ANNAPOLIS, Md. _ In a class called Politics of Irregular Warfare, 21 Navy Midshipmen discuss how social media platforms like Facebook are used to mine clues and target terrorist cells and insurgents in conflict zones.
Over 45 minutes, they unpeel a laundry list of hot spots that include the Islamist militant group Hezbollah, Somali pirates and North Korea. Navy linebacker Travis Kerchner of Ramona explained potential lessons culled from the former USSR leveraging third-world nations.
Along hallway walls lined with an alphabet-soup list of projects unfolding inside, there's Magnetotransport Properties of Shallow Quantum Well Structures for Spintronic Applications, Stability of Nonlinear Swarms on Flat and Curved Surfaces and Evaluation of Non-Oxide Fuel for Fission-Based Nuclear Reactors on Spacecraft.
At the U.S. Naval Academy, approximately 7 percent of those who apply are accepted _ an admissions brick wall similar to Yale. The unforgiving academic buzzsaw that awaits the 4,400 men and women hustling from corner to corner of the campus nestled along the Chesapeake Bay simply represents the beginning.
Fold in the rigors of the exhausting, regimented life of military training, and for those who play football like Kerchner, the demands for the sleep-deprived group become dizzying.
"There are only so many hours in the day," said freshman defensive lineman Nick Dell'Acqua. "It's sheer mental will."
So when Navy trips up iconic blue blood Notre Dame, which it's done just 13 times during the 91 games in the series, it constitutes the equivalent of a college football miracle. To win four times since 2007, after losing every game dating back to 1964, bewilders.
Programs from the farthest ends of the Division I spectrum _ Notre Dame's contract with NBC running through 2025 reportedly is worth $15 million annually _ will meet Oct. 27 at SDCCU Stadium in front of an expected sellout of more than 65,000.
At Notre Dame, the history drips ... from Knute Rockne and The Four Horsemen to Rudy and Touchdown Jesus. At Navy, cell phone alarms roust Midshipmen all across Nimitz Library in a new-age tribute to the most treasured commodity on campus: REM sleep.
"You better manage your time, or you're not going to survive here," said Navy coach Ken Niumatalolo. "You better be a disciplined person, or you're not going to survive here. This place spits you out if you're not.
"I'm not sure how these guys do it, to be honest."
