 Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Naval War College graduation ceremony. I'm Captain John Griffin, Dean of Students and I'll be serving as the MC for today's ceremony. You're welcome to take photographs at any time throughout the ceremony. We have official photographers taking pictures today and you'll find those photos posted on our Flickr site found on the back of the program for you to download. At this time, as a courtesy, please put your mobile phones on silent or vibrate. Please remain seated for the student procession. Please rise and remain standing for the arrival of the official party, National Anthem and invocation. The National Anthem will be sung by musician first class Dan Smith. To see by the dawn's early light, what so proudly at the twilight's last gleaming, whose broad stripes Commander Charles Love, a Naval War College student, will deliver the invocation. Please join with me in prayer. Eternal God, we open this momentous occasion with gratitude. Thank you, Lord, for a life of variety and possibility, for opportunities that broaden and deepen and for loved ones who require and inspire. Lord of this moment and all moments, we declare that this day is not like others. For today, Lord, we mark with ceremony to honor the hard work and achievement of these graduates. We recognize that you are the ultimate source of all knowledge and understanding. And thank you for the mental capacity to learn and to grow and to stretch ourselves. We are also grateful for the new and enduring friendships we have developed along the way. And thank you for this college, its leadership, faculty and excellence in education. As these graduates walk to this platform and have their degrees conferred, may your blessings be upon each one. Use them as instruments in your mighty hand to accomplish well your great purposes in their lives. Along with them, we humbly ask for your blessings upon all who have come to celebrate their accomplishments. We pray this Lord God in your strong and holy name. Ladies and gentlemen, please be seated. It gives me great pleasure to introduce some members of our official party. Professor Walt Wilderman, Director, College of Distance Education. Captain Richard Lebranche, Chair, Joint Military Operations Department. Dr. Michael Pavkovic, Chair, Strategy and Policy Department. Dr. Nicholas Vozdev, Acting Chair, National Security Affairs Department. Dr. Phil Hahn, Dean of Academics. Dr. Louis Duncan, Provost. Dr. Andrea Dew, Strategy and Policy Department. And Rear Admiral P. Gardner Howe III, President, United States Naval War College. Good day and welcome to all the guests at today's ceremony. Several years ago, we began our tradition at the Naval War College of allowing the graduating student body to nominate their guest speaker from amongst all the talented professionals at the college. I would like to ask graduating student Lieutenant Colonel Manley Harrington to introduce your faculty guest speaker. Manley? Good morning. Good afternoon, I guess. Cam Griffin, I want to thank you for giving me the honor of introducing our guest speaker, Dr. Andrea Dew. I want to reassure you that when you gave us the opportunity to select our own guest speaker, we took that task very serious. We got together as two classes got together. We discussed that we elected a committee. That committee sat down and we deliberated for about two hours. And we went down every single lecture that's been presented to us over the course of a year. We put it into a spreadsheet. We evaluated. It was very objective, very thorough process. And Admiral Hale, I want to reassure you that you actually have top-notch quality expert lecturers. As we look back on that, we were incredibly blessed. And in recognition for all their hard work that they put into those lectures, we awarded those people an 88. But Dr. Andrea Dew stood out from this sea of outstanding mediocrity and we knew that we needed to have her as our guest speaker. Not only is she an accomplished author, a gifted lecturer, the director of the Center on Regular Warfare and Armed Groups, but she has a beautiful British accent and a panache in her delivery style that sets her apart from everyone else. In each room she's in, she's absolutely the most interesting person in the room. Ladies and gentlemen, please help me welcome Professor Andrea Dew. So as I suspected today was an opportunity to haze your faculty. All right. Good afternoon, everyone. Oh, learning curve. Good afternoon, everyone. Okay. After a year, I thought you'd have nailed that one. So first, I would like to say thank you. It is an incredible honor to be selected. However that committee was put together, my working theory is martinis down at the O-Club. But if you insist it was a committee and a spreadsheet, then thank you. One of my great pleasures in life is meeting you, meeting your families, getting to know you as people, and having the opportunity today to say congratulations first and to see you on your way is something that really means so much to me. So thank you and let me say it first, congratulations. The last time I graduated, they gave me... I was the only person who was allowed to carry their cover in here. They gave me a cap, a gown, and a hood. Now, there's two things you should know about this first. Never ever stand outside in Newport wearing this particular garb. The prevailing headwinds are strong. The second thing is that I'm condemned to spend the rest of my professional life looking like a 14th century minstrel. You clearly get the better end of this graduation deal. You're leaving us. You're graduating. You truly have been a class that we have enjoyed. Your wit, your wisdom, your courtesy, your professionalism, and your kindness. They really stand out for us. So before you leave, I have three thoughts for you. I will do my best to address you in the best British accent that I have left after all of these years. And let me just break it to you. Brassidus, one of my great heroes, is going to be part of this conversation. But first, I'm talking about great people. So the first set of great people we have to address is not only our fabulous faculty that are up on stage here. The wonderful people, the great thinkers, the great writers, the great mentors, the great teachers, but also our staff here who make things happen for us. If you have spent time researching in the library, it's because the librarians make things happen for you. So those are some of the great people that we have here at our disposal. And I also want to single out the great people we have in the audience. And those are your families. Your families and your friends. I know from talking to you that your families sacrifice greatly. They follow you halfway around the world. They disrupt their lives. They disrupt schools. Sometimes they come out for your graduation and sometimes they send you an email and say, I'm halfway across the world. I wish I could be there with you. But they're the people that support you. They're the people that make this possible. So I want to start by saying thank you to all of those. You're fabulous. Thank you. I would, if you were slow to applaud clearly, your family are the ones that have been throwing darts at you for the last couple of weeks. So I bring your attention to one of our great books that we studied here. And that's Clashwitz on War. That wonderful strategic tone that you know every word. You can quote every line. You sleep with a copy underneath your pillow as good graduates. And I'd point out to you that the only reason we have that book, that great strategic tone, is because his wife, the Countess von Brühl, collated his papers, edited them, and took them to a publisher. So that is the kind of support that we expect from all of you family in here. And some might argue, I know you're hoping for a counterargument. Some might argue that she could have done a better job cutting out some of the chapters, leaving things on the cutting room floor, adding punctuation. But let's be frank, she had her reprints to think of and her pension. So please understand the value of families to the endeavor that we have here. Thank you so much. And my second point today is about inspirational people. I promised you Brassidus, I'm gonna bring you Brassidus and a British lady, with a better accent than mine, Lady Gertrude Bell. So Brassidus we all learned about. We learned about Brassidus as this charming, handsome, broad of shoulder, square of jaw, Spartan leader. He's a gentleman that strikes a great pose, looks fabulous in his busts after the fact. And even, I understand, had most of his own teeth, quite a catch. He also transcended the world that he was in. He was a Spartan leader in their most hierarchical, rigid, institutional bound military society that I think we've ever seen. And when the Spartans suffered a humiliating defeat at the hands of the Athenian, he transcended. He transcended that rigid way of thinking. And he said, we have to do something different. Now, luckily for us, what he did differently was inspirational. He took the Spartan equivalent of a dirty dozen. He took the disgraced Spartans, the freed helots, and he took them on a march up the Peloponnes to Amthipolis. And instead of doing what Spartans usually do, which is kick indoors, wield swords, take names afterwards, he went on a charm offensive. He made friends. He knocked on doors. He got to know people and he understood their problems. And he found a way to walk all the way to the north of the Peloponnes without spilling a drop of blood. And when he got there, rested and refreshed, he was able to bring the Athenians to a great battle, a battle that changed the momentum and the course of the war. Now, I look at Brassidus as an example of the kind of things that you do. You look at institutions and you look at doctrine and you look at the way things are always done. And then you look at the challenges in front of you and say, that's not enough. That's not going to cut it. We have to be greater than this. We have to transcend this. So he's the first of my great people that I'm offering him up today for us to think about. And the second is Lady Gertrude Bell. She was also broad of shoulder and square of jaw, perhaps a little shorter than Brassidus. She was born in the late 1880s and she is a British lady who transcended her world. She broke out of the box that society wanted to put her to. She graduated from Oxford with a degree in history, first in her class at a time when women were not allowed to take university degrees. And she graduated in two years. Now, she was quite a character. She's exactly the kind of person we would want to drink gin and tonics with. And she had some sea stories. She was instrumental in supporting the work of T.E. Lawrence, Lawrence, Arabia. Now we know Lawrence as somebody who helped conduct unconventional warfare in the Middle East. And we think of Lawrence as this person who understood cultures and he understood how to work with people in the way that Brassidus did. But Lady Gertrude Bell was somebody that understood not just cultures and history and language, but she wrote. She wrote and she ran intelligence networks and every single influential sheet and religious leader in the Middle East from Anatolia, Turkey, down to Saudi Arabia and out to Cairo knew her by name. Her Rolodex was formidable and because she was such an amazing networker and so good at breaking outside of the bounds that society wanted to put her to, she was instrumental in some of the British successes in the Middle East. Now, what are these two people, 2300 years apart, have to do with us here in Newport today? I would say look, these are examples of people who transcend. They transcend their institutions. They transcend their times. They transcend organizations. When the call comes, we look behind us and we say what has been, we look in front of us and say, it's not enough to meet the challenge. And Brassidus and Lady Gertrude Bell are two people I look at and say, they would fit right in with you. They'd come into the classroom. Brassidus would be in sandals. Lady Gertrude Bell would be in a fur and a floppy hat so we'd have to get past that part of this. But they'd walk in, they'd recognize the chalkboard. Some things have never changed. And they would be able to brainstorm with us. They would be able to sit around with you and say, what do you think? Critical analysis. What's the best path here? What's the risk? What's the reward? What haven't we thought about? And that brings me to my final set of people and that's you. I've said at the beginning that you are some of my favorite people that have come through this college and I absolutely truly mean this. Your imagination, your energy, your innovation, your willingness to laugh at my jokes, and your willingness to vote me as your graduation speaker all clearly set you apart. But what also sets you apart is your willingness to make space, to make space for new ideas, to make space for people that don't look like us or sound like us or come from our background but they have potential. They may have the answer. They may be the people that we need to bring into the conversation. We may have Brassidus and Lady Gertrude amongst us or they may be Brassidus and Lady Gertrude that need your help when you leave here. They need your imagination. They need the quality of thought of professionalism that you bring to your jobs. So I will end with three reminders. It's never sufficient simply to have the ideas. We need the courage to act on them. The courage and the perseverance. You have that in spades. It is never simply sufficient to have done the reading and I know you did every page of reading whilst you were here. If you were in my seminar, I quizzed you on this. We have to write. We have to write. To advocate, to argue and to persuade. And when you look around and you see strategic stupidity, this is where we look for Naval War College grads to lean in and say, let me offer you a counter argument and drive this in a different direction. And finally, it's never sufficient to be the smartest person in the room. We have to make space for the other ideas, for the other people that don't look like us and sound like us because they may have that solution and it's up to us to champion that and send it forward. And so my final, final three points are this. Very simple, very short. First, stay safe. You have dangerous jobs. Stay safe. Continue to be outstanding. You have been outstanding here. Some of you have been distinguished in outstanding and some of you brilliant in outstanding and some of you frankly hilarious in outstanding. But continue to be outstanding. That's what we expect of you and that's what we know you will do. And finally, you know how to reach us. You know where we are. You know what this place is. Stay in touch. Some of the greatest pleasure that I get when I open my inbox and I read my email is not the notification that I have no parking spot or that the O Club is closed for the afternoon or that there's a bake sale outside of those doors. It comes from you. You're in tricky situations. You've gone to billets that say, hey, you did strategy and policy. I'm going to put you in the policy shop or you're going to run the educational programs or you're confronted with something you've never seen before. Reach back. That's what we're here for. It is our great pleasure. So that's my final remark and let me take the opportunity once more to say. Congratulations. Dr. Dew, on behalf of the students, staff and faculty, I thank you for your comments today and your ongoing contributions and service educating leaders at the Naval War College. For each graduating class, one student is selected for recognition as the president's honor graduate. This award is presented to the student who best displays the high standards of academic performance, Naval War College activities, participation in civic and community service, and promotion of military service in the public interest. For the College of Naval Warfare, the honor graduate for the March 2016 graduating class is Commander Michael Ray. Would you please come up to the stage to receive your award? Commander Ray is graduating number one in his College of Naval Warfare class. He was seminar academic representative, briefer on the Forest Hall award-winning NSDM seminar, active in Jamestown as a volunteer soccer and little league coach, and participated in the first ever Naval War College exchange visit to China. Along with the certificate, he's receiving an engraved weaves and plaques compass from the Naval War College Foundation. For the College of Naval Command and Staff, the honor graduate for the March 2016 graduating class is Lieutenant Commander Nathan Snyder. Lieutenant Commander Snyder is graduating number one in his College of Naval Warfare Command and Staff class. He served as a seminar leader, academic representative, was a member of the Admiral Stavridis award-winning TSDM seminar, and won the Lieutenant General Wilson Award for Excellence in Counterterrorism Studies for his paper on counterterrorism. Along with the certificate, he received an engraved weaves and plaques compass from the Naval War College Foundation. We'll now give our honor graduates a few moments to address your fellow graduates and classmates. Wow, thank you Admiral Howell for this singular honor and thanks for taking me back. I attended the junior course in residence here in 2006. So when the bureau told me I was coming again, I had to assume it was going to be a year-long remediation and thankfully apparently this time I did a little bit better. Joking aside, the past year has been an amazing experience. I've loved the coursework across all three courses and would especially like to call out the great people in the College of Operational and Strategic Leadership where my electives were based. Dr. Olinda Johnson, Professor Julia Gage and Professor Jean Anderson are real gems of this institution and have impacted me greatly. They challenged me to get inside my own head and although I was sometimes afraid of what I might find there, the experience was incredibly rewarding and will guide the rest of my career. I'm grateful to the college for the opportunity to travel to China last summer on the War College Exchange trip. Although my kids who were over there are convinced that it was just an excuse to eat duck brains, jellyfish, and yak meat, I can attest to having gained great insight into our country's complex relationship with the People's Republic. I hope the exchange program continues. It was clear to me that our counterparts in the Chinese Navy are decent, dedicated professionals who likewise hold the American military in the highest esteem. Finding common ground and minimizing mistrust will be critically important to the future of the world's most important great power leadership relationship. I'd like to say thanks to my family who are here today and support me every day. I'm very proud to be standing up here but it's nothing like the pride I have in being a husband and a father. Finally, I extend my hearty congratulations and fair wins to my friends and classmates who are joining me and graduating today. It's often said that interaction with the highest caliber peers is the most memorable and important part of the War College experience. It's only because this is so true that it's said so often. If there were a JPME phase three, I'd come back to Newport for the peer interaction alone. Well, that along with the lobster in the long weekends. But thank you very, very much. All right, so as anticipated, this year is definitely flown by and it sure has been great. Seems like just a couple short weeks ago but really it was almost about a year ago today. We had those incredible blizzards. Everyone grabbed their warm jackets out of their closets and made the trek uphill to the Admiral's quarters for the new student reception. I remember towards the end of that evening, Admiral, you imparted some words of wisdom on us. You said, hey, take this time to reconnect with your family. Take the time to enjoy Newport and also take the time to just think and reflect on what it means to be in the military profession of arms. I thought, wow, this is incredibly rewarding. For the past 15 years, my experience in the military has been a whole heck of a lot about doing and not a whole heck of a lot about thinking and reflecting. I got home that night and I said, it's pretty incredible. This is great. You're going to pay me to think for a year. And wow, this is probably going to be pretty darn easy too. Looking back on that experience, I would say it has been very, very rewarding but easy, probably not so much. Remember piping up some of the first times in seminar, maybe something that wasn't really well thought through or kind of closed mind. Didn't consider a lot of perspectives. And sure enough, my classmates of the moderate would definitely call me out and challenge us on that. That happened on a routine basis. So I think back to my year for all of us there, all the reading and all the learning we did from the moderators, that was pretty cool. But the most special thing was being able to learn from one another. And I'll definitely take that with us in elevating that level of critical thinking and reasoning. Transitioning to the writing side of the house, I think it's been about 15 years since any of us tried to do anything other than maybe speaking or writing. And so that was a bit of a rough transition there. After those 15 years, get that first JMO exam and it was all over the place and red ink. It was very, very bad. That first draft of the research paper didn't really have a very clear and concise thesis statement. Not a lot of insightful analysis and quite a few gaping holes in the research. But I got to tell you, much like in seminar, working with those moderators that were top-notch by the end of the year, it had really dramatically improved. And I think all of us, hopefully that resonates with most of my classmates out there will be able to take that with us and be very valuable. So in summary, sir, I want to thank you for setting a culture and environment that really calls of us as military professionals to open up our aperture and really thank, read, and write at a much higher level. And as we move into senior leadership positions, I'm rest assured that that'll serve us well going forward. Before I leave the stage, I'd definitely be remiss if I didn't thank my family for coming out and for my beautiful wife, Mariah, for coming out. Thank you very much for all your love and support. Now, if this isn't her first rodeo, she's been through four deployments. Not taking anything away from how challenging that was and how supportive she's been, but I think it did kind of catch us a little bit off guard what it would be like to support your husband when he's literally in the next room for three or four hours every night with the head buried in the iPad and the noise-canceling headphones on. So that was a unique challenge for her. And I'm sure that resonates with some of the other family members, too. So on behalf of all my classmates, I'd like to say thank you to all the family members that are here today and for the ones that couldn't be with us watching online. Thanks. Thank you, gentlemen. Great job. Master of Arts, Degree in National Security and Strategic Studies, or Defense and Strategic Studies will now be conferred to the graduates. Will the graduates please rise? Admiral, I have the honor to present the March graduates of the Naval War College, candidates for the Master of Arts in National Security and Strategic Studies or Defense and Strategic Studies. They've been thoroughly examined and approved by the faculty. So by the power invested in me by the Secretary of the Navy, the accreditation of the New England Association of Schools and Colleges, and by the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, I confer upon you the appropriate degrees and diplomas in National Security and Defense and Security Studies. So, ladies and gentlemen, please join me in signaling our appreciation and congratulations with your applause to the 2016 March graduates of the U.S. Naval War College. Thank you, Admiral. Graduates, please be seated. Beyond the requirements for graduation, certain individuals have distinguished themselves through academic excellence. For those in the top 5%, they are receiving a diploma with the highest distinction. Those in the next 15% will receive a diploma with distinction. Graduates will now receive their diplomas. Graduates, from the College of Naval Warfare, please proceed to the stage as your name is read. Guests are welcome to come forward to take photographs. Please try to hold your applause until all names have been read. Raul Mahal, Dr. Duncan, Dr. Dooh, and Dr. Hahn, if you would, please rise. Presenting the graduating members of the College of Naval Warfare and their next duty assignment, Commander Brian S. Anderton, Anderton, U.S. Navy, Train Air Wing 6, Pensacola, Florida, Lieutenant Colonel Leland D. Blanchard II, U.S. Army National Guard, Centcom McDeal Air Force Base, Tampa, Florida, Commander Bennett W. Boyer, U.S. Navy, Training Squadron II, Cell Res Augmentation Unit, NAS Whiting Field, Milton, Florida, Lieutenant Commander Brandon J. Decker, U.S. Navy, Comnev Res Force Staff Detachment, Office of the Chief of Naval Reserve, Arlington, Virginia, Colonel Joseph M. Eining, U.S. Army National Guard, Joint Force Headquarters, South Dakota Army National Guard, Rapid City, South Dakota, Commander Brian M. Foss, U.S. Navy, DIA Liaison Detachment, Joint Reserve Intelligence Center, San Diego, California, Lieutenant Commander Garth H. Kimstad, U.S. Navy, NIAC NSA Fort Meade, Maryland, Commander Monique Gording Shaw, Medical Service Corps, U.S. Navy, Walter Reed, National Military Medical Center, Bethesda, Maryland, Captain Jimmy L. Ham, Supply Corps, U.S. Navy, Naval Reserve Fleet Logistics Center, Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, Commander Galen R. Hartman, U.S. Navy, Navy Fleet Introduction Team, Norfolk, Virginia, Lieutenant Colonel Manly Joseph Harrington, U.S. Marine Corps, U.S. Paycom J3, Camp H.M. Smith, Hawaii, Commander Richard B. Hill, U.S. Navy, With Distinction, U.S. Paycom, Camp H.M. Smith, Hawaii, Commander William Keith Holmgren, U.S. Navy, Naval Reserve, 4DV, 4DC, Portland, Oregon, Lieutenant Colonel Sean C. Colleen, U.S. Marine Corps, With Distinction, Allied Command, Transformation, Norfolk, Virginia, Commander Kurt A. Kyle, U.S. Navy, Waiting Orders, Lieutenant Commander Ian J. Lilliquist, U.S. Navy, Highest Distinction, JSOC, Fort Bragg, North Carolina, Commander Michael F. Lorrain II, Supply Corps, U.S. Navy, U.S. Africom, Stuttgart, Germany, Captain Michael D. McNichol, U.S. Navy, Commander Naval Activity, Road to Spain, Lieutenant Commander David R. Marino, U.S. Navy, Naval Meteorology and Oceanography Command, Component East, Norfolk, Virginia, Colonel Kevin W. Matthews, U.S. Marine Corps, With Distinction, 8th Marine Corps District, Fort Worth, Texas, Captain Mary E. Neal, Dental Corps, U.S. Navy, With Distinction, Awaiting Orders, Commander Michael E. Ray, U.S. Navy, Number One in His Class, Highest Distinction, Navy IG, Washington, D.C., Captain Valerie J. Regie, Medical Service Corps, U.S. Navy, Bureau of Medicine and Surgery, Falls Church, Virginia, Colonel James A. Schnelle, U.S. Marine Corps, Temporarily Signed, Naval War College, Lieutenant Colonel Seth E. Yost, U.S. Marine Corps, SENTCOM, Tampa, Florida. The following students cannot attend today's ceremony. They are Colonel Gregory R. Bell, U.S. Army, Colonel Wayne R. Hurtel, U.S. Army, and presenting the graduating members of the College of Naval Command and Staff in their next duty assignment. Lieutenant Commander Nicholas Alfano, U.S. Navy, VAQ 132 NAS Woodby Island, Oak Harbor, Washington. Lieutenant Commander Theolos C. Ballas, U.S. Navy, Halsey Alpha-Fella, U.S. Naval War College, Newport-Rood Island. Major Seth E. Barrett, U.S. Army, Awaiting Orders. Lieutenant Commander Ryan Elence-Bomb, Supply Corps, U.S. Navy, Naval Reserve, ComLog Westpac Logistics Readiness Center, Detachment, Almeda, California. Lieutenant Commander David P. Brennan, U.S. Navy, U.S. Stratcom, Omaha, Nebraska. Lieutenant Commander Michael Brown, U.S. Navy, USS John C. Stennis, CBN 74, Bremerton, Washington. Lieutenant Commander Michael T. Brownlee, U.S. Navy, Navy Operational Support Center, Plainville, Connecticut. Major Carmen Thomas Bucci, U.S. Army, Highest Distinction, First Armored Division, Fort Bliss, El Paso, Texas. Lieutenant Commander Catherine M. Cerizo, U.S. Navy, USS Gerald R. Ford, CBN 78, Norfolk, Virginia. Lieutenant Commander Timothy P. Chesser, U.S. Navy, With Distinction, DIA Support to ODNI, Arlington, Virginia. Lieutenant Commander Lori E. Chesstain, U.S. Navy, Surface Warfare Officer Schools Command, Newport-Rood Island. Lieutenant Commander Brian A. Cummings, U.S. Navy, Compact Fleet, Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Lieutenant Commander Andrew C. Davis, U.S. Navy, Fibron III, San Diego, California. Lieutenant Commander Richard Allen Dorsey II, U.S. Navy, Patrol Squadron 30, NAS Jacksonville, Florida. Lieutenant Commander Joseph S. Frederick, U.S. Navy, CTF 57, Mamama Bahrain. Lieutenant Commander Thomas P. Gilfillin, U.S. Navy, Naval Surface Forces Atlantic, Norfolk, Virginia. Lieutenant Commander Patricia A. Godwin, U.S. Navy, Navy Operational Support Center, Fort Worth, Texas. Lieutenant Commander Robert Douglas Hale, U.S. Navy, Joint Chiefs of Staff, Arlington, Virginia. Lieutenant Commander Justin Thomas Halligan, U.S. Navy, Waiting Orders. Major Aaron J. Harrell, U.S. Marine Corps, The Basic School, Quantico, Virginia. Major Jason A. Haynes, U.S. Army, First Armor Division, El Paso, Texas. Lieutenant Commander Tori T. Higrenes, U.S. Navy, Shiad of South Key West, Florida. Lieutenant Commander Matthew R. Hopkins, U.S. Navy, With Distinction, Joint Chiefs of Staff, Arlington, Virginia. Lieutenant Commander Julia Marie Hubertz, U.S. Navy, U.S. Central Command, Tampa, Florida. Lieutenant Commander Syed Iftikhar Hussein, U.S. Navy, Defense Intelligence Agency, Washington, D.C. Lieutenant Commander Brian Alexander Jamison, U.S. Navy, Joint Chiefs of Staff, J5, Arlington, Virginia. Lieutenant Commander Joseph George Jindrich, U.S. Navy, HSM 73, North Island, San Diego, California. Lieutenant Commander George J. Camerian, U.S. Navy, Naval Cyber Warfare Development Center, Group, Suitland, Maryland. Lieutenant Commander Christopher D. Kleiber, U.S. Navy, With Distinction, U.S. Southern Command, Miami, Florida. Lieutenant Commander Jared Matthew Konewall, U.S. Navy, Third Fleet, San Diego, California. Lieutenant Commander Mark David Kurtz, U.S. Navy, Wargaming Department, U.S. Naval War College, Newport, Rhode Island. Major William Lombardo, U.S. Marine Corps, Marsock Headquarters, Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. Major Brett M. Motsenberger, U.S. Army, Highest Distinction, Fort Carson, Colorado Springs, Colorado. Major David Aaron Merritt, U.S. Marine Corps, With Distinction, Mag 31, Marine Corps Air Station, Buford, South Carolina. Lieutenant Commander Drew Michael Waite, U.S. Navy, Halsey Bravo Fellow, U.S. Naval War College, Newport, Rhode Island. Major Bryant Richard Militech, U.S. Army, Highest Distinction, 173rd Airborne Brigade, Vincenzo, Italy. Commander Jared Moore, Civil Engineering Corps, U.S. Navy, AFRICOM, Stuttgart, Germany. Lieutenant Commander Nathan K. Moore, U.S. Navy, U.S. Stratcom, Omaha, Nebraska. Lieutenant Commander Terence P. Murphy, U.S. Navy, Defense Counterterrorism Center, Reston, Virginia. Lieutenant Commander Jimmy L. Nelson, U.S. Navy, Navy Computer Telecommunications Station, Guam. Lieutenant Commander Chandra S. Newman, U.S. Navy, UCOM Headquarters, Stuttgart, Germany. Lieutenant Commander Daniel B. Oki, U.S. Navy, U.S. Syncom McDill Air Force Base, Tampa, Florida. Lieutenant Commander Todd B. Penrod, U.S. Navy, With Distinction, U.S. Sixth Fleet, Naples, Italy. Lieutenant Commander Anthony R. Perez, U.S. Navy, Sock South, Homestead, Florida. Lieutenant Commander Richard A. Perry, Jr., U.S. Navy, Halsey Alpha Fellow, U.S. Naval War College, Newport, Rhode Island. Lieutenant Commander Michael Poe, U.S. Navy, AFN North, Panama City, Florida. Lieutenant Commander Timothy John Powers, U.S. Navy, VAQ 129, Oak Harbor, Washington. Commander Andrew M. Riley, U.S. Navy, Office of Naval Research 107, Science and Technology, Naval Station, Newport, Rhode Island. Lieutenant Commander Brian S. Sagona, U.S. Navy, With Distinction, ComNAV Surf Pack, Coronado, California. Lieutenant Commander Brian Michael Salter, U.S. Navy, U.S. Stratcom Joint Intelligence Center, Omaha, Nebraska. Lieutenant Commander Nathan K. Snyder, U.S. Navy, Number One in His Class, Highest Distinction, Compact Fleet, Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Lieutenant Commander Nicole A. Serrano, U.S. Navy, Military Entrance Processing Station, Phoenix, Arizona. Lieutenant Commander James S. Sherrow III, U.S. Navy, With Distinction, USS Nebraska Gold, SSBN 739, Bangor, Washington. Lieutenant Commander Greg W. Sweeney, U.S. Navy, Sock South, Homestead, Florida. Lieutenant Commander Jonathan E. Talbert, U.S. Navy, ComNAV Air Force Pacific Rep, San Diego, California. Lieutenant Commander Jason S. Tarant, U.S. Navy, Stratcom Joint Force Component Integrated Missile Defense, Colorado Springs, California. Lieutenant Commander Chad K. Upright, U.S. Navy, Joint Force Component North Brunson, Netherlands. Lieutenant Commander Danny S. Westfall, Jr., U.S. Navy, Awaiting Orders. Lieutenant Commander Alfonso Octavius White, U.S. Navy, Fleet ASW Training Center, Point Loma, California. Lieutenant Commander Christopher W. Wolfe, U.S. Navy, With Distinction, Department of Navy Staff, Office of Legislative Affairs, Arlington, Virginia. Lieutenant Commander Robert D. Woodward, U.S. Navy, USS Patan, L.E.H.D. 5, Norfolk, Virginia. Lieutenant Robert Charles Yon, U.S. Navy, Surface Warfare Officer Schools Command, Newport, Rhode Island. Following students cannot attend today's ceremony, Tibet Gilbert R. Bond, Major Thomas Dahl, and Lieutenant Commander Daniel J. Hohenbein, who graduated with Distinction. Ladies and gentlemen, please join us in a round of applause for our graduates, honorees, and their families. Ramell Howell, you now issue the charge to the graduates. So it's now my honor to draw these proceedings to a close, and let me begin first by thanking Dr. Dew. Dr., your comments were thoughtful, inspiring, very, very well positioned to serve as kind of the final, maybe not final discussion, but one of the final discussions with our esteemed faculty here at the college. Thank you for your scholarship and your leadership here on the campus. So to the Naval War College faculty and staff that are with us today, we again witness the results of your efforts. So for over 132 years now, you and your predecessors have labored to develop and educate our Navy and our nation's leadership. And once again, you have succeeded. You've succeeded greatly, producing yet another cohort of leaders well-prepared for the increasingly complex and challenging security environment that we face. Thanks for your dedicated service to the nation, to the families and to the colleagues that are here. Thank you for joining us. Your presence makes us not just a more meaningful ceremony for our graduates, but it also, as Andrea mentioned, allows us to provide, provides us with an opportunity to recognize you for your contributions that we're celebrating here today. We all know that life in the military is a team sport. Your love, your encouragement and your devotion and tours gone by and over this past year, they have helped maintain our graduates proper balance in mind, in body and in spirit during the intellectual journey here. Thank you for your support. To the graduates, congratulations on completing your course of study here at the Naval War College. As you all get ready to head back to the operational forces, reflect upon your time here. I'd ask you to keep these following things in mind. First, the gift that you've been given. Secondly, the responsibility that you have inherited as a result of that gift. And then third, the profession you serve. Now a couple of comments on each. This year of in-residence education is truly a gift from the nation to you. As you continue to grow and rank and in responsibility, you will find there is no more precious a commodity than time. And you've just been given an entire year of study, reflection and debate. A gift of time to grow intellectually and to prepare for the challenges that await do not take this year for granted. And I'd offer the best way to ensure that, that you don't take this year for granted, is to every day consciously acknowledge the responsibility that you have been inherited as a result of that gift. Specifically, the responsibility to critically and thoughtfully employ this education as you move forward and lead. You're all headed back into this world of present shock where your long range strategic horizon is gonna get compressed to days and to weeks. Your day-to-day agenda is gonna be basically set by the headlines coming out from the night before and the new emails that show up in your queue each morning. Now as you come face-to-face with that world, do you have a responsibility to remain a strategically-minded, critical thinker to proactively lead with independent, creative thought? Not reactively survive the bureaucracy with lazy thinking or conventional wisdom. Reflect, think and lead. And as part of that responsibility, I'd also ask that as you move into your next assignments, that you pay this experience forward and you do so with a deliberate focus on the leadership development of those in your charge. With this educational experience, you've got a lot to offer young leaders across the fleet and across the joint force. Don't wait for opportunities to present themselves. Actively make time to engage with them, share with them your thoughts, your perspectives help shape their habits of mind, their thinking skills and their leader potential. If you do, we will be a better Navy and we will be a better joint force for those efforts. Finally, as you depart today, keep in mind the profession in which you serve. Never forget the trust that the nation has in place in you. Never forget your obligation to uphold that trust. Never forget the professional ethic that will guide your actions in garrison, in the field, at home or underway. Continue to grow as a steward of our profession. Good luck, Godspeed. And I wish each and every one of you fair winds and following seas, thank you. Chapman Luff will now deliver the benediction. Please stand. Let us close with prayer. Father, we celebrate the tried and tested mastery of knowledge achieved by these graduates. Now grant them continued success, wisdom and judgment for practical application of what they have learned here as they return to their places of service as leaders in their respective communities. Instill each one with creative leadership and hear them, oh Lord, when they call out to you, guide them and be with them each step of the way. In your glorious and holy name we pray, amen. Ladies and gentlemen, please remain standing for the departure of the official party. Thank you all for attending today's graduation. This concludes the ceremony.