For the over seventy-five year existence of the United States Merchant Marine Academy, there is a small trove of publications detailing the quotidian of the Regiment. Find below a collection of documents put out over the years by both the Regiment and the Alumni Association.
The White Paper
The appearance in early 1969 of “The Recommendations of the Corps of Midshipmen” or “The White Paper” – as it came to be known – was nothing short of a revelation for Kings Pointers and shook Academy leadership to the core. This single document dismantled the regimental system and brought the Zombo in open confrontation with the Superintendant. It also resulted in the suspension of the student magazine, Polaris.
Thanks are due to Marion Bates for making the text available.
Bearings Book
Otherwise known as the “Plebe Bible.” Each service academy had its own version of “plebe knowledge” and was named differently by each academy. Kings Point’s was first known as Bearings; it was first funded by the United States Merchant Marine Academy Academy Alumni Association; in later years it became the province of the Commandant’s Office and assumed the name of the U.S. Naval Academy’s book and was renamed Reef Points (click link for USNA 1934-1935 version).
The publication of Bearings began in 1946 and had irregular printings; please find the second volume from 1956 and the third from 1964, as well as an interesting issue from 1983, and USMMA Reef Points from 2014. The 1983 issue, like that of 1946, was comprised of loose pages, held together by paper fasteners to allow for page replacement in the event of revision. Errata from 1983 show this issue of Bearings publication was for 1978.
Following USMMA Reef Points from 2014 is “2017 Uniform Regulations 11-August (Final).” Bearings/Reef Points no longer was a single point of reference for all Midshipman knowledge, it was supplanted by a series of independent circulars published by both the Regiment and Commandant’s Office.
Col.: IW
Midships
Yearbook of the Regiment of Midshipmen published from 1944 until the present day.
Col.: USMMAAF
Polaris
Student magazine of the Regiment. This publication existed between 1942 and 1972. In the late-1960s there were Administration-enforced breaks in publication.
Col.: USMMAAF & IW
United States Merchant Marine Cadet Corps and Its Academy: Individual and Group Data on the Faculty March 1, 1948
Prior to the re-organization of the the United States Maritime Service, a survey was conducted of the faculty at Kings Point and the Basic schools. The document offers a glimpse into the credentials and careers of the first generation of Kings Pointers.
Col.: AMMM
A Kings Point Glossary
An irreverent, insensitive, offensive, and derisive glossary of terms used by Kings Point midshipmen appeared around 2017; although it may have been published much earlier. The terms were collected by an anonymous Kings Point midshipman. As a document, it alludes to toxic views of midshipmen regarding relationships and sometimes confrontational attitudes of midshipmen toward Academy leadership and the Regiment.
I scrapped this material from the Dark Web; it has since disappeared. Pieces of it have appeared in online forums.