UNDER THE PERRY FLAG

UNDER THE PERRY FLAG *
20 June 1949

These sixty years have passed as in a dream--
Waking, that first bright day, to brazen bells
Resounding through the length of Bancroft Hall;
Reporting to the Sick Bay after breakfast;
Filling out stacks and stacks of papers;
Filing in lines past squads of cold-eyed doctors,
(Straining to keep my flat feet arched enough,
Sighing, with vast relief, that I had passed);
Marching in double column up the steps
To great Mem Hall, so full of solemn grandeur;
Viewing the sweep of Severn through its windows;
Staring, awe-stricken at the historic banner;
Raising our hands, repeating in a chorus
The Oath so many thousands took before;
Eye-blinking, almost tearful with the knowledge
That we were NAVY, now and evermore.

5-30-09 RR