Mids swiped souvenirs from ex-carrier Saratoga - Navy News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Navy Times

Mids swiped souvenirs from ex-carrier Saratoga

The defunct carrier Saratoga got some uninvited visitors this summer.

On June 13, four Naval Academy midshipmen snuck aboard the decommissioned carrier. The mids ascended through the empty carrier, decommissioned 17 years ago, until they reached the pilothouse. Saratoga is moored in Coddington Cove, on a pier at Naval Station Newport, R.I., which the mids were visiting for their summer cruise.

And that’s when they decided to take things, according to academy spokesman Lt. Cmdr. William Marks. Gauges. A gyrocompass. Display dials.

“From what we can tell, they were overzealous about collecting cool things from a former aircraft carrier,” Marks said Monday. The mids took their appropriated souvenirs back to their yard patrol craft, where they were caught by the officer-in-charge of the YP.

None of the stolen items had been “of commercial value,” Marks said, adding that the mids returned everything afterwards and that the case had been handled internally by the academy. There were no civil or criminal charges against any of the participants.

Marks characterized the raid as a “recon” — as stunts are often known at the academy — that went overboard. He emphasized that none of the participants had shown any “malicious intent,” in a previous interview Aug. 3.

“We looked at them,” Marks said of the four mids. “There were no prior conduct problems. They didn’t have like a big conduct record or anything.”

They were awarded demerits, Marks said.