 Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the academic convocation of the U.S. Naval War College. We are pleased to welcome a total of 530 students from our armed services, civilian employees of the federal government, and military officers from around the globe. Please rise for the arrival of the official party and remain standing for our national anthem and the invocation. Nelson Chaplin, Naval Leadership and Ethics Center will deliver the invocation. Let us pray. Almighty God, we now humbly ask for your presence among us. As we call together the faculty, staff, and students to rekindle anew the forges in this crucible known as the U.S. Naval War College. Our unique institution is the oldest of its kind, a preparation ground dedicated to the art and craft of warfare, whose graduates have been some of the finest strategic thinkers and leaders our world has ever known. This year, 530 men and women from various countries, militaries, and public responsibilities have answered their nation's call to submit themselves to the refining fire of the challenges and academic demands necessary to make them their best. Each one of them is a servant, having pledged their lives in service to the higher call of their nation and their people, and here they will be made better, stronger, and more capable. Their competence is already a matter of record. Every single person in this room has earned the privilege to be here. A privilege very few others can claim. We look forward to seeing their skills and abilities of each brought together with others connected to become something stronger, the whole of which is greater than the sum of the parts. But most importantly, Father, we anticipate the refinement of their character, their moral being, which when exposed to the stresses of strategic leadership and the dynamic pace of current combat, must be strong and resilient. O Lord, most of all, we pray their time here at the War College would strengthen their inner being, so they are prepared to be the leaders our world needs. If there will be justice, liberty, and peace in this world, if war will be prevented, O God, it will be because you have prepared men and women like these who presently stand in this room with their heads bowed before you to seek the good in every challenge they face, to face it with courage, with confidence, with honor, and with each other. And it is to that end that we desire your presence among us this morning and always. Amen. Please be seated. On this stage this morning are Captain Scott M. Smith, Chairman, Chair, Joint Military Operations Department, Dr. John Maurer, Strategy and Policy Department, Dr. Derek Revron, Chair, National Securities Affairs Department, Rabbi Retired Margaret Klein, Dean, College of Leadership and Ethics, Professor Walt Wilderman, Dean, College of Distance Education, Professor Thomas Chlora, Dean, Center for Naval Warfare Studies, Professor Thomas Mangold, Dean of International Programs and Maritime Security Cooperation, Dr. Phil Hawn, Dean of Academics, Dr. Lewis Duncan, Provost, United States Naval War College, Vice Admiral Bruce E. Gurum's U.S. Navy Retired, Reverend Shoshana S. Chatfield, President of the United States Naval War College. Will members of the Naval Command College and College of Naval Warfare please rise? Everybody in the senior class. If you're an 0506, please stand. I know this stuff's new. Captain Kevin McGowan, Director, Naval Command College, will present the 55 nations represented. The Naval Command College class of 2020. Algeria, Argentina, Australia, Bahamas, Bangladesh, Brazil, Bulgaria, Cameroon, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Denmark, Ecuador, Egypt, Estonia, Finland, France, Gabon, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Haiti, India, Indonesia, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Jordan, Kenya, Korea, Kuwait, Lebanon, Lithuania, Malaysia, Mexico, Morocco, New Zealand, Nigeria, Norway, Oman, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Romania, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Tunisia, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States of America. They will be joined in class by members of our College of Naval Warfare, which includes students from the United States Air Force, International Guard, Army, Army National Guard, Coast Guard, Marine Corps, Navy, and civilians representing Central Intelligence Agency, Defense Contract Management Agency, Defense Intelligence Agency, Defense Logistics Agency, Defense Senior Leadership Development Program, Department of the U.S. Army, National Geospatial Intelligence Agency, National Nuclear Security Administration, Naval Criminal Investigative Service, Office of the Director of National Intelligence, U.S. Agency for International Development, and U.S. Department of State. Please be seated. Now, will members of the Naval Staff College and College of Naval Command and Staff please rise? Captain Michael Marston, Director, Naval Staff College will present the 60 nations represented. Naval Staff College, Class of 2020, Albania, Algeria, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Benin, Brazil, Bulgaria, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Colombia, Côte d'Ivoire, Colombia, Djibouti, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, Ghana, Guyana, Haiti, India, Indonesia, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Jordan, Kenya, Korea, Kuwait, Latvia, Lithuania, Madagascar, Malaysia, Mexico, Morocco, Namibia, Netherlands, Nigeria, Norway, Oman, Philippines, Poland, Romania, Saint Vincent and Grenadines, South Tomei and Principe, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Singapore, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Taiwan, Tanzania, Togo, Tunisia, Ukraine, United Emirates, United States of America, Uruguay, 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, International Guard, 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, Maritime Administration, Military Sealift Command, National Criminal Investigative Service, National Geospatial Intelligence Agency, U.S. Department of State, U.S. Special Operations Command. Please be seated. On 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 Coasters 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. Luce has been assigned to duty as President of the College. Madam President, faculty, staff, officers, ladies and gentlemen, it is 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. A moment's consideration will show why this must be so. As its name implies, the 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 for 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 is, 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 that 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 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 must 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 without firing a shot and by simply using skillful strategic movements. It is the business of this college to study all the various problems of war as they may affect this country. It's quite unnecessary to explain to such an audience as I have the honor of addressing that the college itself has no power whatever 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 to enable each one according to his or her own inclinations to prepare themselves for the highest and most responsible duties that can devolve upon a naval officer. One thing must be borne in mind that 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 their mental horizons on national and international question and give them a just appreciation of the great variety and extent of the requirements of their profession this college will not have existed in vain. Thank you and good day. Thank you Admiral Woos. Now that we've been inspired by the still relevant remarks delivered in 1903 by our founding president it gives me great pleasure to introduce our current president Rev. Shoshana S. Chatfield. It is a pleasure to be here this morning and congratulations to all who were selected to your classes. Undersecretary of the Navy, Maudley, Maudley, Assistant Secretary of the Navy, Slavonic, Vice Admiral Grooms, Vice Admiral Donnelly, Vice Admiral Buck, Brigadier General Bargasson, Mr. Deal. We've got a contingent that have come in from the Pentagon this morning so I wanted to point out that we had some distinguished visitors from away. To our wonderful distinguished visitors who are here more locally who have supported this college welcome and to our families, our faculty and most importantly to the students welcome to the Naval War College. Thanks for being here for this convocation. We follow this time honored academic tradition of convocation and ceremony to mark the journey that we are embarking on over this next year. We're here today together. We begin this intellectual journey together and you will go to places you have never been before. You will go outside of your comfort zone and I took note of how many are clustered in your familiar groups and I project that at the end of this academic year the seating arrangements would be different as you will become reluctant to part from people you have not yet met and don't know and you will be enriched by your experience together. There are no limits to what you can do over this next year so I encourage you to take advantage of this gift of time. The things that in the profession of arms we don't have an opportunity to do to sit and reflect and to engage in a process of inquiry, a challenging of our own ideas and beliefs and the time to invest in innovation at the margins. Each of us arrived here at Newport at the same point in time but through very many different paths. My own path dropped. My husband David and I off here on Wednesday evening last week and we reported in on Thursday so I'm in the same boat as you any of one who is still waiting for your move to happen and I assure you that I have been placed in my rightful position right behind you in line to schedule my own move-in date. So I just love to look out over a group like this and see the variety of nationalities and the variety of uniforms. The wonderful faculty that we have in all of the different experiences that you bring. This is going to be a great year. Together we represent 76 countries from around the world as well as the states and overseas territories of this great nation. We take pride in the fact that the professional culture, the religious and ethnic diversity of this convocation is unmatched on most campuses and while we are diverse unique and eclectic we are also alike in many ways. We aspire to a greater good to a sense of right and to ideals of freedom from this diversity will arise your class one entity a class of scholars with common goals and common purpose over this next year you will be asked to contribute your most valuable commodity your time your intellectual energy and your voice here is where you will learn to influence the future be it through policy or strategy or operations here is where you meet the great challenges which will fall to these free nations represented in this auditorium once again it is your time and your responsibility to pick up this gauntlet you can and you will have a substantial impact on the world in which we live the influence of seapower on today's global commons and commerce goes beyond anything alfred they are mahan could have imagined when he helmed this institution today's distributed battle space would send claus witz back to the drawing barred information warfare today outpaces on orders of magnitude the world of san su but the creative problem solving and strategic thinking that these strategists personified is more important than ever therefore we will not only prepare you for the future by looking at the future but also by looking at the past in a perfect world one might assert that the quest for peace should be absolute and so we will lend our voices to it over the year through the study of deterrence diplomacy advocacy reassurance and even hope but we do not live in a perfect world and so we must not forget the word war in our institution's name as such we study war in all of its facets and in all of its many domains and not just naval as one might infer from another word in our institution's name as the navy's home of thought we educate and develop competent and ethical leaders we support combat readiness we strengthen global maritime partnerships we help define the future of our service branch and contribute original strategy and legal research to the national to the national and international community while the naval war college has a significant place in the history it is up to each of us in this room to ensure it remains relevant to our nation and the world in the future as we celebrate the 75th anniversary of the landings at normandy and saipan this year places where david and i have recently been and which have affected our viewpoint profoundly let us not forget that both of those operations were part of a larger effort to defeat threats to universal values and that both were part of far larger strategic plans to continue to take the fight to the enemy until victory the naval war college graduates of the 1920s and 30s helped us win that victory but even in the midst of fighting they also planned for the peace that they knew would come they established the post world war two era of stability in which we live still today will we be ready for the challenge awaiting us tomorrow we'll like-minded nations represented in this room be ready to answer the call will that call mean an all-out war in which nations economies and industry are fully mobilized with just one goal victory perhaps would it be a pattern of limited regional conflicts that will challenge all of our assumptions about deterrence and stability either way we must be prepared it is up to you the future alumni of the naval war college to write those papers to author those strategies to innovate those tactics your foresight will be honed through the study of history here the the study of strategy here the study of policy and operational art here and the study of diplomacy here all of those are framed through the optics of leadership and ethics i hope that throughout your studies you will not neglect the study of war termination once we achieve a costly victory we must create the peaceful era that follows there will be no second chance it is imperative at the conclusion of hostilities to get it right and to that end we must leverage the best and brightest men and women from all backgrounds across the globe in these past 20 years we have learned that the inclusion of women in peace and security is more likely to produce stability in outcomes and stability that endures what other lessons will we learn about the conduct of warfare and war termination what do we have left to learn how will we ethically bound our use of space and cyber new technologies over the next year you will grow stronger smarter and you will be reinvigorated for your tasks and challenges ahead but i assure you you won't want to leave learn and take with you the knowledge that you get here benefit from the century of study relevant to the challenges that you will face in the world and when you walk across the stage at graduation next year i am certain that you will be ready to lead so now as the 57th president of the united states naval war college it is my distinct honor and duty to declare the 2019 and 2020 academic year officially in session the president of the u.s naval war college takes pleasure in presenting the certificate to bison or brucey grooms u.s navy retired if you could take the stage admiral grooms in recognition of his exceptional service to the nation the department of defense and to the u.s naval war college he is hereby designated as the year 2019 recipient of the distinguished graduate leadership award this award recognizes admiral grooms unparalleled dedication to duty unwavering sense of personal and professional integrity and insatiable intellectual curiosity these traits which form the bedrock upon which the u.s naval war college was established more than 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 fifth day of august 2019 signed shoshana s chatfield we're admiral u.s navy president u.s naval war college so we're going to bring vice admiral grooms up in just a moment i'd like to take a moment to introduce him to you this is the 24th time that the naval war college has presented its distinguished graduate leadership award the award was first presented in 1996 and it recognizes the accomplishments of our most distinguished graduates they relied on the lessons that they learned in their naval war college experience as they assumed positions of increasing senior leadership and national provenance and those alumni serve as an inspirational role model for each of us and thank you vice admiral grooms for being here today that first award was actually to the late general john shalika shabili then he was chairman of the joint chiefs of staff a complete list of other awardees is in your program and so for vice admiral grooms a 35 year veteran of the united states navy and submarine force his career culminated as deputy chief of staff for capability development at the nato allied command transformation from 2013 to 2015 the totality of his career is further detailed and i'm just gonna kind of brag on the united states naval war college for just a moment in the van buren leadership and ethics series naval war college alumnus lieutenant commander robert crossby authored a paper called inspiring innovation examining the operational policy and technical contributions made by vice admiral samuel l gravely jr and his successors and it caught my eye because my husband david's father a naval academy graduate had worked directly for admiral gravely and so i pulled down this a wonderful publication and i became aware of the fantastic research that had been done and there's an addendum sir with each of your awards located online you can access it through your google engine and you can access it here on the digital space so sir your career has been just so inspiring and your impact on the navy has been truly tremendous you've since moved to the civilian sector serving as rathian's vice president of the u.s business development for navy programs from 2015 until this past june and now you've recently been named a corporate directed director at mcore congratulations on that they're a leading provider of advanced mixed signal optics that products that provide the foundation for today's leading edge defense systems and high-speed communication network infrastructure which is a mouthful but i'm sure absolutely motivational every day when you get up to see what's going on in that organization so for now 39 years you have supported our nation first in uniform and now ensuring that the health of our economic institutions and corporations are solid and firm as we move towards the future uh vice admiral grooms thank you for being here and would you please take the podium and share with us your thoughts well good morning everyone what a beautiful new england day and what an honor and a privilege to be here to be amongst you and to celebrate this convocation admiral chatfield thank you for those very kind remarks very kind introduction so often you kind of wonder is she talking about me but i thank you so much for that kind introduction and for the award the distinguished graduate award when i look at the folks who preceded me i think to myself i'm not sure i belong in this in the company of these folks i'm so honored to be included it's been a very long time since emily and i have been to newport i've had the pleasure of coming back frequently but this is the first time in many many years that um emily's been here with me now i have to tell you as we were doing the run-up to this event um i was talking to the staff and asking sort of how this would go and they said hey this is a really quiet cozy event you and the president will chat a few of your very best friends the student body and the distinguished staff well little did i know that things changed in a hurry and so we have this group of very distinguished navy leaders who were here and so although admiral chatfield has mentioned them already i'd like to just say first i'm not foolish enough to think that they came here to see me i know the reality is that they are here because they support the war college they support everything it stands for this place of higher learning is so important to each of us i i think i learned how important this was as i spent time getting to know the folks here and so thank you all for coming so to secretary modally assistant secretary slavonic my dear friend admiral buck who recently relieved as the superintendent of the naval academy um of course i look down and i see uh my hero from many many many years admiral hog so good to see you here sir and you're looking great by the way um my dear friend in the submarine force j donley uh dear classmate from the war college back in 93 admiral bundy and somewhere out there there's a naval academy classmate company mate roommate dr j hickey who's here as well and so that's really kind of neat uh the fact that we have four chiefs of navy international chiefs of navy i find that amazing i hope that each and every one of you will take advantage of the opportunity to get to know them and to learn from them uh admiral verma from india admiral burrera from columbia admiral son is from norway and i think admiral tekai as well it's amazing to have them as a part of this degust group and i have to say that i'm very proud to have been in the same class as admiral burrera many years ago and then off he went to do some amazing things uh and challenging things in uh columbia now before i give my very brief remarks and soon it's going to be difficult to say their brief if i don't get on with it but i do have to say that um it's so good to see secretary modely here um he and i have a very special bond we both were born and raised in cleveland ohio went to the naval academy together served some time in the navy he went off and did some really amazing things in business but i have to credit him for something very special he uh he single handedly um twisted the second half's arm and was able to get a ship named after our great city of cleveland ohio and so there'll be a ship uh the uss cleveland a literal combat ship and it'll be commissioned sometime soon and such really neat but that's not really the important part of the good secretary as it turns out he and i are really huge cleveland indians cleveland cavaliers and um cleveland browns fans and so as it turns out um the good secretary you may not know the cleveland browns are one of only two nfl teams in the original nfl to not have made the super bowl one of two detroit will never make it but cleveland and so he has promised that the uh the browns are going to make it to the super bowl this year and i heard him say uh as a side note and they're going to spank the patriots so stand by everyone uh i look forward to sharing in that glory with you my dear friend and uh go browns now back to what's what's really important here so so i recognize the importance of the convocation the welcoming of each of you to the academic year the chance to broaden your experiences to get to know folks and so so i have two really simple things that i intended to do today one was to reflect on my time here and then the second is i'm a sailor so i have to tell ac story and so i will do that so and in words of reflection it was more than 25 years ago that my dear wife emily and i came to the war college as fate would have it i was at sea on deployment getting ready to come and emily was taking care of all the details and sure enough we received our orders about a week before we were to head to newport um my dear beloved and petite wife gave birth to our very first child and so that little rascal must have weighed 100 pounds and here was emily trying to make all of that work we hopped in the car with the little guy and off we came to newport and we joined the family we joined the community we spent lots of time learning and reading frankly i may be pretty good at academics but i quickly learned i was a lousy babysitter and so emily made sure i i learned that but you know amazingly enough it took a very short amount of time before she enrolled us in ballroom dancing classes we had our little guy in a poncho and we're dancing around doing the waltz in the two step we became part of the war college community and made so many friends and it was just a wonderful experience we certainly figured out how to balance the responsibilities of learning but for all of you the perspective is please make sure you figure out that balance because now is the time to get to know each other to share share perspectives but also to have fun we spent weekends going to boston and to new york city and so it really rounded out as a wonderful year the second thing i remember about the uh the war college was that well for the first 10 to 12 years of my military career i thought the world revolved around submarines i thought the whole navy you name it was all about submarines and then i arrived here and it took a whopping day or two for me to day or two for me to figure out that wow there are such amazing and bright aviators somebody think that's an oxymoron i'm just kidding lots of important aviators here there were these aviators these surface warriors the coast guard the you name it the other services and so i learned quickly the world didn't revolve about anything that i had done in the past this was such a broadening and enlightening experience and frankly i have friends that i made while i was here that i met along the way and rekindle those friendships at so many other places and especially the joint and international jobs it was amazing that i would go someplace rekindle a friendship and it would turn out that we were mutually supportive and that's what this war college is all about learn share perspectives get to know folks and you'll find how important that is as a matter of fact after i left the navy and went off to work in defense industry i run into an army guy and we worked together who i had known in the service and it was from the experience we had previously that brought us together and made that job in uniform so pleasurable so finally to my one c story and this is true as now i'm required to embellish a little bit for the sake of giving a lesson i hope you will take away from from this but but this is a actually a naval academy experience but it has sort of the same hopefully the same lesson you'll take away so an international friend of mine a very dear international friend of mine won a contest on a local radio station and the contest was simply this they had this huge whatever 10 000 series Mercedes Benz they filled it with soda cans and to win the contest you had to guess how many cans of soda fit in that huge Mercedes Benz and so of course each of us all figured we were smarter and better and we were going to make our guests and we were going to win that little devil and then we keep our fingers crossed so we dutifully paid the dollar or two to enter the contest we came up with our gonki later and figured out what the number we thought would be and we entered the contest well a few weeks later my dear friend the international friend won the contest and and i hate to say this but of all the folks all the smart folks that i knew i said he's probably not the guy i would have picked to win that contest but as it turns out and so here's here's the lesson we corralled him after the event and after he was driving around in his beautiful car and said how the heck did you win that contest and so he said well it was simple so one weekend i went out and rented the same car and then went to the local mart and got a whole bunch of cans of soda filled up the car counted them up and then i figured what might be the delta so he made 50 entries plus or minus one two three four he paid the 50 bucks and low and behold he won the contest and so this was you know back then this was i don't know 60 70 thousand dollar car so he said i really don't need this so he sold it to the dealership for 50 thousand dollars and then he said and it cost me about 2,500 to get all the soda cans and rent the car so you do the math it was a very good day for my friend but what's the lesson here what's the lesson for all of you so we all come to a place like this it's very selective so you're very you should be very proud that you're here and we're selected to be a student at the war college and we all think we're the smartest folks on the planet which some of you are but the international folks it was as selective for them to come here as well and so low and behold here's this guy who was smarter more capable more savvy and at the end of it had a whole lot more money than the rest of us and so i suggest to you that even though you know there may be some language barriers whatever it is the other folks that you don't know in this room get to know them learn them understand share perspectives because i guarantee they're as smart as capable and frankly many of those here will become the leaders of their services and there's a very good chance that some of you in here may end up saving world peace by your engagement with some of the international folks that you meet here so to each and every one of you congratulations for being here we welcome you with open arms as a part of the war college family and you'll always be a part of the war college family and again thank you for this great honor of this distinguished graduate award and i look forward to meeting as many of you as i can thank you very much please rise for the benediction eternal father throughout history it has been the tradition of seafaring peoples to ask your blessing before setting sail on a new endeavor or to fulfill a new commission or to explore or to defend or to engage their enemies in combat on the high seas and so now oh lord we ask the same for these students and for the faculty and staff who will help them navigate the uncertain waters they will sail and for the family and friends that will support them oh father king of earth and sea we dedicate this class to thee in faith we send them on their way in faith to thee we humbly pray oh hear from heaven our fervent cry and watch and guard them from on high amen please remain standing for the departure of the official party