally like watching America's home home's funniest videos or whatever. Like, if you were sitting in Bancroft Hall, you'd be able to look out your window and just like watch midshipmen kind of doing the like slip and fall, and like almost the comical, like trying to hold their balance, arm filling everywhere, and then end up, you know, hitting hitting the deck. So, again, you have that piece of it. Again, the midshipmen now are wearing already their NWUs twice a week at least. Like, that's just kind of standard operating procedures, they're gonna be in their in their end dubs and their navy working uniform, which is great because you have boots, boots with actual traction on the bottom of your shoe is just gonna make again walking through the cold weather just a little bit easier. So that's great. And again, if the weather is ever extreme, like it's pretty like aggressively snowing or or dangerous, then again, a lot of times your uniform shift will be into your end ubs. Like, if if there is gonna be a uniform shift, it's gonna be, oh, we were supposed to be wearing orc and blues today, now we're wearing end ubs today, and that's kind of what it'll look like on the actual uniform side. Again, culturally, I talk again. I talked to some of the midshipmen, and they were saying that they heard the episode about uniforms, and they're like, You used to wear the peacoat, dude. Like you wore the reefer, like you're the nah. Like, no, we don't we don't do that. But appears on still the social outcast and everything that's going on, and glad to see that the Ike jacket basically lives as the cold weather gear for the midshipmen, which is just not cold enough. And those days in Annapolis are cold, but you know, whatever. It is what it is. All right, how do midshipmen get notified if something's happening, right? Like these are some of the interesting pieces as well, as we all know. Like as a student, as a kid, which again in the Naval Academy world, I still, again, now that I'm like old and stuff, I consider the people at the Naval Academy their kids to me. But yeah, again, like how do kids are excited about snow days in school, right? And and so this does still happen at the Naval Academy, which is there is a lot of times, again, for weather, weather-related issues, again, icy roads, etc. And there will be delays to the Naval Academy campus. There are a lot of times that, again, based on the snow, based on the ice, based on whatever the case is, that the the school day will get postponed. Right. And a lot of times, again, instead of like, you know, your first period being 7.45, now your first period's at 9.45. You have like a two-hour delayed start. And that was always, again, these were the things that like I reflect on my time at the Naval Academy. There was literally nothing in the world better. Nothing in the I I kid you not, if I were to rate my Naval Academy experiences, waking up at like 6 a.m. to a message from like the Navy Installations Command automated messaging system that says like the Naval Academy campus gate one has been like opening has been delayed by two hours. It was the greatest moment in the world. Like when you knew when you woke up to a text message like buzz or or ping or whatever, and you woke up and you saw that message, you knew instead of waking up in about 15 minutes and having to like get showered and get on, you could sleep for two more hours. Shipmate. Shipmate. That was like that was that was the thing. Like that was the moment. You knew you could curl right back underneath, get nice, warm, and cozy, and go to sleep for two more hours. Like that was that was like peak living at the Naval Academy, was knowing that you were gonna have a snow day and things were gonna get it get pushed back two hours. Like that was the best. And if there was anything that could top that, was getting a message that said, like, the school was shut down for the day. Because there were this sometimes, again, based on the weather, there will be full day cancellations. And sometimes it'll come like in waves, like delayed first, delayed again, fully canceled. And other times they would just send it in the morning and be like, school's canceled today. Ain't no way like people are getting in, there's no chance school is canceled. And those were like literal dreams come true. Like, so just absolute so much like fun. Again, full day cancellations a lot of times led to like snowball fights at the academy, midshipmen just getting into shenanigans during the day because there was no class. Like that kind of stuff led to like real fun memories and experiences at the Naval Academy. So that was always like a really incredible time, right? Like so much fun. Had a great experience with all of that. All right, kind of moving on here to the next piece of everything that we have going on. All right. Now, one of these pieces that I think is really interesting about the Naval Academy experience and talking about the dark ages and all this different stuff is literally the quote unquote commute to class. What I'll call the commute to class, which is really just a walk to class. Because again, a lot of times if you're just in the spring and the weather's nice, you know, we are we're we're kind of just walking from place to place, which is which is really good. And so, you know, we have good weather, no, no issues, and you can just walk down stribbling. Like that is the big thing. You're just walking down stribbling. And so you have those experiences in the spring, weather's great, and you know, walking is easy. But when it gets cold, and again, we kind of joke like people are slipping and sliding around stribbling and falling everywhere. You have to be tactical about how you're getting the class. And again, well, I used to live in eighth wing, and eighth wing notoriously, again, it would always people would always joke, first to liberty, last to class, right? Like we were the closest to gate one, but we are the farthest away from academic buildings. And so you had to be strategic about like getting to class on time, because again, to go from eighth wing all the way to like, you know, a history class or a language class in Nimitz Library. I mean, we're talking 12, 13, maybe 14 minutes to go from from side to side. And so that can take a while, and you gotta plan this accordingly. You know, what's also interesting about the the springtime, or excuse me, what's also interesting about the winter time and the dark ages at the Naval Academy is that there's actually an underground, basically pathway that connects all of the academic buildings. And so once you get in the door to some of the academic building areas of campus, you can basically stay indoors the entirety of the time. And that really initial entry point is underneath the Chauvin building. And so, and again, just to put this in perspective, that's really close to first wing. It's kitty quarter to first wing, and really what people understand is it's adjacent to the mid-store, right? And so, as you're looking adjacent to the mid-store, that entry point underneath in the basement is what will allow you to go to Chauvin, to Michelson, to Rickover, to all the buildings, you know, all throughout, you know, the academic side of campus. And so that's great because then again, instead of walking in the again, on stribbling walk on the ice and you're freezing, if you can get into the underground tunnels, then at least it's gonna be a little bit warmer on your walk to class. But now we're adding a couple minutes to your walk time. And again, quite literally, I like to joke and using the term commute in this, is that the traffic in the basements of the academic building during like bad weather days is insane. Like you're like, people are crammed running into each other trying to get to class, people are late, moving, running, like it's a it's a whole thing. But at the same time, you best believe as a soft little California kid, like I didn't want to, I didn't want to deal with the weather. Like I wanted to get to where it was warm. And so, like, literally, instead of going just like eighth wing out, you know, kind of like fourth wing area and just getting out and and moving and getting to class, I would literally walk from eighth wing all the way to first wing inside Bancroft Hall. And then I would just take the stairs down, you know, down Red Beach out of first wing and make that just quick, quick jot over to the entry point underneath Chauvin, and I and I would do that. And again, it's crazy because it would add a good literally like six to seven minutes to your walk to to everything that was going on, but it was worth it, right? Like it absolutely was worth it just to stay warm in that walk again, eighth wing to first wing into those underground tunnels, and that's how I would get to class. So, you know, again, I like to I like to tell these stories because I I just think they're like little tidbits that help explain and understand the midshipment experience a little bit. And I think you can have like again, funny, interesting three-minute conversations with your midshipmen about like their experience. Did you walk outside? Do you go to the underground tunnels? Like, how do you handle it? Are you cold? What are you wearing? Like all this different stuff just kind of puts into perspective some of the silliness of the midshipment experience in Annapolis. All right. Now, with all of this, again, kind of lighthearted and fun, is that the dark ages can also be a dark time, right? As we all I use this term lightly, but this idea of a seasonal depression, right? And that can be extra tough at the Naval Academy for the reasons that we that we've talked about. You were just home, you were just on a high, you were just comfortable, you were just with your family, you were loved and supported, and you're going through all this. Now you've returned to Annapolis, it's dark, it's cold, you've re-again put a ton of stress back into your life academically as a midshipman, especially as a plebe, right? Like going through all this different stuff that you just have to jump back into it again. And there are a lot of times in Annapolis, as we know Annapolis is so beautiful, and we love Annapolis. And so when it is the late summer and the early spring and the weather's perfect and the sun's shining, it's an incredible place and it's hard to be sad. But during the dark ages, it's easy to be sad, right? And these are the things that are difficult. And so, again, I just want more than anything in this episode, just to say a big thank you to all of the services that exist on the Naval Academy campus from again, and I mean this genuinely, from the the again, the actual medical services that exist as a result of the Brigade Medical Unit and BMU. There's an incredible resource center called the Midshipman Development Center or MDC. I mean, MDC has again licensed doctors, trained professionals in stress management and mental health management, and all these different sectors that exist to serve and support midshipmen. And they know that this is a really difficult time for midshipmen, and they are on heightened awareness and heightened guard to make. Sure, that we are doing things proactively to make sure that midshipmen are taking care of themselves and doing things that are not going to cause any damage or harm to the people that are that are on the Naval Academy campus. And so, again, just a big thank you to the medical professionals and then also to our chaplains. Again, every battalion at the Naval Academy is going to have a chaplain, a battalion chaplain, you know, chaplains from different denominations, from different faiths that exist. And again, you don't have to, again, a chaplain in the military service, you know, you may have a Catholic chaplain. You don't need to be Catholic to go to them, and nor are they going to be trying to push Catholicism on you. Their goal primary, more than anything, is to take care of the spiritual welfare of that individual, of that mental health and physical health of that person. And they are there to teach, coach, mentor, help, love, support all of the midshipmen that may be going through something. And so, again, as we're talking about all the resources that exist in Annapolis to support midshipmen in this time, they are plentiful, right? And I and I and I say that to you as the family members who, again, we kind of joke about returning to a hard situation, but there are realities of returning to a hard situation. And I just want to give you comfort in the fact that the Naval Academy has plentiful, has endless, has incredible resources on the medical side, the spiritual side to make sure that the midshipmen are being taken care of and are in a healthy situation. Again, the midshipmen development center, actual brigade medical unit, you know, the chaplain services, and so many more things that I haven't, you know, mentioned in this episode. I just a big thank you to all them. And I just want to give you the comfort as a midshipman parent to know that, again, there are services there to make sure that they are being taken care of. All right. Now looking forward, now looking forward to the spring semester. Again, the dark ages are tough, but there is stuff to look forward to. There's a ton of fun going on. You know, ship selection will be happening for the firsties. I think it's gonna be early February, which will be incredible. And we'll do a whole episode about ship selection, which will be super fun. So I'm excited about that opportunity to talk about ship selection and what that is. That's really a firstie event. That's gonna be for the firstties. They're finding out what ship they're going to, they're finding out where they're gonna go live and all this different stuff, which is incredible. But then for the plebs, you have major selection, right? Like right before spring break, you're gonna have to put in your preferences for what you want to do for your major. And again, much like service assignments, majors at the Naval Academy, you put in your preference. You will get kind of selected or chosen of which major you will choose. And again, 99.9% of the time the midship are gonna get the major that they picked. But there are certain requirements about majors and kind of the amount of people that have to be in certain majors. So certain times things may go different, but again, 99.9% of the time, the this disbursement and allocation of which midship are going to which majors usually works itself out naturally. So no major issues to take care of there. And then again, the beautiful Annapolis spring weather, right around the corner. So much fun to come in in Annapolis. And so excited for this new year. Happy 2026 to everyone. I'm really excited for this new year of Academy Insider. We have some exciting announcements coming out, and this is just gonna be an incredible time. So thank you all so much. I hope this was helpful. If I brought something up and didn't fully answer it and you have questions, always feel free to let me know. Otherwise, I really look forward to seeing you next week. I hope you have an incredible start to your new year. Thank you so much and beat Army. 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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