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Life in
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By LYNN RAE POVEC
Staff Writer
It's a lot of work. It's learning a new
language. It's dedicating yourself to
things you'd never given a thought to
before. But almost 2,000 men and
women live it and love it.
Cadets learn about life in the Corps
during F.O.W. — Freshman Orienta
tion Week. There's a very definite set
of rules that cadets must live by
called the Standard. And then there
are additional rules that make each
class unique.
Freshman, obviously, are at the
bottom of the totem pole. The list of
what they can do and have is much
shorter than the list of what they're
denied.
First off, to get into the spirit, let's
call them what they are: fish.
Corps legend has it that way back
when, there was a saying that went,
"If you're going to Texas A&M and
you're going to be in the corps, you're
getting in over your head ... you're in
deep water." Hence "fish."
On to their privileges, or lack
thereof.
A fish and his old lady live in a
hole. The door to their hole may not
be locked, and their hole is subject to
inspection. Fish have to keep their
hole spic-n-span. Fortunately, they
don't have very much in it, so clean
ing should be easy, but....
"The room seems like a dust facto
ry," says Fish John Raphael, an elec
trical engineering major from
Crosby. "As soon as we dust it, 15-20
minutes later it's dusty again."
Books have to be lined up on the
shelves from tallest to shortest. Beds
have to be made with hospital cor
ners (you've seen the movies where
the commander bounces a quarter on
the bunks to check if the sheets are
tight enough). Some fish elect not to
take time in the morning to make the
bed, so they sleep in sleeping bags
on the floor.
Fish aren't allowed to have carpet
in their holes, or a stereo, but they
can have a clock radio.
Fish have to walk 3-6 inches off the
wall at all times in the halls of corps
dorms, and they can't talk in the
halls. They also can't talk when walk
ing on the quad. They can't walk on
grass or dirt.
Before a freshman can address an
upperclassman, he has to say "Re
quest permission to make a
statement, sir."
And if a fish does not know the an
swer to a question, the following is re
quired: "Sir/Ma'am, not being in
formed to the highest degree of
accuracy I hesitate to articulate for
fear that I may deviate from the true
course of rectitude. In short, Sir
/Ma'am, I am a very dumb fish and
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