Spain Expects Princess Leonor To Do Her Duty
One day she will be Queen of Spain but for now the Infanta Leonor is a humble midshipman in the Spanish Navy.
For the next 12 months she will be trained up to be its eventual commander-in-chief.
Having already spent a year with the army at its training headquarters in Zaragoza, she has now embarked on her second of her three military stints at the Naval Academy of Marin in Pontevedra, which will be her home for the next four months until she embarks on the training ship Juan Sebastián Elcano.
To mark the occasion the Spanish Defence Minister, Margarita Robles, visited the naval school where midshipman Borbón Ortiz is now based.
Robles said that she was ” very proud that the Princess of Asturias is undergoing this military training, which is essential and fundamental because it embodies a series of values, commitment to citizens, loyalty, love for Spain, and leadership that is very important for someone who is going to be the future head of state.”
Furthermore, I believe it also serves as a call to our young men and women, letting them know that serving Spain in the Armed Forces is very important,” she added.
Robles said that Leonor de Borbón will join as “just” another student and will continue with the studies corresponding to the third year of school. “She will be,” she said, “in the same regime as her classmates, and for the third year, she will integrate into the third year, and in these first months, she will be here at school, in the same regime as her classmates. Therefore, there are no exceptions, other than those that may arise, as a result of her being the Princess of Asturias.”
During this academic year, Marin’s school plans to provide education to 628 students; 489 from specific bodies of the Navy, and 139 from the Common Defense Corps, in addition to Volunteer Reservists. Likewise, there will be 23 students from eight countries who will complete a full curriculum or at least one semester.
Among the advances and challenges presented in this course, the naval school highlights value-based education and digital transformation through the application of artificial intelligence and immersive virtual reality simulators.
Navy Captain Pedro Cardona Suanzes, director-commandant of the Naval Military School in Marín (Pontevedra), has described the daily routine of the midshipmen. “Their life is non-stop,” he said. “From the moment they wake up in the morning until they go to bed at night, they always have a task to do.” “We understand that they have to achieve a level of demand, which is excellence. Therefore, they need to have an activity practically every hour of the day.”
The day for naval school students begins with reveille at 6:45. They must wash up, make the bed, and go down for breakfast, all before 7:30, when the uniform is inspected to be spotlessly white.
The teaching hours are five in the morning and three in the afternoon. Students can stay to study until ten-thirty; if they wanted to extend their hours, they must request authorization. Everyone must be in bed by 10:45 p.m. to sleep for at least eight hours.
On weekends, students are allowed to wake up at 8:45 a.m. On Saturdays, classes go on until twelve-thirty, and in the evening, first-year students can stay out until one-thirty, while older students can stay out until three in the morning. In the third year, students have the option to spend the night away from school on Saturday nights.
