Photos: Plebes continue tradition, scale greased 21-foot monument
The annual grueling, slippery ritual marking the completion of the plebe year ended with 20-year-old Californian Ben Leisegang standing victorious on the shoulders of scores of classmates and placing an upperclassman’s hat atop the Herndon Monument.
The Class of 2027 worked together to scale the 21-foot obelisk covered in vegetable shortening to replace a plebe “Dixie cup," a white canvas sailor's hat with an upturned rim, with the upperclassman’s more formal hat. There are about 1,300 plebes in the class, according to academy spokesperson Elizabeth B. Wrightson. After the climb is complete, they’re called fourth class midshipmen, not plebes.
