A Grain of Salt

Wings of Gold Part 1: The Solo and the Detour

Published November 9, 2026

50 Stories for 50 Years | Post 42 This week the Class of 2027 is making its service selections. The photos will be everywhere on social media. Midshipmen in their uniforms, envelopes in hand, classmates cheering. It’s taking me straight back to my own. I was amazed at the midshipmen who knew on day one which service they wanted. Most of them had their eyes on the sky. Almost all of them wanted to be…

Gratitudes: A List of What Formed Me

Published November 2, 2026

50 Stories for 50 Years | Post 41 November begins a month of Thanksgiving. Not a day. A month. I like to treat Thanksgiving as a season, not an afternoon. A few weeks to notice what I am grateful for and name it. It braces me for December, which can arrive overstuffed. This year I am making a list. What formed me in four years at the Naval Academy? Do hard things. I have heard…

2 Comments

Halloween in the Hall

Published October 26, 2026

50 Stories for 50 Years | Post 40 For most of the year, the Naval Academy told us exactly what to wear. On Halloween, things got interesting. Even as a plebe, the night had a particular energy. Every class, every company had some costume fun. Company Officers sometimes brought their children through the halls in costume. The treat was wearing something different. The tricks were still ahead. Dressing up at the Academy in my time…

1 Comment

The Decision

Published October 12, 2026

50 Stories for 50 Years | Post 39 Debbie, my USNA roommate, had moved back to Annapolis. That fact alone set something in motion. We fell into a rhythm of lunch every couple of weeks, the kind that stretches past two hours without noticing. We were also approaching the 50th anniversary of women at the service academies, which had a way of pulling the past into the present conversation whether you invited it or not.…

3 Comments

Those Who Came Before

Published October 5, 2026

50 Stories for 50 Years | Post 38 I was an ignorant, self-important mid. I can say that now, almost fifty years later. I thought our burden as early women at the Academy was the heaviest one anyone had carried. I was a teenager. Teenagers think that. The law changed in 1975. Women could enter the Naval Academy in 1976. The Academy knew what that meant, and it began stationing naval officers with strong records…

2 Comments

Well, Bless Me

Published September 28, 2026

50 Stories for 50 Years — Post 37 It’s football season, and Navy football holds many memories for me. One of them involves a president. In the early 1950s, my father, Frank Andrews, was the commissioning commanding officer of the USS Barracuda (SSK-1), a small experimental anti-submarine warfare submarine. His engineering officer was a young Jimmy Carter. They shared a wardroom. In 1976, the bicentennial year, I campaigned for Carter while still in high school. I…