It was suppose to be a fun night–typical for many Americans and their families when baseball season begins. You have dinner, and then see your favorite team play nine innings in what is still our great pastime. If you have no favorite team, you just go because it’s fun to watch a game, drink some beer, and in Baltimore’s case; see one being played in Camden Yards. It’s one of the best ballparks in baseball. Yet, last night took a rather disturbing turn, especially for ten midshipmen from the Naval Academy who were in the city for last night’s Orioles game. What should have been a peaceful dinner at Subway turned into an event that saw them ushering innocent bystanders to safety, as Baltimore descended into chaos (via Stars and Stripes):
Glass fell around midshipman Brad Kadlubowski, seated before a window, at the Subway shop in Baltimore.Inside, a father steered his wife and two children to the back of the shop on Saturday. His son has asthma; the father worried about tear gas.
Another chair smashed another window.
Everyone to the back, the midshipmen instructed.
Families and Naval Academy midshipmen had come for dinner before Saturday's Orioles game. Protests over the death of Freddie Gray began peacefully that day, but ended with confrontation. By Monday, the day of Gray's funeral, protests escalated with violence. At least seven officers were injured Monday afternoon and the Orioles game was postponed.
Some midshipmen didn't know about the ongoing protests when they arrived Saturday in Baltimore.
"I didn't realize it would be so close to Camden Yards," said midshipman Madisen Grinnell, 18, of Sacramento, Calif., on Monday.
She and nine other midshipmen found themselves caught in the protests.
These midshipmen directed families to the back of the Subway. Then they lined up, in front of families, as protesters passed outside, some throwing rocks. Women and children gathered farthest from the windows, except for Grinnell, the only female midshipman there from the Naval Academy.
"You're in the military and a midshipman — you should be in the front," she insisted.
Kadlubowski, of Colorado Springs, Colo., was uninjured when glass fell around him. He escorted the store manager to the door.
"I made sure he could lock the door without problem," Kadlubowski said.
The publication added that as soon as the protestors left, the midshipmen removed “their jackets and caps and shoulder boards” out of fear of being mistaken for police officers. Then, they made it to the safety of the stadium, where they returned to Annapolis soon afterwards; the game was postponed due to the ongoing unrest last night. The academy received an email thanking the midshipmen for their actions the following day.
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