freshman plebes trying to scale the monument to remove a plebe hat also known as a dixie cup and replacef a mid-shipman. it represents the class transition from plebes to mid-shipmen and symbolically ends their first year at the academy. the catch? the 21-foot obelisk is greased with lard. upper classmen are standing by with hoses. the plebe pyramid bringing to mind the zombies in "world war z." this year's attempt was live-streamed. thousands tuning in to the riveting spectacle of teamwork, tumbles and ultimately triumph. the fastest recorded time was the class of 1972 who clocked in at 1:30. but back then the monument was not greased. the slowest was the class of 1998, who took just over four hours to complete. as for the class of 2020 -- >> push, push. >> the challenge lasted two hours 21 minutes and 21 seconds. a valiant effort for these unrelenting underclassmen. >> good for them. as they say in the navy, not for self but country. thank you for watching abc news. tune in to "gma" tomorrow for much more on the events in manchester. and as always, we're online at abcnews.com and the "

that is not just a storied tradition but a transition for the plebes. no longer plebes officially. now the midshipmen at the u.s. naval academy. reporting live, richard reeve, abc7 news. jonathan: thank you. if you want to see more of the climb go to wjla.com. search "herndon" to see the best images coming in from today's climb. a greased obelisk and sprayed with a hose. it's not easy. doug: easier for 19-year-olds to do than the old guys. jonathan: i guarantee you. 20 of them are in infirmary. doug: a great tradition. jonathan: this is the weather you wake up gray and rainy and you want to stay in bed. doug: better get up and sit up or you'll go back to sleep. we had sun that helped i guess. but the pattern is similar. a lot of chances for rain but not all the time. this is the rain. heavy over the eastern store. this batch came through. heavy rain at the time. now we have describes and drabs. that looks to move east. there is more rain the farther west you work. then another big blob. plenty of chances. the future cast shows that late tonight a few scattered showers that are well

that event officially sending the plebe year set for monday.n annapolis, mike carter-conneen, abc7 news. michelle: break now people were left beaten and bloodied as protests collide in northwest washington. jonathan: and abc7 exclusive. guards appearing to dump a woman on the sidewalk and then walk away all outside of a d.c. hospital. >> a daring rescue at 14,000 feet. >> even took my chair out. put a harness on me with extension strap. michelle: the extreme lengths to get a helicopter to the highest point in the continental united states. >> from abc7 news, this is a breaking news alert. jonathan: the breaking news now, nine people hurt as protest turns violent. michelle: this is happening in north west washington near turkish ambassador's residents. tom roussey is live there now. what is the latest? >> well, the president of turkey just came out from the ambassador's residence. i'll get out of the way to show you the crowd here to greet him. behind the crowd. it'see the sheridan circle. you can see video from earlier. a fight broke out. you h

[cheering] >> that is how you go from plebe to midshipmen. the cowell my nation of two and a half -- culmination of two and a half hours of teamwork. it came after multiple near misses as the students disguarded the title of plebe. there has to be bruised bodies. michelle: yes. black and blue. richard reeve was there and talked to the students who become a class icon. [cheering] richard the moment everyone waited for. 19-year-old mcgraw was the plead with the with the magic touch. >> you don't succeed the first time. you have to try again with the end goal in mind. richard getting the midshipmen hat on top of the herndon monument. mcgraw says a moment he will never forget. >> my mind is racing. i can't keep track of things going on. happy we succeeded as a class, as a team. i was great to bond as a class. [inaudible] >> right now it is crazy. we are getting sprayed with water. a lot of sweaty bodies on top of each other. >> there is no real plan of attack for it. you get there and you have to come together as a group in the face of this monum

the challenge is to climb the 21 foot tall monument, remove a plebe hat and replace it with a midshipman's hat. legend has it that the midshipman who gets the hat up on the top of the monument will be to become an admiral. there is much more coming up on good morning washington. john gonzalez.. what are you working on? to take on the "tom insurance companies and the credit card companies and the wall street banks... that's what tom perriello is about." progressive causes have been my life's work. i'm tom perriello... and before and after congress i led non-profits to battle climate change, poverty and president bush's attacks on civil rights. now i'm running for governor to reduce economic inequality. because together, we really can build a virginia that works for everyone. five: a suspected terrorist attack a pop concert. overnight - a rising death toll and reaction from the white house. we are following the fast moving developments as they come in. plus an alert here at home. how the explosion in manchester could change security at major events here in the u-s. good

pyramid around the 21-foot tall herndon monument to remove a plebe hat, and replace it with a midshipman's hat. and to make it harder-- upperclassmen cover that obelisk in lard. the event marks the end of the freshman year. it's xx and we're just getting started. tragedy in college park. a student-- days away from graduation-- murdered on campus. now the fbi is joining the investigation. what we are learning about the man responsible. good morning washington. - rainy morning drive - unsettled work week - keep the umbrella handy - temperatures in the 70s all week - some improvements for the start of memorial day weekend today: mostly cloudy. am showers. isolated pm t-shower. winds: vrb 5 mph tonight: mostly cloudy. patchy fog. lows: 57-62 winds: n 5 mph tuesday: mostly cloudy and cooler. rain developing late. highs: 68-73 winds: ne 5-10 mph - rainy morning drive - unsettled work week - keep the umbrella handy - temperatures in the 70s all week - some improvements for the start of memorial day weekend today: mostly cloudy. am showers. isolated pm t-shower. highs: 75-80 winds: vrb 5 mph tonig

when my first sexual assault prevention classes as a plebe we were told the story about how a female had said that a star football player had her. he was segregated accordingly and that she had lied about it. they finish the story with don't be that girl. that's what they tell us or told my class at least in the sexual assault prevention class. >> thank you all. i appreciate you being here today. >> ms. la rosa you are recognized for five minutes. >> thank you mr. chairman and i thank each of you ladies for testifying today. midshipmen craine are you familiar with the sexual assault and prevention program? >> i am. >> how effective would you say that it is in an effort to deal with these issues that you experienced? >> i would say in terms of training midshipmen i've seen it evolve. it has definitely come a long way. definitely size a plebe when i was going through the process how now as i'm becoming an upper class men the mission is taking hold of it and make it more for a positive thing. people are participating in mainly to guys in the class that i want to participate. terms of pe

. >>> yeah, freshmen plebes as they're called attempted to scale the herndon monument to remove a plebend replace it with the hat of a midshipmen symbolically ending their first year. the challenge, though, is that the 21-foot obelisk is greased with lard and upperclassmen are standing by with hoses. >> this year's class competed the challenge in 21 minutes, 20 seconds. the slowest class took more than four hours. more news after this. took more than four hours. more news after this. along with support, chantix (varenicline) is proven to help people quit smoking. for me, chantix worked. it reduced my urge to smoke. compared to the nicotine patch, chantix helped significantly more people quit smoking. when you try to quit smoking, with or without chantix, you may have nicotine withdrawal symptoms. some people had changes in behavior or thinking, aggression, hostility, agitation, depressed mood or suicidal thoughts or actions with chantix. serious side effects may include seizures, new or worse heart or blood vessel problems, sleepwalking or allergic and skin reactions which can be life-t

it represents transition from plebes to midshipmen and ends their first year at the academy.the 21 foot monument is greased with lard. and classmen with. and this year's attempt was live streamed. thousand tuning in to the riveting spectacle of team work, tumbles and fastest recorded time, class of 1972, clocked in at 1:30. but back then the monument was not greased. the slowest was the class of 1998, took just over four hours to complete. for the class of 2020. the challenge lasted 2:21:21. a valiant effort for the unrelenting, under classmen. byron pitts, abc news, new york. >> 2:21. >> in 2014. decide to leave the lard off the monument. safety concerns, climbed under 3 minutes. next year, the lard went back on. they say average takes 1 to 3 hours. >> oh, man. can you imagine? >> i think we could do a world news now. >> in 3 1/2 days. >>> breaking news this morning on "world news now" -- a deadly explosion at an ariana grande concert. >> a massive blast creating chaos. young fans and parents running for their lives in the midst of confusion and carnage. >> the late dooes ta

i was a plebe when this happened. and i came into this and thought this was okay. and that to me was scary. and i knew deep down inside it wasn't okay. so i reported. but i had the support of my roommates at the time and my very close friends. it was good that they supported me in reporting. at the same time, i didn't feel confident in relying in that chain of command of midshipmen at the time. so the culture does have an impact, especially the training and the awareness that the upper class have, especially on plebes, on underclass, in regards to sexual assault and harassment. >> regarding mine, i would say kind of similar to what ms. kenzior said. there is a loyalty there. my time remember especially on the sports team, i know very well, every single day i saw him and had to swim with him in the pool. he was a swimmer. we're both swimming in the same place. there's no way that i could get away from him, especially in that atmosphere, if i wanted to keep up with my sport. so i would say that that along with the fact that as soon as i opened up my case for sexual h

1,000 formed a human pyramid around a 21-foot statue covered in vegetable shortening to retrieve the plebe hat and replace it. joe mcgraw capped it in less than 2 1/2 hours. must have been quite the party after that was done. >> i can bet going down that was a lot more fun than going up. >> a great mission. >> still ahead, jury selection in the long awaited bill cosby trial. we'll have those details for you here on "early today." can you actually love wearing powerful sunscreen? yes! neutrogena® ultra sheer. no other sunscreen works better or feels so good. clinically proven helioplex® provides unbeatable uva/uvb protection to help prevent early skin aging and skin cancer all with a clean light feel. for unbeatable protection. it's the one. the best for your skin. ultra sheer®. neutrogena®. see what's possible. allergy symptoms doctors recommend taking claritin every day distracting you? of your allergy season for continuous relief. claritin provides powerful, non-drowsy, 24-hour relief. for fewer interruptions from the amazing things you do every day. live claritin clear. every day. this

. >> freshmen plebes attempted to scale the monument.hallenge is that the 21-foot object listing is greased with lard and upperclassmen are standing by with hose. >> this year's class competed the challenge in 21 minutesbreas morning. at least 22 people outside an ariana grande concert in manchester, england. chilling images flooded onto social media as thousands of concert goers-- many of them teenagers, rushed to escape the venue. police say they are treating this as a terrorist attack, and believe that a single bomber is responsible. we have complete coverage coming up-- good morning washington. toss to eileen - areas of fog this morning - 3 more rainy days... stormwatch7 times it out - friday is our next nicest day! - warmer holiday weekend; storm chances return today: am fog. mostly cloudy and cool. showers developing mid to late afternoon. highs: 64-69 winds: ne 5-10 mph tonight: areas of rain. lows: 54-59 winds: ne 5 mph wednesday: mostly cloudy. isolated shower. milder. highs: 71-75 winds: ne to se 5 mph back now to our story-- a

you don't know-- every year, about a pyramid around the 21-foot tall herndon monument to remove a plebeand replace it with a midshipman's hat. and to make it harder-- upperclassmen cover that obelisk in lard. the event marks the end of the freshman year. it's xx and we're just getting started. tragedy in college park. a student-- days away from graduation-- murdered on campus. now the fbi is joining the investigation. what we are learning about the man responsible. good morning washington. - rainy morning drive - unsettled work week - keep the umbrella handy - temperatures in the 70s all week - some improvements for the start of memorial day weekend today: mostly cloudy. am showers. isolated pm t-shower.

the student from illinois got to the top and replaced a plebe hat with that of a midshipmen. everyone cheered. the time it took them, two hours, 21 minutes and 21 seconds. the tradition dates back to before world war ii, lard was added to make the climb harder in the early 1970's. nancy: to keep it interesting. larry: yeah. nancy: 7 on storm watch with a chance of more showers tonight and throughout the week. chief meteorologist doug hill is in the stormwatch7 weather center tra a great day. doug: it is. we saw steady rain move out this morning. all east of the metro area. we have areas of sunshine back in the clouds. no rain. if we look at the radar along to the satellite image, we have to look to the right-hand side of the screen to see the showers. it's all on the eastern shore. mostly cloudy skies for us. showers popping up from harrisonburg and that is moving south. most of the d.c. metro area, most of the viewing area is cloudy without rain. there may be areas of fog to deal with. tomorrow we start it over again. there is another disturbance that will bring us more show