Sign in with Facebook
View from inside the Capital
enjoying the rock fish
New boats at the docks
Alumni HallJune Week Weddings
Since the midshipmen are prohibited from being married while at the Academy, many of them get married immediately after graduation.
If they opt for a formal wedding in uniform and have groomsmen who are also in uniform, they can leave the chapel under an arch of swords like this couple is doing. The weddings start right after graduation, and are on a killing schedule - in and out in a very short period of time - then the next couple comes in. I have been unable to find out exactly how long each couple has for their ceremony.
I was married on the Friday following Bob's Wednesday graduation at my home church in Towson.
The other item I remember about the chapel is that John Paul Jones is buried in a crypt in the 'basement'. You can get in to the tomb even during church services through a side entrance.
He died in France at age 45. His body lay in an alcohol filled coffin in an unmarked grave in a cemetery for foreign Protestants for over a century. Then in 1905, it was 'found' and brought back to the United States in USS Brooklyn.. Seven battleships met them off the American coast and as a single column sailed into Chesapeake Bay. There the first four battleships peeled off firing 15 gun salutes while the Brooklyn sailed on to Annapolis.
In 1913 his body was finally laid to rest in a magnificent marble sarcophagus, modelled on the tomb of Napoleon. My fondest memory of the chapel is attending services. The windows in the chapel are by Tiffany. The midshipmen come to the services as a unit (attendance is not manditory), and hearing their choir sing. One of my favorite hymns is the Navy Hymn "Eternal Father Strong to Save"
The Naval Academy rules for being married at the chapel are as follows.
Weddings to be conducted in the United States Naval Academy Chapel are scheduled no more than one year in advance.
Use of the Chapel for weddings is limited to Naval Academy alumni , military staff and faculty members; active-duty military members assigned to Naval Station Annapolis and active-duty military personnel living in the immediate vicinity of the Chapel who also regularly attend Chapel services.
Arrangements for pre-marital counseling for Naval Academy alumni should be coordinated directly with the Academy chaplain assigned.
Comments