they were hoping for 1 million protestors. i don t think they reached that mark. this is really about, jon, the fact that the people are fed up with the fact military still have control. they want power transferred to a civilian leadership. they re saying that s not happening quickly enough. they re hoping they get their act together. incidentally they don t have the backing of the muslim brotherhood, which is really the largest political entity there now, the muslim brotherhood were actually calling for the protests to be canceled, jon. jon: reena ninan, reporting live from gaza, thank you. we re going to take you live now to annapolis, maryland, this is one of the well, it s just a great american scene. i have urged, if you get the opportunity, to go to one of the service academy graduations, go to it, because it is absolutely spectacular. i was at west point s graduation over the weekend. there is the defense secretary, outgoing defense secretary, robert gates, along with one of
highly anticipated hat toss. we think they re back on schedule. here they go, you can see them getting excited. check this out: hip hip. hooray! hip hip. hooray! reporter: you can see the hats are up! hundreds of people are running in that the side, a lot of kids, a lot of siblings to find a hat. doesn t matter if they know the person whose hat it is, they re going to find a hat. everybody wants to go home today with a new hat. because all the graduates are done with theirs and it s time to get new ones. they re all lieu tenants. jon: the hat toss at west point is much better than the hat toss at west point at annapolis!
jenna: i am savoring these kind words about annapolis when your son is at west point. it s a friendly rivalry. jon: do our viewers understand, jenna has someone special in her life who is a naval academy grad! jenna: can t mess that up, my fiance, absolutely, and i had all these questions about what we call the hat toss, in which he directed corrected me, they call covers, jon. covers. jon: it s properly known as the hat toss! but each academy does the hat toss, and it actually started there s actually sort of a historical reason this thing started, when these cadets graduate and take their first i m sorry, i said cadet. mid shipmen, when they take their first assignment in the navy, they get a new uniform and the hats they ve been wearing the last four years at annapolis don t fit anymore! they no longer apply. jenna: a lower level. when they graduate, they re either going to being a first stage officer in the navy or marine corps, when they re out of annapolis, so
write a little note and tuck it into the inner band of the hat, they may even leave a little money in the hat for those kids to find. jenna: how much? jon: i don t know. jenna: that sounds pretty good. jon: they re college students, basically, they re not extremely wealthy, so it might be $5, $10. jenna: even the words would mean so much at this point. they did really accomplish quite a bit. no easy task, of course, to get through the academy, by any stretch of the imagination. peter doocy is there, by the way, at the stadium, and peter, you ve been able to take in the ceremony. bring us up to date. reporter: well, jenna, it is very, very hot. i m standing off camera so we don t miss the hat toss but these guys and girls have been wearing these hats proudly for four years and for the last four hours, i will say they must have been want to go get rid of them because it s very hot and very still here, but still, everybody is getting very excited, a lot of family and friends and relat
they need a new hat. so my question to my fiance was when you toss the hat, do you get it back? does it all just lay on the ground? he said well, you don t actually need it anymore, you have a few in your day! so the big part about graduating is that you actually do get a new hat, because you are now an officer, officially. jon: so they are going to take their new hats to their new assignments on board ships or submarines, or in the case of the marine corps, wherever posting they might have. they don t need these anymore, so they re going to toss them in the air. it s a great, boisterous moment. i know that at west point, what they do, and there are some sort of strict requirements, but they allow kids to come down on to the field and there are height requirements, age requirements, and so forth, but they ll let 1000 or more kids down on to the field, they run around, and collect those covers after they have been tossed off. many of the west point cadets, and i m sure they do this at a