This cache is NOT at the posted coordinates although this would be a great place to park. It is located along the Middletown Reservoir Trails. Do not attempt to search for this cache after sunset. This section of the trail offers some nice scenic views of the reservoir. Difficulty rating is for the puzzle, not the hide at the final destination. The rating for the cache itself would be a 2.
The cache can be found once the puzzle is solved!
Ever wonder about the anthem?
Back in 1906, Navy had not beaten Army on the football field since 1900. Midshipman Alfred A. "Monk" Miles figured the team could use a little musical inspiration. The result was a song that's every bit as popular today as the year it was born.
It was Miles who would write the lyrics to the song, but it was the U.S. Naval Academy's popular bandmaster, Lt. Charles A. "Zimmy" Zimmermann, a graduate of Baltimore's Peabody Conservatory, who would come up with the irresistible music. Zimmerman wrote marches for every class during his 24 years at the Academy. In 1906, he was approached by Miles, who said his classmates "were eager to have a piece of music that would be inspiring, one with a swing to it so it could be used as a football marching song, and one that would live forever," according to the Navy's website.
Legend has it that Zimmerman and Miles worked on the song together, sitting at the organ in the Naval Academy chapel in Annapolis. Miles, who has retained a reputation as one of the most musically inclined midshipmen to attend the academy, was the leader of the chapel choir. Their first work together proved quite the hit.
The 1906 Army-Navy game was to be played on Dec. 1. "Anchors Aweigh (class march of the class of 1907) ... will be sung when the Middies have the ball and are pounding against the Army line," promised a report in the Dec. 1, 1906, Baltimore Sun.
(For those not nautically inclined: The saying "anchor aweigh" means the anchor is no longer touching the bottom and the ship is officially underway. )
Over 30,000 people witnessed the game at Philadelphia's Franklin Field, according to The Sun of Dec. 2. The final score was 10-0, Navy. "The jubulation of the Annapolitans began all over again," The Sun reported, "and never ceased until with parched throats and lost voices, they danced their way to the special trains for Annapolis."
Lt. Charles A Zimmerman remained director of the Naval Academy band until his death in 1916. Cpt. Alfred H. Miles retired from Naval service on Dec. 31, 1944. The next day, he was commissioned a captain in the Army, serving in the Army Transportation Corps. He died in 1956.
For over 110 years, "Anchors Aweigh" has been a U.S. Navy staple.
This cache is hidden for my friend Shibawalker
and Navy Veterans everywhere!