Midshipmen train aboard Yard Patrol (YP) craft 684, as part of their training for the school year. The YP Squadron gives Mids the opportunity to learn firsthand navigation and leadership skills directly applicable to their future careers as naval officers. USNA photo by MC1(SCW) Chad Runge.

The YP squadron is a surface warfare oriented extra-curricular activity that provides Midshipmen with a small-scale but realistic view of life on a ship while teaching them seamanship, navigation and leadership skills.

‘‘It’s a great opportunity to fully immerse the Midshipmen who are interested in seamanship in the day-to-day life at sea along with navigation and planning and operation of the watch team while transiting through confined waters,” said Lt. Chris McCurry of Aloha, Ore.

McCurry was the officer in charge of the recent YP movement order to Philadelphia for the Army-Navy football weekend. He also teaches seamanship and navigation at the Academy.

The YPs are 108-feet long and most are at least 20 years old. Their top speed is around 10 knots. The boats can hold 25 Midshipmen and usually three to five enlisted crewmembers are aboard to assist with instruction. The enlisted crewmembers teach line-handling, engineering and damage control among many tasks needed for operation. The boat’s only constraints are water and fuel.

‘‘We want to show them this is what the surface warfare community has to offer in an intro-level way,” McCurry said. ‘‘When you’re giving someone a written test, you can’t truly simulate a real-world situation.

‘‘You put them out on the water and you’re going to see real-world situations.”

The YP squadron has its own unique command structure. The squadron currently has 5 YPs designated as five separate pennants. Each pennant has a Midshipman commanding officer, executive officer and navigator.

The Mids are required to qualify as officer of the deck. A handful of Mids each year also qualify as Craftmaster, the same qualification that the YP officers and senior enlisted have to attain.

Midn. 3⁄C Brock Stevens of Sacramento, Calif., is the commanding officer of the Pennant Four crew for fall 2009. He said he became interested during his Plebe Summer and decided to try the squadron for a semester. By the end of that semester, he qualified as officer of the deck and achieved his Craftmaster qualification at the end of his Plebe year.

‘‘The focus is more on developing leadership traits,” Stevens said. ‘‘The knowledge people use on the bridge is exactly the same as in the Fleet. The YP squadron is concentrated on the knowledge that you acquire on the bridge along with that leadership development. I think the best thing that comes with YP squadron is that you get to figure out what works for you in regards to leadership.”

‘‘It also gives you the opportunity to make mistakes before you get to the Fleet – learn to delegate and watch others refine their own leadership skills.”

Leadership is not delegated just among the upper class Midshipmen, but also among the Plebes as they reach their qualifications and work to help their classmates reach theirs.

The squadron typically gets underway during the daytime. The watch teams perform exercises such as anchoring, casualty control responses and man-overboard drills. They also practice multi-ship maneuvers and flag-hoist drills – things they may not see much anymore out in the Fleet but that require a lot of practice.

‘‘When we are operating out on the water, the Mids learn the watch team relationships and the ability to communicate using standard Navy terminology,” McCurry said. ‘‘These are things you can only really learn through practice and application.”

For those Mids who decide the squadron is something they want to participate in actively, the instructors are able to identify the ones who are willing to take on that additional level of learning.

‘‘It’s a great tool for us as instructors,” McCurry said. ‘‘Our goal is not just teaching them the academics and basics; it’s also an opportunity to show them all aspects of this part of a Naval career. We want to make sure they are the most qualified and capable, regardless of what field in the Navy they go into.”