 strengthening maritime partnerships in the region and around the globe. That was a theme and goal of U.S. Naval War College's 13th regional alumni symposium held in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany, April 12th through 14th. In the design for maintaining maritime superiority, the CNO has identified the fourth line of effort as strengthening our partnerships. And I'm very, very happy to see that this is an area and a role in which the Naval War College can fold so neatly into supporting that design. The event brought together 33 alumni from 24 European nations. You brought together several very important people from Europe, people who were educated in our system at the Naval War College, who understand us and who share common beliefs and common values. And that is the security and stability of the European continent. Two of those people were Chief Southern Norwegian and Bulgarian navies. In Europe, we are facing a lot of new security challenges. So we are at the breaking point of changing our navies, our armed forces. This seminar is great to come together and discuss with close friends and partners how to deal with that. This is the opportunity to be reconnected with the Naval Academics and reunion with all our colleagues. And we have built a good brotherhood of naval officers who share common values and everything what we treasure. According to Naval War College's Dean of International Programs, the next step in this relationship building is to establish interoperability. When we develop our International Maritime Staff Office, of course, its focus is going that next level. Teaching how navies send their people to work together on maritime staffs. This working relationship not only benefits international officers, it also helps to prepare U.S. military officers for overseas military assignments. Never having lived overseas, it was really that year in Newport where fully a sixth of our class was international, which really opened our eyes, opened our mind, and made us very excited when we finally got the opportunity to live overseas. Reporting from Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany, I'm Dan Marciniak.