Naval Academy Preparatory School

The Naval Academy Preparatory School or NAPS is the preparatory school for the United States Naval Academy. NAPS is located on Naval Station Newport, Rhode Island. The mission of the Naval Academy Preparatory School is "To enhance Midshipman Candidates' moral, mental, and physical foundations to prepare them for success at the United States Naval Academy".

The Naval Academy Preparatory School is the Navy’s fourth oldest school; only the Naval War College, the Naval Postgraduate School, and the Naval Academy are older. Informal preparatory classes began as early as 1915.

In 1918, the Secretary of the Navy Josephus Daniels signed a provision to have up to 100 sailors from the fleet to be eligible for entry to the Academy. Due to the difficult nature of the Naval Academy's entrance examination, then Undersecretary of the Navy Franklin D. Roosevelt also allowed for a school to be founded to prepare Sailors and Marines for entry.

The first official classes were established at Naval Station, Newport and Naval Station, San Francisco in 1920. A year later the schools were moved to Norfolk, VA and San Diego, CA. San Diego classes were disestablished and NAPS classes remained solely in Norfolk until 1942, when the new Naval Academy Preparatory School opened in Newport, RI.

In early 1943, NAPS moved to the United States Naval Training Center, Bainbridge, a facility of several hundred acres located above the Susquehanna River, some 40 miles (64 km) northeast of Baltimore, Maryland. NAPS returned to Newport while the Bainbridge Center was temporarily inactive during a 15-month period around 1950. When Bainbridge was reactivated in 1951 because of the Korean War, the preparatory school returned to Maryland. In August 1974, NAPS returned to its permanent home in Newport.