More than 1,200 men and women reported to the United States Naval Academy as the Class of 2018 started their summer of indoctrination. The incoming plebes (freshman) go through the induction process where they have their hair trimmed, uniforms issued, medical exams and begin to learn the basics of being in the Navy. The last step is when the young men and women take part in the Oath of Office ceremony at the end of the day.
Under a relentless barrage of commands, most of them bellowed, some 1,200 members of the U.S. Naval Academy’s Class of 2017 ran the gauntlet of Induction Day. It is the start of plebe summer — seven weeks of training that bear no relation to any customary notion of summer.
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The United States Naval Academy is an institution rich in history and traditions. One of the lesser known is its storied background in boxing. Superintendent Admiral David Porter started the sport at the academy in 1865. The sport was initially treated as a casual recreation in the beginning.
Wilson Hicks, former Executive Editor for Life Magazine, once wrote, “The most graphic reporting is eyewitness reporting. ‘I was there, I saw it happen, it was like this.’ In journalistic print, the firsthand account which comes closest to reproducing the actuality of an event is the picture…”
Baltimore Sun photographers were on hand to witness and photograph the highs and lows of 2012, from the resurgent Orioles making the playoffs for the first time in 15 years to the devastation of Superstorm Sandy.
The images in this gallery are a sampling of these pictures as selected by Sun Director of Photography Robert Hamilton. Some of these photographs are from significant events that shaped the lives of people; others are small moments of universal truths.
Baltimore neighborhoods
Baltimore street photographers
Year in review
Freddie Gray: protests, aftermath
24 hours with...
A. Aubrey Bodine
Viewing Baltimore from above