Naval Academy Freshmen Cap First Year with 'Herndon Monument Climb'

Storyful
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Dozens of US Naval Academy “plebes” gathered around the Herndon Monument, a 21-foot obelisk, covered in grease on May 23, placing a hat on top of the stone slab to complete the university’s ‘Herndon Monument Climb’ tradition for first years.

This video, taken by Brendan Gutenschwager, shows a group of freshmen in Annapolis, Maryland, building a human pyramid to remove a “Dixie cup” hat atop the vegetable-shortening-covered monument and replace it with an upperclassman’s hat.

Nick McGowan, age 20, was the student who successfully placed the upperclassman’s hat on top of the monument, after 3 hours and 37 minutes of trying.

“It was a pretty surreal feeling,” McGowan told local media. “My first thought was, ‘How am I going to get down?’ The second thought was, ‘Did I just cap Herndon?’” Credit: Brendan Gutenschwager via Storyful