 Ladies and gentlemen the ceremony will begin momentarily. Good morning ladies and gentlemen. I'm Commander Jessica Witte, Director of Officer Development School. On behalf of the Commanding Officer, Officer Training Command New Port, welcome to the graduating ceremony for Officer Development School class 22080 consisting of 153 officers. Military guests in uniform, this will be a covered ceremony. The order of events for this morning's ceremony are as follows. Momentarily Captain Everett Alcorn, United States Navy Commanding Officer of Officer Training Command New Port will and Rear Admiral Gregory N. Todd, Chief of Navy Chaplains will arrive. The guests and class will rise for the arrival of the official party and remain standing for the playing of the national anthem and the invocation. Captain Alcorn and Rear Admiral Todd will then address the graduating class. Following their remarks Captain Alcorn will distribute the class awards. Following the award presentation the graduates will symbolize the completion of their training by returning their company guide-on to the class Chief Petty Officers. Following the guide-on presentation the class will reaffirm their oath of office. The class will remain standing for the playing of the service songs and the final dismissal. Please rise for the arrival of the official party and remain standing for the national anthem and the invocation. Officer Training Command New Port arriving. Chief of Navy Chaplains arriving. Ladies and gentlemen our national anthem. Ladies and gentlemen Chaplain Butts will now offer the invocation. Let us pray. O Heavenly King comforter the spirit of truth, who art in all places and fills all things, treasury of good things and giver of life. We give you thanks for this day of celebration. We are thankful for the life you have given us and the parents who have loved and nourished us and the numerous friends and families who've encouraged us on the journey of life and helped each one to arrive at this hour. We give thanks for the dedicated staff here at Officer Training Command who helped develop each one of these sailors into our newest naval officers. Vice Admiral Stockdale wrote character is probably more important than knowledge. We ask that you give each one of these officers the courage to be leaders of impeccable character, models of integrity and give them the strength they will need to weather the rough seas of leadership. May they hold themselves accountable each day, staying true to the values that guide them. Today they follow in the wake of the greatest naval leaders of history, selfless men and women of character who fought for the freedoms that make our country great. May they continue to carry on that legacy as they head to the fleet. Be with us today and forever. Amen. Ladies and gentlemen please be seated. Ladies and gentlemen Captain Everett Alcorn, commanding officer, officer training command new port. Admiral Todd, distinguished visitors, officer training command staff, family and friends joining us today. Shipmates of officer development school class 22080. Good morning. It is an absolute honor for me to have this opportunity to welcome this class into one of the most prestigious, challenging and rewarding careers in our nation, that of naval officer. Today we will bear witness as class 22080 renews a solemn promise to our nation, reaffirming their oath to support and defend the Constitution of the United States as professional naval officers. For the family joining us, I want to both thank you and commend you for the performance of your sons and daughters, husbands and wives, brothers and sisters. Your love, support and encouragement have produced the quality individuals seated here, the ones who not only chose vacations that helped their fellow man, but who chose a path of service to their fellow citizens. I can think of no finer group to go forward to the fleet than the officer seated here today. They could not have gotten to this point without the careful guidance and support of family on behalf of the Navy and a grateful nation. Please accept my most sincere thank you to the class. I'm proud of you all that you've accomplished while you're here as you depart for your schools and duty stations know that you're about to replace in the position to lead and mentor what are truly one of our most valuable national products, the enlisted men and women of our Navy. Those that volunteer to serve our precious resource, you must always treat them as such. The foundations we have laid here at ODS are solid. It is now up to you as you enter the naval service to build upon this. I'm very impressed with the effort you've expended over the last several weeks. I want to thank you for all that you have done and will do in the service of this great nation of ours. It is my pleasure and distinct honor to welcome you to the wardroom as professional naval officers in the world's finest Navy. It is now my honor to introduce to you our guest speaker. We're Admiral Gregory Todd, chief of chaplains of the Navy. Admiral Todd is a native of Seattle, Washington. He's a 1984 graduate of Concordia College in Portland, Oregon. He earned a master of divinity from Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, Missouri and a doctor of ministry from Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary in Charlotte, North Carolina. He was commissioned in the US Navy Reserve in 1986 and served in the Marine Corps Reserve while he pastored congregations in Illinois. In 1994, he superseded to active duty and served as base chaplain, naval amphibious base Coronado and reported to USS Chancellorsville, deploying to the Caribbean and eastern Pacific for counter narcotics operations. In his first US Coast Guard tour, he was assigned to US Coast Guard activities in New York. While there, he was the first Navy chaplain to respond at Ground Zero following the attacks on the World Trade Center and hosted the Coast Guard chaplain emergency response team to provide ministry to emergency workers and civilians. He reported next to Second Force Service Support Group in Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, deployed to Kuwait in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. He served as chaplain with the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit and deployed to Afghanistan as part of Operation Enduring Freedom, establishing the religious program at Fort Operating Base Ripley. He reported to his next assignment as officer in charge of Marine Corps Chaplain and Religious Program Specialist Expeditionary Skills Training in Camp Johnson before being detailed as command chaplain on USS Cure Sarge. Following a sea tour, he assumed duties as command chaplain for the Second Marine Logistics Group and then was detailed as force chaplain, Second Marine Expeditionary Force. Admiral Todd served as the 10th chaplain of the Coast Guard where he supervised religious ministry support for the more than 88,000 Coast Guard personnel and developed the Coast Guard auxiliary clergy support program linking volunteer religious ministry professionals with Navy Chaplains in support of the Coast Guard members and their families. In June of 2018, he became the 20th chaplain of the United States Marine Corps and Deputy Chief of Navy Chaplains until assuming his current role. He's the 28th Chief of Navy Chaplains leading the religious ministry for the over 570,000 personnel and the families of the Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard. His leadership is essential to the continued success of the world's greatest Navy and we're fortunate to have him with us today to share his thoughts. Ladies and gentlemen, please join me and welcome our guest of honor today, 28th Chief of Navy Chaplains. We're Admiral Gregory Todd. I'm gonna try something radical here. Do you all mind if I get from behind a podium so we hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal and now are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights? Among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Do you recognize these words? Preamble to the Declaration of Independence. Now, we may edit the framers in their language. We may say, well, can we put in all people? Of course. That's appropriate. Would we criticize the framers' life? Yes, they were very imperfect and yet the truths that they articulated are still true. That all people are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights. Not by a monarch, not by a country, but by someone, something bigger than ourselves. We're accountable. Someone is watching. But we are endowed by this Creator to pursue life, liberty, and what? The pursuit of happiness. Wait, that's not right. The framers were influenced by an English philosopher by the name of John Locke and John Locke's phrase was life, liberty, and the pursuit of property. So the framers changed it. Why did they change it? Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. What is about this happiness? It comes from Aristotle. The Greek word is eudaimonia. Eudaimonia, happiness. But is this happiness a kind of happiness that comes from graduating? Or getting all the stuff you want? Or sitting around with your friends over a beer and just having a good time watching the game? Is that what we mean by the pursuit of happiness? No. The pursuit of happiness is a sense of satisfaction in life that comes from virtue. That's what Aristotle said. It's about virtue. So the framers put it into our DNA as Americans that our, our rights are built on life, liberty, and the pursuit of really the happiness that comes from virtue. It's about character. You heard it in our prayer. As Emerald Stockdale talked about, character is more important than knowledge. It's about virtue. It's about character. So congratulations this morning. You have joined the ranks of naval officers. You've survived school, but what you have signed up for is a life of service, not privilege. As officers in the United States Navy, your job is to look out for those you lead. Your job is their well-being. Your job is to try to help them be the best people they can be. And that means the pursuit of virtue. Virtue. Let me suggest to you this morning just three virtues that you can focus on as leaders. Just three. There's many. Let's look at three. The first, courage. Courage. Why is that the first? Because really courage is the underlying virtue that makes all the others possible. Defining courage is often difficult, but describing it. That we can do. I've seen courage. I've seen people run into burning buildings to help people they didn't even know. I've seen courage on the battlefield where people will trust the Marine or Sailor to the left and right, knowing they have their back. This is courage. And the challenge for us as leaders is that we have to make courage critical to the way we live our lives. That we need the moral courage to be attentive to those we lead. Courage. It's not always easy. It's often messy, difficult. You have to have the courage as a leader to get into the lives of those you lead and ask, how are you doing? And they are often messy, but they are so worth it. America's treasure, her sons and daughters are so worth it. Courage. Secondly, I would suggest wisdom as a virtue for you. And wisdom goes way beyond knowledge. When we talk about entraining, we talk about knowledge, skills, and abilities. I got to tell you, that brings you sight. You can see things when you have knowledge, skills, and abilities, but what we need is insight. And that comes from wisdom. In the Chaplain Corps, we're advancing an idea, an ethos, of readiness that goes beyond medical readiness. I know we've got a lot of people in here who are concerned or will be concerned about medical readiness, dental readiness, which always thought it was an interesting type of readiness, but we're going to talk about spiritual readiness. And in working with researchers, we found that spiritual readiness has four components. It can be the pursuit of meaning values and purpose. It can be living a life of sacrifice above self. It can be a sense of connected to the divine. And it can be connected to a faith community. All these are elements of spiritual readiness. But I would submit to you that really maybe the ancient word that makes more sense is just simply wisdom. To be in a place where you are questioning and learning and thinking about the ancient questions, what's beautiful? What's good? What's true? This is wisdom. But finally, let me suggest to you one last virtue. It's not the last virtue, but it's one that I think is critical for us as leaders. It's the virtue of love, love. As a leader, you need to love those that you lead and love to the point of sacrifice. One of my favorite stories, well, let me start, one of my favorite leaders is General James Mattis, Marine Corps General. And the story about General Mattis that I love is when he was brand new one star general. And it was the habit of the commandant of the Marine Corps, General Krulak, he and his wife for Christmas would bake Christmas cookies and take them all around the national capital region to all the marine duty posts. And they show up in Quantico to the command center at four in the morning at their cookies looking for, you know, who's on duty, command duty staff. And they're greeted there at the duty center by Lance Corporal. And they said, Merry Christmas, Lance Corporal. Here's some cookies. Who is the officer of the day? And the Lance Corporal said, coming on, that would be General Mattis. No, Corporal, I know General Mattis. I know General Mattis is in command. I'm just asking who's got the watch today, the duty. And Lance Corporal said again, sir, that would be General Mattis. And at that moment General Mattis comes out into the office and he's dressed for duty, complete with his sword indicating that he has the watch. The commandant looks at him and says, Jim, what are you doing? He said, well, the captain who normally would have the watch today has a family. And it's Christmas day. And I thought he should be home with his family. So I took the watch. This is what we aspire to as leaders. That level of love and sacrifice that thinks more for those we lead than for ourselves. So, fellow leaders, new leaders, let me encourage you that in this new vocation you've taken on, that you're one of your key jobs is the pursuit of virtue. And let me give you three to get you started. Courage, wisdom, and love. But the greatest of these is love. Thank you and congratulations. Thank you, Captain Elkhorn and Admiral Todd. At the conclusion of each ODS class, several students are recognized by their fellow classmates as well as OTCN staff for outstanding achievement during the five-week course of instruction. Lieutenant J.G. Amy Granger, front and center. The Honor Student Award goes to the is presented to the officer who best demonstrates an overall excellence in the areas of academics, physical fitness, and military bearing. Consistently setting the example for his or her peers throughout the many challenges faced at officer training command. The Honor Student Award goes to Lieutenant J.G. Amy Granger. Ensign Natalie Sheen, front and center. The Alfred Award is given to the officer who achieves the highest military grade derived from personnel inspections, room inspections, and general military bearing. This award is named for the Continental Sloop of War, the Alfred. Commissioned in 1775, the Alfred served as the flagship of native Rhode Islander Commodore E. Sik Hopkins, serving as a role model of navy pride and professionalism, maintaining the highest military standards, and providing inspiration to all. The Alfred Award goes to Ensign Natalie Sheen. Lieutenant J.G. Samuel Carr, front and center. The Captain George Townsend Smith Leadership Award is presented to the officer who personifies the highest standards of personal example, good leadership practices, and moral responsibility. Officers were nominated by their peers and selected by the officer training command staff. The Captain George Townsend Smith Leadership Award goes to Lieutenant J.G. Samuel Carr. Ensign Ryan Marcinicki, front and center. The E.D. Award is named for Lieutenant Thomas E.D., United States Navy. It recognizes the highest achievement in academic and military performance. Lieutenant Thomas E.D., who immigrated from Scotland and settled in Rhode Island, was awarded the Navy Cross and the Medal of Honor for his courageous effort as a diver during the salvage of submarines SS-4 and SS-51 off the coast of Massachusetts. He was a member of the Southeastern New England Chapter of the Retired Officers Association at the time of his death. In recognition of this accomplishment, in addition to the certificate of achievement, the Military Officers Association of America has also provided a three-year membership to the E.D. Award winner, Ensign Ryan Marcinicki. For the past five weeks, the company guide on has been a symbol of spirit, dedication, teamwork, and unit identity. To symbolize the fact that these officers seated before you have completed their training, they will return the guide on to their class Chief Petty Officers, Senior Chief Hospital Corman, Sims Cologne, and Chief Gunners mate Christopher Lawrence. Lieutenant Phillips will now offer the reaffirmation of the Oath of Office. Would all military personnel in uniform please come to the position of attention? Ladies and gentlemen, the commanding officer of officer training command would like to present to you your newly reaffirmed naval officers. Ladies and gentlemen, please rise for the playing of the service songs and the final dismissal. Officer Development School Class 22080. Upon graduation from Officer Development School, you are ordered to detach and report to your duty stations where you will assume the duties and responsibilities by order of Everett Alcorn, Captain, United States Navy, commanding officer of officer training command Newport.