USNA 8th Company
The company is the most important unit in the Brigade of Midshipmen. Companies eat, sleep, study, drill, and compete together. Comprised of roughly 30-35 midshipmen from each of all four classes, they are led by 1/c Midshipmen. There are currently 36 companies in the Brigade, though there were only eight in the late 1920s before expanding to 36 from the late 1940s to the late 1990s, and then back to 30 until the 2025-2026 academic year.
Some classes are in the same company for all four years, but this too has varied. Some classes are "shotgunned" (all midshipmen in a class, usually following plebe year, are moved randomly to a different company), while others are "shuffled" (again usually following plebe year, an entire group would move from one company to another). Even though many alumni were a part of more than one company during their four years at the Naval Academy, the list below is reflective of the company from which they graduated.
