There is a long-standing and completely pointless Naval tradition called the Herndon Climb, in which somebody greases up a 21 foot granite pole, tops it with a hat and makes 1,000 young men and women try to scale it while dousing them with water and nobody says anything about gays in the military. It might, however, be on its way out because the Naval Academy is afraid someone might get hurt. Apparently, they don’t teach or allow any irony whatsoever, as a school that is ostensibly training only straight men and women to go to war is afraid that having them engage in climbing a greased-up stone shaft because someone might get hurt. After the jump, some pictures of this proud, but potentially dying tradition.

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