 Ladies and gentlemen, please rise for the arrival of the official party and remain standing for our national anthem and invocation. Ladies and gentlemen, the National Anthem will be sung by musician, second-class Laura Carey from the Navy Band Northeast. Please join her in singing the United States National Anthem. Commander David M. Todd, chaplain of the Naval Leadership and Ethics Center will deliver the invocation. Let us pray. Almighty God, your word reminds us, mighty is the wise in strength, and a man of knowledge is strengthening power. Since 1884, the Naval War College has stood at the forefront of creating visionary leaders capable of shaping world peace and international security through the power of dynamic leadership and bold ideas. We give you thanks for the leadership initiative and perseverance that has forged for the War College a reputation of the highest level of academic excellence while embodying the very essence of military professionalism. In this increasingly complex and continually evolving international environment, we dare not rest on the past, but we must build on its firm foundation, and so we ask your continuing favor on this academic year. For our diverse body of students grant wisdom, insight, and humility, sharpen their minds through the rigors of study and new ideas, temper their experience and insight on the anvil of reflection and critique, and refine their critical reasoning through the crucible of academic discourse, debate, and discussion. Reawaken in them the love of country, devotion to duty, and a wholehearted pursuit of truth that motivated them to life of self-discipline and sacrifice. Enable them to successfully navigate the challenges of balancing their professional duties with family and personal responsibilities, that this might be a year of growth not only intellectually, but physically, spiritually, and relationally. Likewise, empower the staff and faculty in their task to instruct, challenge, and demand more of these students that they might prepare them fully equipped and ready for the task ahead. And finally, use this ceremony to stir in each of us a renewed desire to engage the challenges that lie ahead and affirm commitment to fulfill our roles in serving the cause of security, prosperity, and peace for all. Amen. Please be seated. Ladies and gentlemen on the stage this morning are Captain Edmund Hernandez, Chair, Joint Military Operations Department, Professor Walt Wilderman, Director, College of Distance Education, Dr. Michael Pakovic, Chair, Strategy and Policy Department, Dr. David Cooper, Chair, National Security Affairs Department, Professor Tom Calora, Dean of the Center for Naval Warfare Studies, Professor Thomas Mangold, Dean of International Programs and Maritime Security Cooperation, Admiral retired Jamie Kelly, Dean of the College of Operational and Strategic Leadership, Dr. Phil Han, Dean of Academics, Dr. Jay Hickey, Associate Provost, United States Naval War College, Admiral Jeffrey A. Harley, President of the United States Naval War College. Will members of the Naval Command College and College of Naval Warfare please rise? Captain Kevin McGowan, Director of the Naval Command College will present the 50 nations represented in our Naval Command College. So everybody in the Naval Command College and College of Naval Warfare please rise. So if you're in the senior class, you should be standing. I'll make it simple. If you're in the junior class, please remain seated. The nations representing the Naval Command College class of 2017 are Algeria, Argentina, Australia, Bangladesh, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Denmark, the Dominican Republic, Egypt, France, Georgia, Germany, Ghana, Greece, India, Indonesia, Iraq, Israel, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Kenya, Kuwait, Latvia, Lebanon, Lithuania, Malaysia, Mexico, Morocco, New Zealand, Nigeria, Norway, Oman, Pakistan, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Romania, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, South Africa, Spain, Tunisia, Turkey, the United Kingdom and the United States. They will be joined in class by members of our College of Naval Warfare which includes students from the United States Air Force, National Guard, Army, Army National Guard, Coast Guard, Marine Corps, Navy, and civilians representing Central Intelligence Agency, Defense Contract Management Agency, Defense Intelligence Agency, Defense Senior Leadership Development Program, Department of Homeland Security, National Geospatial Intelligence Agency, National Nuclear Security Administration, Naval Criminal Investigation Service, Office of the Director of National Intelligence, U.S. Agency for International Development, U.S. Department of State, U.S. Marshal Service, U.S. Special Operations Commands. Please be seated if you're standing up. Will members of Naval Staff College and College of Naval Command and Staff please rise? Captain Mark Turner, Director, Naval Staff College will present the 53 nations represented in our Naval Staff College. The nations representing the Naval Staff College Class 2017 are Algeria, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Belize, Benin, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Congo, Cote d'Ivoire, Croatia, Denmark, Djibouti, Egypt, Estonia, Guatemala, Haiti, India, Indonesia, Israel, Japan, Jordan, Korea, Kuwait, Lebanon, Lithuania, Malaysia, Mauritania, Mexico, Montenegro, Morocco, Mozambique, Nigeria, Norway, Oman, Pakistan, Peru, Poland, Romania, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Singapore, Slovenia, Taiwan, Tanzania, Timor-Lest, Togo, Tunisia, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, United States, and Vietnam. They will be joined in class by members of our College of Naval Command and Staff, which includes students from the United States Air Force, Air National Guard, Army, Army National Guard, Coast Guard, Marine Corps, Navy, and civilians representing Central Intelligence Agency, Defense Contact Management Agency, Defense Intelligence Agency, Department of Homeland Security, Maritime Administration, Military CLEF Command, National Geospatial Intelligence Agency, U.S. Department of State, U.S. Special Operations Command. Please be seated. On October 6, 1884, Secretary of the Navy William E. Chandler signed General Order 325, which began by stating, A college is hereby established for an advanced course of professional study for naval officers to be known as the Naval War College. The principal building on Coaster's Harbor Island, Newport, Rhode Island, will be assigned to its use and is hereby transferred with the surrounding structures and the grounds immediately adjacent to the custody and control of the Bureau of Navigation for that purpose. The college will be under the immediate charge of an officer of the Navy, not below the grade of commander, to be known as the President of the Naval War College. He will be assisted in the performance of his duties by a faculty. A course of instruction embracing the higher branches of professional study will be arranged by a board, consisting of all members of the faculty and including the president who will be the presiding officer of the board. The course of instruction will be open to all officers above the grade of Naval Cadet. Commodore Stephen B. Loose has been assigned to duty as president of the college. It has been 132 years since that order establishing the Naval War College was issued. In that time, the college has adhered remarkably to the basic mission and core values and vision. Here to share with you a brief history of the Naval War College is Professor Stanley Carpenter, Naval War College Command Historian. The Naval War College owes its creation to the vision and persistence of one man, Stephen B. Loose. Almost a century and a half ago, Lieutenant Loose was assigned to the Naval Academy faculty. There he realized that his branch of the service was not providing training or education in key professional areas. The Naval Academy had no text for Siemenships, so Loose wrote it, and it stood as the U.S. Navy's standard for over 40 years. As he rose in rank and widened his experience through the command of seven different ships in peace and war, under sail and under steam, Stephen Loose saw other inadequacies in the Navy's professional preparation for its officers and men. As a commander of the Fleet Division, he saw that there was neither a procedure to exercise naval tactics nor a unit assigned to examine experimental tactical ideas. So he created both. At the same time, he saw that there was no preparatory training for enlisted recruits, and he established the U.S. Navy's first recruit training station in Newport on the coast of Harbor Island in 1883. Then when he rose to rear admiral and commander of the North Atlantic Squadron, the U.S. Navy's most senior active duty billet, Loose turned to implement a long-standing goal. Since his combat service in the U.S. Civil War in the 1860s, he had realized that there was no place in the Navy to study the most important and central issue for a professional officer in the armed forces war. His age, like ours, was a time of rapidly changing technology. Then as now, the main focus of professional life was on technology and science, on metallurgy, on applications of electricity, on the chemistry and physics of weapons, and on a host of related matters. Loose fully recognized and appreciated the importance of all these matters as fundamental to success in modern warfare, but he saw more clearly than others that these were only the means for success in solving a broader problem that most officers ignored, the issue of war itself. As Loose repeatedly pointed out, war is the central issue around which the professional of arms exists, and there was then no existing institution where a naval officer could study it. Thus, Steven Loose persuaded a reluctant Navy department to establish the Naval War College in October 1884, making the name of the institution into a constant daily reminder to students and faculty as to the purpose and focus of the work. In creating the college's first faculty and curriculum, Loose established the approach that has been repeatedly renewed, refined, and reaffirmed over more than a century in seeking to understand war in its broadest dimensions. It is a major study, area of study, but one that few undertake then or now, and it requires original research and new thinking to understand how wars begin, how wars are fought, how wars end, and how wars can be prevented. The highest aspects of this professional subject involved understanding governmental management, finance, decision making, logistics, campaign planning and tactics, international relations, and grand strategy. The analytical tools for such study lay in approaches with which most naval officers of the time were unfamiliar. The social sciences, politics, history, management, international law, as well as understanding the roles of other services and their approaches to war. To the study of these matters, Loose added a new tool for broad analysis, war gaming. Then, in its infancy, Loose foresaw that the college's game boards could become the key tool that linked the broad analysis of political military issues with the burgeoning developments in current and future naval technologies. So, he empowered Lieutenant William McCarty Little to innovate and develop this area. With Loose's concept for the college's focus, the Naval War College began to make a wide range of contributions that has earned it a widespread reputation during the more than a century and a quarter that has followed. The student body gradually widened. Soon the college had its first students from international and foreign navies, students from Sweden in 1894 and from Denmark in 1895. Most famously of all the college's contributions, Captain Alfred Thayer Mahan's lectures on naval history provided the basis that created an understanding of naval strategy. Eventually published in book form, Mahan influenced naval thinking around the globe. Captain Charles Stockton published the first attempt to write a code of international law for naval operations and within a decade it became the focus for international discussions and a basis for the modern law of naval warfare. Meanwhile, the college was making other contributions. Officers here played a key part in creating the country's first contingency plans for war, some of which were used in the Spanish-American War in 1898. Also in the early years of the 20th century, the Naval War College was the principal engine behind the creation of operational naval doctrine and the innovation of an operational staff to support flag officers at sea. In addition, the college was the wellspring for the long-term movement and eventually led to the creation of a chief of naval operations in 1915 to advise government leaders and give the Navy professional, uniformed leadership. Following the First World War, Naval War College students and faculty looked critically at naval operations and, in the light of arms limitation treaties, began to think innovatively about the future operational uses for submarines, aircraft and amphibious forces. Continuing through the 1930s, they made significant contributions to the development of war-planned orange that came to be used in World War II. As Fleet Admiral Chester Nimitz later recalled, the Naval War College had examined so many different possible scenarios and possible courses of action for a war in the Pacific that he and his colleagues were surprised only by Japan's employment of kamikaze aircraft. Admiral Raymond Spruance, the victor at the Battle of Midway, returned to the Naval War College for his fourth tour of duty here in 1946 and established the college's direction as it entered the Cold War era. During that period, much thought was devoted to the issues of nuclear weapons and multinational cooperation. More recently, the college contributed substantially to some of the thinking behind the maritime strategy in the 1980s and the conduct of the Gulf War in 1990 to 1991, as it did in helping to create the maritime strategy for the 21st century in 2007 and in the updated version in 2015. As entering students here at the Naval War College, you become part of this heritage. It is a heritage that stands as a personal challenge to each and every one of you, both to those of you who are coming to the college today for the first time and to those of us who have spent decades here. In 1903, Admiral Loos returned to the college and addressed the student body much as we are doing today. His words in 1903 ring as true today as they did more than a century ago. But rather than me tell you about this, I believe I see Admiral Loos himself approaching. Mr. President, ladies and gentlemen, it is a great honor to speak to you today and one that I highly appreciate. If you would permit me, I would like to say something about the aims and objects of this college. Although called a college, this institution differs from all other seats of learning. The moment's consideration will show why this must be so. As its name implies, the principal object of the college is the study of the science and art of war. Now war is a very large and comprehensive subject and it would be the height of presumption on the part of the college to undertake to teach officers of mature years, any branch, whatever of their profession, even the most elementary. All that the college can do, all that it professes to do, is to invite officers to come to it and to offer them every facility for pursuing the study of the highest branches of their profession. All here, faculty and class alike, occupy the same plane without distinction of age, rank or assumption of superior attainments. All are pursuing one and the same end, the advancement of their profession. And we speak habitually of the science and art of war. As a science, it recognizes certain general principles which are just as applicable today as they were in the time of the great Athenian Admiral Themistocles. The strict adherence to those principles has not always ensured victory, it is true. But a violation of them, either through ignorance or neglect, has almost invariably led to defeat. Military writers have been careful to warn us that although war in its most extended sense may be called a science, yet it is not an exact science. As an art, war is governed by rules which vary from age to age. Art, it has been well said, may be learned, but it cannot be taught. This is particularly true of the art of war. It cannot be taught, accepting insofar as one may teach oneself. And it is to offer every officer the opportunity of teaching himself that the college doors are open. That war is the best school of war is one of those dangerous and delusive sayings that contain just enough truth to secure currency. He who waits for war to learn his profession often acquired his knowledge at a frightful cost of human life. Change, continual unremitting change is the law of the universe. Stagnation means atrophy and death. It is not enough for us to keep abreast of the times. This college must be in the very front rank of the advanced guard of progress. To obtain some perception however dim of the future we must study the past. This teaches us that the civilization we now enjoy was brought about by war. The proud position we as a nation now occupy was rendered possible only by wars. And future problems in the destiny of man will be worked out through the instrumentality of the sword. There is no escaping it. We are no apologists for war, heaven forbid. We simply regard it from a common sense point of view as one of the many evils flesh is heir to. War is a dreadful scourge. We all admit it is a relic of barbarism. We admit everything that can be said against war, but after all has been said no student of history, however superficial can deny that through that same dreadful scourge ultimate good has been brought about. It has been so in the past and as far as human discernment can go it must be so in the future. However war may in certain instances be averted but mark this well. It may be averted in one way and in one way only and that way is to be fully prepared for it. That is the meaning of this college. It is an instrumentality for the prevention of war by being prepared for it. To be prepared for war is the role of the naval strategist. To be in the right place at the right time and with adequate force means success by checkmating your adversary in the first few moves. Campaigns have been won without firing a shot simply by skillful strategic movements. It is the business of this college to study all the various problems of war as they may affect this country. It is quite unnecessary to explain to such an audience as I have the honor of addressing that the college itself has no power whatsoever to act nor authority to formulate naval policy. Its aim is simply to invite officers to meet together to discuss questions pertaining to the highest branches of their profession and to enable each one according to his own inclinations to prepare himself for the highest and most responsible duties that can devolve upon a naval officer. One thing must be borne in mind. At the firing of the first gun proclaiming war, the so-called inspiration of genius may be trusted only when it is the result of long and careful study and reflection. If attendance here will serve in any degree to broaden an officer's views, extend his mental horizon on national and international question, and give him a just appreciation of the great variety and extent of the requirements of his profession, then this college will not have existed in vain. Thank you and good day. Ladies and gentlemen, the 56th President of the United States Naval War College, Admiral Jeffrey A. Harley. So before I begin, I want to thank Commander Tye Lemeron for that marvelous recreation of our founding president. Thank you, Tye. Perhaps one more round of applause. And we are blessed to be joined here today by Ann Jocelyn, a descendant of the great Admiral Stephen Luce. We're all humbled to have you here at the college. And now, from the first president to the man blessed to be the current president, I bid you all, distinguished guests, faculty, members of the Naval War College Foundation, my brothers and sisters in the profession of arms, and to every student of the Naval War College class of 2017, greetings. Welcome to the convocation of the oldest institution of its kind in the world, one which, I would argue, is the most prestigious and relevant in existence. We follow this time-honored academic tradition of convocation for an important reason. This ceremony serves as public recognition that our shared intellectual journey is about to begin. Each of us arrived at this point by following very different paths, and the cut and color of the various uniforms and business suits in the audience provides evidence of the many military services, agencies and nations that comprise our unique college. We take pride in the fact that the professional, cultural, religious and ethnic diversity of this gathering is unmatched by any campus in the land, and yet from such diversity will arise one entity, a company of scholars with common goals and a common purpose. I can state with certainty that the year of study you begin today will be a watershed event in your professional career and in your personal life. I speak from experience since I was a student here just two decades ago. In exchange for the opportunity to earn a degree, you will be asked to contribute your most valuable commodities, your time, your intellectual energy and your voice. And it is your voice that will contribute to a dialogue that shapes our very future. Early on, we should soberly reflect on the gravity of the word at the heart of the college's name, war. One great American scholar has written, wars produce sudden and irrevocable changes. Although they are fought for reasons, they can stampede passions and mass passions give no quarter to reason, let alone to any individuals barring the way. Millions of lives lost mean millions of roads not taken, altering the roster of the born and the unborn and producing decisions informed by the road taken. The passions elicited by the killings, the dying and the witnessing put a period on the way the world was. The combustion of reason and passion leaves transformative and often unintended outcomes, which in the long term may prove more important than the war's original purpose. Given the costs, unpredictability and irretrievability, wars are important to understand. That scholar, by the way, is our college's very own Dr. Sally Payne. And though she is a way conducting research for her next book, I thank her for so skillfully defining the impact that wars have on humanity across the ages. At the same time, we should be continually reminded that the quest for peace is absolutely vital. Many of us in this auditorium are warriors, and I thank God that I've done my duty when called. And I know many in this audience have shared the physical, emotional and spiritual burdens of combat. And I know God has a special place for you. But we must also lend our voices to the quest for peace. And it is the study of those constructs such as deterrence, diplomacy, advocacy, reassurance, and yes, even hope, to which we can and must lend our voices. Fire in the minds of men can only be quenched by reason, or sadly, sometimes by force. Let us study and understand the constructs of both war and peace. Today's ceremony begins our academic year and provides us with the opportunity to focus the attention of both students and faculty on where we will be going. Our faculty has heard some of these thoughts, and I ask them to bear with me as I briefly outline the way forward for our distinguished visitors. Over the coming months and years, this great college will be executing a series of incremental changes, small rudder changes, that collectively will reshape the manner in which the college contributes to the Navy and the nation. We intend to operationalize, navalize, and futureize our educational and research activities. The college's most important output is, and will remain, the thousands of critical thinking ethically grounded leaders we will graduate. This will continue to be job one. But there is a great deal done here that can have immediate and significant impact on hundreds of thousands of hardworking sailors around the fleet. Through our gaming efforts, research projects, conferences, workshops, and war fighting relevant activities, we can have an enormous influence on the way our maritime forces take the fight to our enemies. In all that we do, we must consider how our operational efforts can be translated into solutions to real world problems. Our naval college is but one node in a much larger constellation of professional military education institutions. But this is a Navy institution, and we will unabashedly seek a better understanding of what sea control means in the modern era. The strategic environment of today presents access challenges that make sea control and navalization more critical than ever before. Finally, the pace of change makes understanding new and emerging technologies more critical than ever before as well. Much as the Navy did at the opening of the 20th century, where steam powered ships, electronic communications, and the advent of manned flight radically changed the nature of war at sea. So today's promise of unmanned systems, autonomous weapons, and cyber-based conflict demands that our college look to the future to anticipate change in the same manner as we look to the past to learn the lessons of history. Simply put, through futureization, we must pace the unremitting change around us. As we make these modest course changes for our college, I am reminded that the main engines of this institution are its world-renowned educational programs and its extraordinary and gifted faculty. The faculty and staff are committed to providing the best possible learning environment our talented and dedicated team of students deserves. Our talented and dedicated faculty will also provide guidance and mentorship as each student engages with our highly relevant and carefully crafted curriculum. I promise you that you will be mentally challenged every step of the way. This year will not be easy. This is a two-year degree in just under one year, and your success will be driven by the degree to which you rigorously apply yourself to the tasks at hand. This is your duty, as Captain Miller says in his dying moments in saving Private Ryan, earn this. It will not be easy, but it will be worthwhile. In that worthwhile spirit, in my capacity as the 56th President of the U.S. Naval War College, it is my distinct honor and duty to declare the 2016-2017 academic year officially in session. To our students, congratulations again. For everyone, God bless us all for this incredibly worthwhile journey on which we embark. God bless us all for the burdens we will share. God bless us everyone for the story we will write. For it is this story shall the good man teach his son, and Crispin Crispin shall there go by from this day to the ending of the world, but we in it shall be remembered. We few, we happy few, we band of brothers and sisters. Let us now go forth together and start writing our next chapter. Now sing together the service songs of our nation's armed forces. We sing these songs based on seniority of service, but upon the population of each service here at the War College. The words for each song can be found at the back of your programs. We ask that each military and civilian service member, veterans and family members, please stand as their service song is sung. Please remain standing until the completion of all service songs are completed. Will Captain Greg Talapa, Senior Coast Guard Advisor, and all Coast Guard veterans, staff, faculty, students, and their families please rise. That's you Greg, you're leading it. Will Colonel Brett Perthalmus, United States Marine Corps, and all Marine Corps veterans, staff, faculty, students, and their families please rise. Don't sit down yet Marines. Up you go. Everybody stay standing. Will Colonel Paul Murphy, Senior Air Force Advisor, and the Air Force Veterans, Staff, Faculty, and Students, and their families please rise. Will Colonel Robert Cassidy, Senior Armored Advisor, and all Army Veterans, Staff, Faculty, Students, and their families please rise. Will Roy Admiral Harley, President, Naval War College, and all Navy Veterans, Staff, Faculty, Students, and their families please rise for the best song of all. David M. Todd, Naval Leadership and Ethics Center Chapman will deliver the benediction. Ladies and gentlemen please rise or remain standing for the benediction. Let us pray. Eternal Father, strong to save, whose arm has bound the restless wave. The lines have been taken up. The Bosun's pipe is sounded. The corset for these students. A new voyage is now underway. A challenging and rigorous academic year. In the days and months ahead, grant them self-awareness, humility, and moral courage as they are challenged by new ideas, increased levels of complexity, and inherent demands of greater responsibility. Enable them to balance the academic demands of their family and personal growth. For their families may this be a year of new friendships, bonding experiences, and memories that will life a lifetime. Grant such a spirit of collaboration, understanding, and dedication to serve humanity. Be present in the readings, examinations, papers, seminars, discussions that the lessons learned here would impact not only these present, but through their lived out leadership, influence their commands, communities, and countries, and speed about the day when all shall partake of the fruit of liberty, justice, and freedom for all. Amen. Please remain standing for the departure of the official party.