[dramatic music]
Cadre member: Right, face.
How hard is that?
Cadre member: Keep your eyes in the boat!
Narrator: In July, 271 incoming freshmen,
or swabs, arrived at the United States Coast Guard Academy,
where future officers prepare to be commissioned
into the US Coast Guard.
Cadre member: Left, right.
Narrator: It marked the beginning of "swab summer,"
a challenging seven-week training program
that all future cadets are required to complete.
Only this year, amid the COVID-19 pandemic,
things are very different.
But training goes on.
Arthur Ray: We've never done this before.
As the old adage goes, "Man plans; fate laughs."
So we're making adjustments as necessary.
We're charting uncharted waters right now.
Cadre member: This whole first squad, get back.
William Kelly: Sometimes you don't get to pick the
situations you're in. Sometimes the situations pick you.
This is their swab summer.
This is their reality,
and this is what they're working through.
[clapping]
Narrator: After arriving at the academy,
all swabs entered a 14-day
restriction-of-movement period, or ROM,
and got COVID-19 tests
before their actual training could begin.
Kelly: 271 students. Tested them twice
in the 14 days that they've been on board.
Zero positive tests.
Every test has come back negative.
[trumpets blowing]
[gun fires]
[trumpets blowing]
Cadre member: Look like you wanna be here!
ROM is finally over.
[students cheering]
Narrator: For the class of 2024,
day one of swab summer was actually day 15,
since their real training
began after their two-week quarantine.
Swabs: Aye, aye, sir!
Narrator: The day begins with a morning meal.
Cadre member: Get in line and get your food!
Swab: Aye, aye, ma'am.
Cadre member: Go! Swab: Aye, aye, ma'am.
Narrator: But before they can eat,
swabs are stopped by members of the cadre,
a group of leaders comprised by juniors at the academy.
Swab: Aye, aye, sir!
Narrator: Assigned to instruct them during swab summer.
Cadre member: Do you wanna take one guess
as to what company I'm from?
Narrator: Swabs are asked to identify
different members of the cadre,
which is easier said than done.
Cadre member: Yeah, you're gonna find out right now!
Cadre member: You're a ma'am!
Cadre member: I'm a ma'am?!
Cadre member: You said mister!
Kelly: Ramping up the stress helps those folks
realize that they are in a different environment
and they have to align with our values.
Cadre member: Oh, my God!
Kelly: They have to demonstrate to us
that they respect the woman and man
standing to their right and standing to their left
and the service and the nation that they're gonna serve.
Cadre member: Get out of my face!
Swab: Aye, aye, ma'am.
Coach: When you're performing the test,
you will not be required to wear your mask.
Narrator: After breakfast, the first order of business
is the physical fitness exam, or PFE.
Announcer: Test will begin in five, four, three.
Narrator: The three-part test begins with push-ups.
Announcer: Up, down. Up....
Narrator: Conducted at a cadence.
Announcer: Two, down.
Swab: It's all in your core.
Narrator: Push-ups are followed by planks.
Swab: Let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go.
[students clapping]
Swab: Let's go, red!
Narrator: Then a 1 1/2 mile run.
Swab: Let's go!
Keep coming!
Swab: Push it, push it, push it, let's go!
Narrator: After the PFE,
male swabs stop at the barbershop.
And the barbers protect themselves with masks
and additional personal protective equipment
and disinfect the chairs after each cut.
Cadre member: You need situational awareness, swab Huff!
Swab: Aye, aye, sir!
Cadre member: When somebody walks past you,
you should be able to see them in the peripheral vision.
If I'm over here and I'm walking,
do you not notice that there's a blue blob,
at the bare minimum?
Narrator: One of the most important pieces of equipment
the swabs are issued
is a little blue book known as the "Running Light."
Cadre Member: Keep studying.
Swabs: Aye, aye, ma'am.
Narrator: Swabs are expected to memorize hundreds
of facts found in the book
and to be quizzed on them at any moment.
Cadre member: What is Article 6 in the code of conduct?
Swab: Sir, Article 6 of the code of conduct is,
"I will never forget that I am an American."
Michael Fredie: Everything you need as a swab
is right in that little book,
and you can fit it in the back of your pocket.
Sayings that you're supposed to practice,
the ethos of the Coast Guard.
Swabs: The Coast Guard ethos is:
"I am a Coast Guardsman."
Fredie: It's just a knowledge book compressed
so that you can sit there and read it and learn
and develop yourself on your own time.
It's a very important tool in swab summer.
Cadre member: Cross!
Swab: Aye, aye, sir!
Cadre member: Move faster!
Narrator: The swabs are issued uniforms.
Employee: I'm gonna give you this one too.
Narrator: Including three pairs of shoes:
boots, athletic shoes,
and Sperry Top-Siders, or boat shoes,
which come in handy very soon.
Part of swab summer is focused on seamanship.
Not every swab is a seasoned sailor,
so they're all taught the basics of boating.
Cadre member: This is the boom, and this is the mast.
Narrator: And they'll soon get underway
on 13-foot sailboats used for training.
Kelly: So, when our young women and men graduate
from the Coast Guard Academy,
they will go out and begin service to the nation
as officers in the United States Coast Guard.
The vast majority of them will go to Coast Guard cutters,
literally around the nation and around the globe.
Some will go off to flight school
and prepare to become pilots.
Every single one of them has a job,
and every single one of them will start serving day one.
Narrator: The United States Coast Guard Academy
sits on 103 acres along the banks
of the Thames River in New London, Connecticut,
about halfway between Boston and New York City.
Announcer: It is the United States Coast Guard Academy,
whose gates are open only to young men
with sound bodies, stout hearts, and alert minds.
Narrator: Tuition at the academy is free,
but the cadets commit to five years
of active-duty service after graduation.
Cadets also receive a salary
of $1,150 a month.
Cadre member: You literally got into the United States
Coast Guard Academy.
It's academic excellence,
and you don't know your right or your left.
That is unacceptable.
Fredie: The overall average of the appointed class
was 3.7 GPA, so it's pretty high.
And about 13% of the applicants received appointments.
Narrator: The academy began admitting female cadets
in 1976.
Today, about 36% of cadets at the academy are female.
Swab: Yes, ma'am!
Cadre member: Go, let's go!
Narrator: And about 35% are "underrepresented minorities."
But the academy recently came under scrutiny
due to what the Department of Homeland Security
Inspector General described in its report
as a failure to properly address
complaints of racial harassment
that occurred between 2013 and 2018.
Kelly: I was not here when those cases happened,
but what I took away from that,
it's a moment in time right now with the racial injustice
and the awakening that we've had as a nation.
We need to take action.
We need to continue to move forward, not move on.
I think the report came in at an important time
to inform us as a community.
We are gonna learn from it,
and we're gonna move forward from it.
Cadre member: The left flank,
march.
Cadre member: If you come out here and are not respectful
and do not perform,
we will find something to do with this time, aye, aye?
Swabs: Aye, aye, sir!
Narrator: As swab summer continues,
not all swabs will be tested for COVID-19 on a weekly basis.
The academy will instead pivot
to a method known as surveillance testing,
where smaller groups of swabs and cadets
are randomly tested.
Esan Simon: We can't guarantee there'll be no COVID.
And we know that there will be COVID.
But what you wanna do is put systems
and structures in place to help reduce
the likelihood that it'll be transmitted.
Swabs: Aye, aye, sir!
Narrator: As these future officers
start their careers in the Coast Guard,
their journey begins differently
than any class that's come before.
Ray: I think they're gonna think of this
and look back at it and say,
"It was challenging times, but we got past it,
and we did it together, 'cause we're stronger together."
And I think they're gonna look at it as a badge of honor.