 Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the academic convocation of the U.S. Naval War College. We are pleased to welcome a total of 546 students from our armed service, civilian employees of the federal government and military officers from around the globe. Please remain seated for the academic procession led by the Marshall University professor, Milan Vago and Dr. Phil Hahn, Dean of Academics. Ladies and gentlemen, please rise for the arrival of the official party, honors for General Lori J. Robinson and remain standing for our national anthem and the invocation. The national anthem will be sung by musician third class Christina Villalva from the Navy Band Northeast. I've been Em Todd Chaplin at the Naval Leadership and Ethics Center, we'll deliver the invocation. Let us pray. Almighty God, we ask your blessing on this Naval War College academic year we begin in earnest today. In this increasingly complex and continually evolving international environment we dare not rest on the past but must build on its firm foundation and so we ask your favor in this our endeavor. For our students, grant them 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 the wholehearted pursuit of truth that motivated them to a 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 faculty and staff in their tasks to instruct, challenge and demand more of these students that they might prepare them fully equipped and ready for the task ahead. And finally we pray that you would 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 role in serving the cause of security, prosperity and peace for all. Looking forward to the day when your truth, justice and righteousness shall reign forever. Amen. Please be seated. On the stage this afternoon are Captain Edmund Hernandez, Chair, Joint Military Operations Department, Professor Michael Pavavec, Chair, Strategy and Policy Department, Professor David Cooper, Chair, National Security Affairs Department, Professor Woldemann, Dean, College of Distance Education, Rhea Admiral retired Margaret Klein, Dean of Leadership and Ethics, Professor Tom Calora, Dean of the Center for Naval Warfare Studies, Rhea Admiral retired Jamie Kelly, Dean of the College of Maritime Operational Warfare, Professor Thomas Mangle, Dean of International Programs and Maritime Security Cooperation, Professor Phil Han, Dean of Academics, Professor Lewis Duncan, Provost, United States Naval War College, General Lori J. Robinson, Commander, U.S. Northern Command and North American Aerospace Defense Command, Rhea 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? Senior class. Captain Todd Libby will present the 48 nations represented in our Naval Command College. Algeria, Australia, Bangladesh, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Côte d'Ivoire, Croatia, Dominican Republic, Egypt, France, Germany, Greece, Haiti, India, Indonesia, Israel, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Kenya, Korea, Kuwait, Lebanon, Malaysia, Mexico, Morocco, New Zealand, Nigeria, Norway, Oman, Pakistan, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Romania, South Tamei and Principe, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Tunisia, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom. They will be joined in class by members of our College of Naval Warfare, 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 Intelligence Agency, Defense Logistics Agency, Defense Senior Leadership Development Program, Department of Homeland Security, Department of the United States Army, Military CLEF Command, National Geospatial Intelligence Agency, National Nuclear Security Administration, Office of the Director of National Intelligence, US Agency for International Development, US Department of State, US Special Operations Command, please be seated. Will the members of the Naval Staff College and College of Naval Command and Staff please rise? Captain Todd Libby, Director of Naval Staff College, will present the 49 nations represented in our Naval Staff College. Algeria, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Benin, Brazil, Bulgaria, Cameroon, Colombia, Denmark, Djibouti, Egypt, Estonia, Ghana, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, India, Indonesia, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Jordan, Korea, Kuwait, Latvia, Lithuania, Malaysia, Mexico, Morocco, Mozambique, Norway, Oman, Pakistan, Panama, Philippines, Poland, Romania, St. Kitt's and Nevis, St. Vincent and Grenadines, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Taiwan, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates, United States of America 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, Army, Army National Guard, Coast Guard, Marine Corps, Navy, and civilians representing Central Intelligence Agency, Defense Contract Management Agency, Defense Intelligence Agency, Department of the U.S. Army, National Geospatial Intelligence Agency, U.S. Department of State, U.S. Marshall Service, U.S. Special Operations Command. Please be seated. October 6th, 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. Loos has been assigned to duty as president of the college. It's been 133 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 U.S. Naval War College as Professor Stanley Carpenter, U.S. Naval War College Command Historian. The Naval War College owes its creation to the vision and persistence of one man, Stephen B. Loos. Almost a century and a half ago, Lieutenant Loos 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 seamen ships, so Loos wrote it. And it stood as the U.S. Navy standard for 40 years. As he rose in rank and widened his experience through the command of seven different ships in peace and in war, under sail and under steam, Stephen Loos saw other inadequacies in the Navy's professional preparation for its officers and men. As a commander of a 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 Coasters Harbor Island in 1883. Then when he rose to rear admiral, commander of the North Atlantic Squadron, the U.S. Navy's most senior active duty billet, Loos turned to implement a long-standing goal. Since his combat service in the 1860s, he'd realized that there was no place in the Navy to study the most important and the 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 a host of related matters. Loos 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 Loos repeatedly pointed out, war is the central issue around which the profession of arms exists, and there was no existing institution where a naval officer could study it. Thus, Steven Loos 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 its work. In creating the college's first faculty and curriculum, Loos 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 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 involve understanding governmental management, finance, decision-making, logistics, campaign planning, tactics, international relations, and grand strategy. The analytical tools for such study lay in approaches with which most naval officers of his time were unfamiliar. The social sciences and politics, naval officers of his time were unfamiliar with management, international law, as well as a understanding of the roles of other services and their approaches to war. To the study of these matters, Loos added a new tool for broad analysis, wargaming. Then in its infancy, Loos 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 Loos' 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 foreign navies, officers from Sweden in 1894, and 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 behind influence 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 that eventually led to the creation of a chief of naval operations in 1915 to advise government leaders and give the Navy professional uniform leadership. Following the First World War, Naval War College students and faculty looked critically at naval operations and in light of the arms limitations 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 plan orange that came to be used in the Second World War. 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 Rayman 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 of the 1980s and the conduct of the Gulf War in 1990-91 as it did in helping to create the maritime strategy for the 21st century in 2007 and the updated version in 2015. As entering students here at the Naval War College today, you now become part of this lineage. It is a heritage that stands as a personal challenge to each and every one of us, 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 Luce 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 this, I believe I see Admiral Luce himself approaching. Mr. President, distinguished guests, brothers and sisters in arms, ladies and gentlemen, it's 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, 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 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. 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. A 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 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 that 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 will 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 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. Now 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 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 questions and give him a just appreciation of the great variety and extent of requirements of his profession, 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 Cards, we're Admiral Jeffrey A. Harley. Good afternoon everyone. Admiral Hogg, General Robinson, General Robinson. Our distinguished chairs and deans, Admiral Takei, Admiral Verma, our university professor, Dr. Vago, distinguished faculty and you, all of our students. Welcome to the convocation ceremony for the U.S. Naval War College's class of 2018. The term convocation is defined as a ceremonial assembly of members of a college or university and we follow this tradition of a convocation because this ceremony serves as public recognition that something very special is about to begin and each of us has arrived at this point by very different paths. The diversity of nations and organizations in this great hall provide evidence of the scores of military services, interagency partners and homes of national origin within this unique group. The cultural, religious and ethnic diversity of this gathering is also simply unmatched on any campus in the land and yet from such diversity will rise one entity, a company of scholars with common goals and a common purpose. Our service to our nations is a noble calling and so is the search for knowledge. Martin Luther King once observed, the function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. Intelligence plus character, that is the goal of true education. We of course couldn't agree more and the main battery of this institution as it has been for 133 years is its education mission and we are committed to providing the best possible environment in which learning can occur. Our talented and dedicated faculty will provide guidance and mentorship as each of you delves into the carefully crafted curriculum. You'll be exposed to many new concepts and new ways to look at old problems as you complete the demanding but rewarding academic program and I'll ask each of you to raise your sights well beyond the platform or tactical level and try to focus on the elusive image of what may be. For it is the men and women with the greatest vision that will lead their services and nations into the future. Thank you very much. For the remaining time we have this afternoon, I want to recognize excellence, excellence in our faculty and by one of our most distinguished alumni. Professors Roryg and Erickson, please come forward. Professor Roryg, please join us on stage. President of US Naval War College takes pleasure in presenting Terence J. Roryg with the National War College Civilian Faculty Teaching Excellence Award in recognition of excellence in teaching and sustained contributions to the intellectual development of the students at US Naval War College. Signed 14 August 2017, Jeffrey A. Harley, President US Naval War College. Professor Erickson, please join us on stage. The President US Naval War College takes pleasure in presenting Andrew S. Erickson with the Naval War College Civilian Faculty Research Excellence Award in recognition of excellence in the highest quality of achievement through research on behalf of the Naval War College. Signed 14 August 2017, Jeffrey A. Harley, President US Naval War College. A third award for service excellence will be presented to Professor David P. Pilati who is not able to be here today. His certificate will be presented at a future ceremony. So we've recognized these three professors for their extraordinary accomplishments, but our students will soon learn that all of our faculty are simply superb. I ask now for a final round of applause for our award winners and for our gifted and talented faculty. So today marks the 22nd time that the Naval War College has presented its Distinguished Graduate Leadership Award since the award was first presented in 1996. It recognizes the accomplishments of our most distinguished graduates who relied upon their war college experience as they assumed positions of senior leadership and national prominence. These alumni serve as an inspirational role model for current and future students. The award was first presented in 1996 to our alumnus, the late General John Shalikashvili, then chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Your program includes a complete list of the others recognized over the years, but we are now honored to present the 2017 award to a truly inspirational leader, General Lori Robinson, United States Air Force, the Commander North American Aerospace Defense Command and United States Northern Command. General Robinson, will you join me to be recognized as the recipient of this year's Distinguished Graduate Leadership Award? President US Naval War College takes pleasure in presenting this certificate to General Lori J. Robinson, US Air Force. In recognition for her exceptional service to the nation, the Department of Defense and the US Naval War College, she is hereby designated as the year 2017 recipient of the Distinguished Graduate Leadership Award. This award recognizes the recipient's unparalleled dedication to duty, unwavering sense of personal and professional integrity and her insatiable intellectual curiosity. These traits, which form a bedrock upon which the US Naval War College was established over a century ago, has been instrumental in enabling this distinguished graduate to set a standard of excellence which all future graduates should strive to achieve. Awarded the 14th day of August, 2017. General Robinson, the podium is yours. Thank you so much. I'll do this. First of all, congratulations to all of you for this class coming up. You have no idea about the adventure that's in front of you. I can tell you, if you had told me in the fall of 1994 sitting there that I would be standing here, I would have laughed you off the stage. So the art of the possible is incredible. I remember, I remember when I found out I was coming here to the College of Naval Command and Staff Junior class. I remember I was deployed to Turkey doing Operation Northern Watch and in the Air Force we kind of did a bulk release of school and so I had due diligently taken my Air Command and Staff and Resident by distance. You know, I took it with me to Turkey. I was like, okay, I'll start doing this but I'll figure out what's happening and so when the list came out and they said, no, ma'am, you're not on the list, I was like, okay, so I took the vinyl off the books and said, I better, you know, right, those of us know, I better start reading this from afar. And about an hour later, I got a call and the call was congratulations, Captain, you get to go to the College of Naval Command and Staff and I was like, all right, I will tell you, I put the books in the trash. I did. I'm such a due diligent student and I was beside myself and somebody said to me, why did you want to go to Newport? And I said, of course, this is a very esoterical, well thought out analytical response because I could wear civilian clothes. I have to tell you, I have to tell you, I am an unabashed airman. I am proud to, our service currently has the Committee on the Chief's Trophy. Thank you very much. Come on, airman. But, and I had the privilege as a captain to work with different nations, to work with interagency folks, to have the opportunity to work with all the different services at the tactical level. What I learned here, the opportunity and the things that I learned while I was here was to stretch my brain. So strategy and policy, my very first paper, I had to write on something that had to do with the Revolutionary War and something that the French did with the Revolutionary War. And I was like, wow, huh, who knew, you know? Right? And so, serious, I mean, and so you had to write your thesis then you had to do your outline, you had to bring it into the professor and you had to show the professor, here's kind of where I'm going with my paper. Sound familiar faculty, right? So I'm pretty proud of myself. So I'm thesis, three main points, sub points, bring my outline in and the professor said to me, and I'm glad I don't remember the name, but the professor said to me, I'm sorry, Lori, what war would you be talking about? Because it's certainly not the Revolutionary War. He goes, come back in a week and do it over. I remember going back to my cubicle and I shared a room that overlooked the water with another, a dear friend of mine, another airman. And I said, okay, if we don't get a beer better, do you still get the masters? I'm just curious about this. I have to tell you the time here to sit and think, to learn from our coalition and our friends, to learn from the interagency, to learn from the other services, not just what we do day in and day out, but our culture, how we think, how we live, why we say the things we say, what we do, and to apply it to the art of war, to understand the science, to understand the art, and bring it all together in a place where you don't have to make a decision in five minutes, where you don't have to figure out what exactly needs to happen that next moment, where you're not getting a call from the Secretary of Defense asking Lori how are things working? The opportunity to stretch your brain, to sit back and ponder all that we do each and every day that we take for granted, but to sit back and think, spend some time with each other, spend some time with your family, take advantage of everything that you get to do each and every day. Because I'm telling you, the friendships that you make, two of my classmates, Admiral Nora Tyson, another classmate, General Tony Thomas, Commander Special Operations Command. Tony and I, when we first sat down next to each other in our first meeting with the Secretary of Defense, we looked at each other and said, can you believe we're sitting here? And he goes, no, Lori, not after all the parties you held, no. Your friendships, the knowledge, the time, the venue, the faculty is incredible, open your mind. While we all know we bring things to anything that the President and our nation asks of us and our nations ask of us, we can always learn more, we can always teach more and we can always give more. So to each of you, I say congratulations. To each of you, I say you have an amazing journey in front of you, take advantage of it, enjoy every single day of it, even when you have to rewrite your paper. Because I will tell you what you learn about yourself, about each other, about what we do every day, will be far surpassed than a paper. You will take it to your next assignment, your next job, your next thing in front of you and I will tell you today, as I sit and look at that audience and look at you, I know the things that I learned sitting here teach me each and every day based on the decisions I have to make to defend our nation, so congratulations. Thank you, General, for those truly inspiring words. A couple more thank yous, if I might. That would be to our Provost and our Vice President for their leadership of our extraordinary staff and faculty. Also like to recognize the presence of the Naval War College Foundation who gives us an extraordinary margin of excellence in all of the things that we do. And the last convocation for Admiral Jamie Kelly, who's inspirational service to this college for many years now, in particularly teaching the leadership and the war fighting courses that we have here has been a great blessing for my friend and my mentor, congratulations Admiral. My final task today and the bestest part ever as the 56th President of the U.S. Naval War College is to formally convene the class of 2018. I hereby convene the class of 2018, congratulations. So we'll now begin our collective journey of discovery. Thank you all for being here today. God bless you, God bless America, God bless us, everyone. Please rise for the benediction. Let us pray. Eternal Father, strong to save, whose arm has bound the restless wave. For these students, a new voyage is now underway, a challenging and rigorous academic year. In the days ahead, grant them self-awareness, humility and moral courage as they are challenged by new ideas, increased levels of complexity and the inherent demands of greater responsibility. Enable them to balance the academic demands of family and personal growth, for their families may this be a year of new friendships, bonding experiences and memories that last a lifetime. Grant them such a spirit of collaboration, understanding and dedication to serve humanity. Be present in readings, examinations, papers and discussions that the lessons learned here would impact not only those presents but through their lived out leadership that influenced their commands, communities and countries and speeded about that day when all partake of the fruit of liberty, justice and freedom for all. Amen. Please remain standing for the departure of the official party. This concludes our ceremony. Thank you for joining us this afternoon. I ask all faculty members to proceed to Covert Plaza for their picture. Thank you.