It's a tradition going back 66 years.
The Naval Academy class of 2028 shouts, Plebes no more! as they take on the Herndon Monument climb.
It's a test these freshmen couldn't study for.
Hear from the monument capper, Augustus Russo
Climb a 21-foot-tall monument... Covered in grease.
The yearly tradition has the class work together to replace a white plebe "Dixie cup hat" with an upperclassman's cover, officially making them midshipmen.
WMAR spoke with Augustus Russo—the monument capper—about finding the energy to just get up there and take care of business.
"Last night was sea trials; it's like an 18-hour thing," says Russo.
"Just log back up at 2 a.M. And I was up just screaming all night trying to hype all my dogs up, and I woke up this morning just cramping. I couldn't even move, but when we when we're all together and we get the energy of 28 together, it's hard to not be excited. It's hard to be tired. It's easy to just get out there and push each other."
Russo and the class of 2028 finished this year's climb in 2 hours, 27 minutes, and 31 seconds.
This is middle-of-the-pack time.
The longest was in 1998, which took over four hours.
The shortest greased climb took only 20 minutes back in 1972.
