 We've gathered here at St. Mary's Chairchart in Portsmouth, Rhode Island to celebrate the 136th birthday of the Naval War College at the grave site of our founding president, Mayor Admiral Stephen B. Luce. This will be a joyous celebration of the many accomplishments the college has achieved. Since Navy Secretary William E. Chandler issued General Order Number 325 on October 6th, 1884, establishing the college and assigning Commodore Luce as its first president. We will hear from several distinguished speakers, then share a traditional and festive birthday cake. We begin with Dr. John B. Hatendorf, the Ernest J. King Professor Emeritus of Maritime History. The author or editor of over 50 books, he is the namesake of the college's Hatendorf Center for Maritime Historical Research. He has been acclaimed internationally for his scholarship and was inducted into the Rhode Island Heritage Hall of Fame in 2019. Dr. Hatendorf. It's a great pleasure to be here and to celebrate this 136th anniversary. It's very appropriate for us to be here at the grave of Admiral Luce, who fought for 20 years to get this institution established and then continued to fight for it after its establishment from 1884 until his death in 1917. Admiral Luce was the intellectual leader of the new American Navy of the late 19th century. He was the leader behind all sorts of innovations that improved the efficiency of the Navy and its preparations for war. They range from the establishment of the first naval recruit training station here in Newport in 1883 all the way to the concept of having a chief of naval operations and Navy General Board to think about new innovations. But the crown and the jewel in the crown of his ideas was the naval war colors, a place of education for the highest level of the naval profession. Up until his time, it was clear how an officer went from the shipman to captain in charge of the ship. But there was no place to think about the higher-ass place. What one does is an admiral and or to be an advisor to a civilian official. So the place of the war crimes, his idea was to think about the full nature of wars, how wars start, how wars begin, how wars can be avoided, what is the role of the Navy in peacetime, all this whole range of ideas. But we had no place there was very little literature written about. It was difficult to persuade people to believe that because those ideas form in a different area of knowledge. The most naval officers then is now we're interested in and devoted in technology, dealing with the means of war. He was talking about the objects of the war. That lies in the humanities and history, study of political science, social sciences, understanding leadership, and such as that. But he also wanted to make sure that while the Navy, the war college was to be the home of thought, the home of theory, and home of these abstract ideas. It was also the place where those ideas were translated into practical use. So the idea that he developed there was with naval wargate. He used those ideas as a way of transmitting this, bring them directly to the fleet. This was his concept and this was the idea when he went told in the class in 1903 at the convocation in 1903 that naval war college was a place of original research on all questions relating to war and the statesmanship of the prevention of war. And it's those ideas that we continue today in all our activities, modernized and using the latest technology and scholarship to teach and think about these things. Thank you. Thank you, John. Representing the Luce family here today is where I'm Luce's great-great-grandniece, Anne de Beau's, Joselyn. She was raised in a family steeped in two centuries and seven generations of naval tradition. In fact, she was born on the grounds of the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland. Her professional experiences include positions with the U.S. Department of Commerce, the Department of Agriculture, and as a presidential appointee within the White House during the administration of President George H.W. Bush. Anne? I am so pleased to be here. It is always a treat and always puts a great big smile on my face that I can be, at this point in time, be following in some of the tracks of my family. I almost feel like I grew up with Admiral Luce. That might sound strange since I'm a little bit younger. But he was really the hero for my father. It was from his side of the family that Luce married into. But father, as a naval officer, always had the highest esteem for Admiral Luce. In fact, we lived in the house that we inherited from Admiral Luce's grandson, also Stephen B. Luce. And in that front hallway of a 1700 house, there was always a framed photograph of Admiral Luce when he was but a midshipman in 1841 with a straw cap and looking very young and sprightly. So when you look at his older photographs, he looks like he did get a little bit older, but he was also a little bit more seasoned. So I did always have Admiral Luce somehow in the home that I was growing up in. And when I look at him, I think of him more as a family member because my family is so naval in tradition. And when I think of his life as coming from Albany, New York, moving to Washington, D.C., his father was a clerk at the Treasury, he had no knowledge of ships whatsoever. And yet at 14, he decided he wanted to be a midshipman. And at those days, there was no Naval Academy in Annapolis. And so what he did was board ships and he sailed. And he learned the Navy firsthand from the age of 14. The Navy wasn't in such good condition during those years because after the war of 1812, everyone just decided we'll rest on our laurels and we won't really put much effort into building our Navy. And they did that all the way up to the Civil War. So it wasn't until the Civil War and the Union Navy became a strong empowering force. And at that time, Admiral Luce wasn't an Admiral yet, but he was actually in Charleston and with the Battle of Charleston and with Sherman, General Sherman, after the Battle of Charleston and after the Civil War ended, he was assigned to the Naval Academy. And at that time, the Naval Academy was still here in Newport and he loved Newport. He fell in love with Newport. And this became a place where he wanted it to become a Seaport, a Naval Seaport. And he held onto that throughout the rest of his life. But the Navy, again, downsized. There wasn't enough money. There wasn't enough personnel. And the ships were out at sea with very little training on them. Well, Admiral Luce said, no, our officers and our personnel need to be trained. And so for over 10 years, almost 15 years, he headed up those training ships so that our young men in the Navy would have the best of the practices aboard ship. Not all of them liked him. Officers and personnel included because he wanted it done exactly the way he thought it should be. So after that, Civil War, then he's in training on ships and then he's called to the Naval Academy. Now the Naval Academy is back in operation in Annapolis. And as John mentioned, I happen to be born on the Naval Academy grounds. He was there and he was a very important figure in that he was the assistant to the superintendent and having lived at the Academy for over three years as a child. Everyone knows how important the superintendent is. He then came back as commandant of midshipmen. So he had a great knowledge on how the United States Naval Academy was functioning, both in Newport during the Civil War and afterwards when it went back to Annapolis. So the Navy lies stagnant until while he is professing over and over year after year that we need to build our Navy. We need to be smart. We need a smarter Navy. We need smarter officers and we need smarter protocol. Nothing really happens. It's now 1900. He's born in 1827 until Teddy Roosevelt. And Teddy Roosevelt was extremely important in building back our Navy. We won in the Spanish War. It was the Great White Fleet. He was the assistant secretary of the Navy and he plunged himself into reinvigorating a Navy. This is quite a long time after the Civil War. So there was a lot of stagnant time but it was at this time again that Luce went back to ships. His first and first love was being aboard a ship with the crew. And at that time, when he left his last training session, he came back to a Newport. It was 1884. And he said, I think now is the time that Congress is going to put together a bill that's gonna give us a Naval War College. And so it was. But he only had five years after the Naval War College was established to really dig his feet in. It was only 60 and he wanted to do much more but they sent him to sea. And he didn't want to be at sea. And he left behind his appointed captain, captain as we call him, Mahan, that may be wrong, but in the Naval Academy we called it Mahan. He left him as his kind of able assistant and he did a fantastic job and grew the Navy extremely well. So Luce ended up retiring. He retired at 62, but he had 28 more years. And for those 28 years, he never ever left his love for the Naval, the Newport Naval War College until the day he died. And he died here in Newport. He's buried here with his wife, Eliza Henley. And together they must have had an amazing career. I think they had an amazing love for each other. And what has happened since his death in 1917 has been quite remarkable because many, if you were a betting person would have said the Naval War College will never ever function. It will never last. There's not enough money. There's not enough interest. We don't want really educating all of our officers. We don't want them too smart. And everyone thought that including my uncle thought there would be no Naval War College after his death and World War One. So if he were here today, I would just say if I were in his shoes, he could not be more delighted to see what has happened to this really his baby. The thing that he spent decades and decades working for. And it's come to fruition. And today is better than ever. And I'm very, very proud and pleased to be here today with our Admiral Chatfield with John Jackson. And where is my friend, John Hattendorf. Thank you so much for letting me say a few words. Thank you, Anne. Wonderful, wonderful remarks. Now my honor to introduce the rear emeralds for Shawna Chatfield, the 57th president of the Naval War College. She is a decorated Naval Aviator, seasons educator and an officer who exemplifies the Navy's core values of honor, courage and commitment. Admiral? It is a joyous moment on this beautiful, crisp fall day in the presence of rear admiral, Stephen B. Lucen's resting place. And with us is great, great grand niece, Ms. Anne DeBose Jocelyn. Thank you for your remarks and for being here with us as we celebrate the United States Naval War Colleges 136th birthday. Today we seek to pay our respects to the man who set the college on the path his successors have followed for more than 13 decades. And to recall some of the highlights of this remarkable journey. It was a journey of intellectual curiosity, discovery and concept development, all of which have helped lead our Navy and our nation to great victories. Please allow me to address our founder directly as we celebrate the accomplishments of the men and women who passed through our college since the end of the 19th century. Admiral Luce, we recall the long and difficult bureaucratic battle you fought to bring the college into existence, fighting against the less enlightened critics who believed that our naval leaders were only built upon the sea. A marble plaque now adorns your grave site identifying you as the intellectual leader of the modern Navy. Truer words have never been spoken. Over the decades, your college grew in size and influence far beyond we suspect the degree that you had ever imagined. During the interwar years of the 1920s and 30s, the finest maritime minds in uniform so adjourned to Newport to study subjects like history, geography, political science, technology and leadership, all of which prepared them for the crucible of a global war of unimaginable size, scope and ferocity. At a time when the continued existence of the democratic values we hold so dear were in doubt, the men and women who studied at your college rose to the challenge and secured freedom for generations to come. A key to the hard fought victory over tyranny was found in the alliances between like-minded nations who banded together to fight the common enemy. After the war, your college established highly regarded international studies programs that brought top quality maritime leaders from dozens of nations to study together and share cultural and ethnic identities to encourage a bond of maritime security cooperation that now reaches across the seven seas to promote freedom, democracy and economic stability. We now count 4,869 graduates of our resident programs and 44 heads of Navy today that study at your college in Newport. As the mid-century hot war came to a close, a potentially even more destructive cold war gripped the world with the threat of nuclear annihilation always close at hand. Your college's faculty and students contributed to the body of knowledge about this existential threat and through seminars, war games and analytical research, ideas and concepts were developed to address the issues. A series of global war games annually brought hundreds of political and military leaders together to think about the unthinkable. As the cold war ended, a different battle was won when Congress authorized and your college achieved accreditation to award the Master of Arts degree. A member of that very first class of 1992 is today Commander of US Indo-Pay-Com, Admiral Phil Davidson. The college's global influence was significant at this critical time in our country's history. And while the specific challenges are different today, it continues to serve as the Navy's home of thought on a wide variety of issues. Later decades brought smaller, but still painful conflicts which consumed the blood and treasure of America and our islands. At the turn of the new century, patriots fell in our building and fields within our nation's homeland. The ranks of the military and civilian leadership who answered this clarion call were filled with graduates of your college who toiled in the academic vineyards of Newport to learn not what is to think, but how to think. This as much as anything is your enduring legacy. What then? What about the future? Admiral Luce, you may rest easy in this cool and pastoral setting, comfortable in the knowledge that your college is steaming smartly into the future, still solidly on the track you set for us 136 years ago. The Navy, our fellow services, inter-agency partners, maritime partners will reap the benefits of scholarly research and education, strengthened by the embrace of diversity and integrity and with an unwavering commitment to serve as the maritime shield of this homeland. We are able to see the far horizon because we stand on the shoulders of the great leaders forged by this great college, your college. Leaders such as Nimitz, Halsey, King, Spruin, Stockdale, Kerrth, Zabrowski, Brichenson and countless others. I pledge to you that we will keep the spirit alive for future generations. May the next century be as fruitful as the previous decades. Happy birthday, Naval War College. Change, the only constant in this life is change. Continual unremitting change is the law of the universe. Stagnation means atrophy and death. It is not enough to remain abreast of the times. This college, our Naval War College, must be in the very front rank of the advanced guard of progress. And so we are, and so we shall remain.