June 26, 2025

From Sea to Summit: A Summer Cruise in South Korea

SOUTH KOREA — This wasn’t the kind of summer cruise you’d find featured in admissions pamphlets. There was no ship, no underway watches, and definitely no galley serving powdered eggs at 6 a.m. Instead, Midshipman 1st Class Nick Feaster and Midshipman 2nd Class Jordan Trantham, students at the U.S. Naval Academy, found themselves knee-deep in dirt on a remote Korean mountainside, wielding excavation tools rather than a sextant. Their instruments were a pinpointer and a trowel and were working with a pair of mountaineers who knew the ridgelines better than any GPS ever could.