2017_Annual Report_single page

Ev, first row, seventh from the left, with his SEAL team graduating class
“There was silence. People waited to
see how I would react, but I didn’t. Most
midshipmen were not that way, but there
was tolerance for those who abused their
authority and who in some cases were
blatantly prejudiced.
“The academy is where I first encountered
that type of hostility. My years there
taught me how to endure and even thrive
in hostile surroundings.”
He had applied to the U.S. Naval Academy
with the idea of going into the nuclear
power program with submarines. The
plan changed, and he decided to apply
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to become a SEAL because the physical
aspects of the role appealed to him.
Never mind that he’d be the first black
-commissioned officer ever to complete
SEAL training. Never mind that he had
failed the Navy swimming test three times.
“One of my classmates was on the swim
team, and he worked with me. So did one
of the team’s coaches. I spent months
learning to swim. The day of the actual
screening test, I won the mile run. But I did
it in five minutes instead of closer to 4:10
because I wanted to save my energy for
the swim. I was last to finish the swim, but
I finished in time.”