In Annapolis, Md., young men and women in crisp white uniforms and white masks are doing what students here have been doing for 175 years — taking their first steps to becoming officers in the U.S. Navy. These exercises are a part of the traditional "plebe summer," an intensive crash course that prepares first-year students for the transition to military life. They learn how to salute and march as a unit, along with lots of new lingo: floors are called "decks," toilets are "heads," and the students are "midshipmen." Unlike civilian colleges, the U.S. military academies have a mandate — they owe about 1,000 young officers to the armed forces every spring. When the academies were forced to send students home in March, they immediately began planning to bring students back.