MARYLAND : Middies Graduate, After Unsettling Year

A year of scandal and tragedy, capped by the suicide of the Navy’s chief officer, drew to a close for graduating U.S. Naval Academy midshipmen, who were reminded by the nation’s top military official that they must withstand public scrutiny. “Don’t fall into the trap of becoming defensive, or circling the wagons against imaginary enemies outside,” Army Gen. John M. Shalikashvili, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the 918 graduates in Annapolis, Md. The class entered the academy during a cheating scandal, a few years after male students were accused of handcuffing a female midshipman to a urinal. In recent months, midshipmen have been accused of drug use, car theft and the sexual assault of women and children.