![\"Jones\"](\"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/Bobby-Rashad-Jones-1-e1543105300679.jpg\")
Bobby Rashad Jones was the midshipman with the lowest grade-point average in the Naval Academy Class of 2001, known as the anchor \u2014 so when he walked across stage at graduation, he was so overcome with emotion that he gave then-President George W. Bush a bear hug. After overcoming the embarrassment, Jones soon took that experience and transformed it into a successful Navy career.<\/p>\n
“Ensign” if he can keep it. The link and story was forwarded to me by a member who wishes to remain anonymous. So in acknowledgement of the season, here’s a “hometown lad does good” feel good story.<\/span><\/p>\n Whatever happened to the Navy midshipman who gave President Bush a bear hug? Discipline \u2014 then redemption.<\/strong>By BROCK VERGAKIS | The Virginian-Pilot<\/p>\n VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (Tribune News Service) \u2014 Bobby Rashad Jones couldn’t help himself.<\/p>\n He was the midshipman with the lowest grade-point average in the Naval Academy Class of 2001 \u2013 known as the anchor \u2013 and was overwhelmed with joy to receive his commission after spending years on academic probation.<\/p>\n President George W. Bush was the commencement speaker in Annapolis and cordially shook hands with each graduate. But as Jones walked across the stage at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium, the crowd roared in support for the “anchor.”<\/p>\n Jones was a football player who was well known on campus, partly because tradition calls for each graduating midshipman to pay the class anchor $1.<\/p>\n He could’ve chosen a more glamorous life and played football at a powerhouse program like Florida. Or he could’ve done without the stress of military life by going to an Ivy League school. And he could’ve left the academy when it all seemed so overwhelming after his first semester to join friends at the University of North Carolina.<\/p>\n But he stayed because he wanted to be part of something bigger than himself \u2013 and he had made it.<\/p>\n As he walked toward Bush, the excitement was too much to contain.<\/p>\n He jumped up and down. His head shook. He pumped his right fist in the air.<\/p>\n A presidential handshake simply wouldn’t do.<\/p>\n The former linebacker grabbed Bush’s hand, pulled him in and hugged the commander-in-chief. And not just any hug; a bear hug that briefly lifted Bush off the ground as part of what Jones would later describe as an “out-of-body experience.”<\/p>\n “I’m thinking it’s not a serious hug, not realizing I just got through playing football. The president is not that heavy. I didn’t realize I picked the man up,” Jones said in an interview this week at his office at Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek.<\/p>\n The academy’s sports information department said he was listed as 6-foot-2, 235 pounds when he played football.<\/p>\n “My sister thought I was going to get shot, my mom was trying to take pictures and my dad was like ‘What the hell is he doing?’ ”<\/p>\n A lot of people laughed. Navy leadership did not. An officer on stage physically pulled Jones off the president by his uniform.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n The article goes on to describe how Bobby began with a rocky start, but through perseverance and hard work overcame the challenges, and succeeded. It’s a bit lengthy, but worth the read. Find it here at The Stars and Stripes.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"