 Good morning on behalf of the commanding officer officer and command Newport. Welcome to the graduation ceremony for officer development Honors school class 24010 consisting of 170 officers led by class team Lieutenant Catherine Pardue myself Lieutenant Michaela barter chief fire controlman Daniel Thomas and chief quartermaster Miguel Galarza Military guests in uniform. This will be a covered ceremony The order of events for this morning's ceremony are as follows Captain Everett Alcorn commanding officer officer training command Newport and rear admiral Darren by Acting surgeon general of the Navy will arrive shortly The guests in class will rise for the arrival of the official party and remain standing for the plane of the national anthem and invocation Captain Alcorn and rear Admiral by will then address the graduating class Following their remarks Captain Alcorn will distribute the class awards and Graduates will symbolize the completion of their training by returning their respective company guidance to their class chief petty officers The class will then reaffirm the oath of office and will remain standing for the plane of the service songs and the final dismissal Please rise for the arrival of the official party and remain standing for the national anthem and invocation Officer training command Newport arriving Acting surgeon general of the Navy arriving Ladies and gentlemen our national anthem Chaplain efforts will now offer the invocation Let us pray Eternal father strong to save We give you our thanks for binding the restless waves within each of these newly trained naval officers So they could stand proud this day for becoming morally mentally and physically developed for the service of our fleet As they prepare for their next evolution in their communities remind them of what it means to be a leader and to serve with a purpose Let them embody humility and selflessness Remind them to value every sailor and civilian they cross paths with each day To press upon them the initiative integrity Accountability and toughness needed to do the right thing, especially when it's difficult And bolded them to have ownership of what they are called to do even when they are called into harm's way So as these officers look to the horizon Prepare them for the challenges that lie ahead Giving them the physical mental and spiritual readiness to meet each one with confidence And as we continue to celebrate this moment We ask for your spirit to reside with us and all those who stand to watch this day in your name. We pray Please be seated Ladies and gentlemen Captain Everett Alcourt and commanding officer officer training command Newport Admiral Vi Admiral McClain Captain Baker Captain William Captain Stewart Colonel Krausson Colonel's almani distinguished visitors veterans service members officer training command staff shipmates and friends and Officer development school class two three zero nine zero. Good morning It's an absolute honor for me to have this opportunity to welcome this class into one of the most prestigious Challenging and rewarding careers in this nation that of a naval officer Today, we will bear witness as a hundred and sixty nine officers renew a solemn promise to our nation Reaffirming their oath to support and defend the Constitution of the United States For the families joining us. I want to both thank you and commend you for the performance of your sons and daughters Husbands and wives brothers and sisters friends Your love support and encouragement have produced the quality individuals seated here Ones that chose a path of service to their fellow citizen I can think of no finer group to go forth into the fleet than the officer seated here today And they could not have gotten to this point without the careful guidance and support of family on behalf of the Navy and a Grateful nation, please accept my most sincere. Thank you to the class I'm proud of each and every one of you and all that you've accomplished while you were here as You depart for schools and duty stations Know that you're about to be placed in a position to lead and mentor what are truly one of our most valuable national products The enlisted men and women of the US Navy Foundations we have laid here at officer development school are solid It is now up to you to build upon this as you enter naval service I'm very impressed with the effort you've expended over the last several weeks. I want to thank you For all that you have done and will do in service of this great nation of ours And I look forward to witnessing your future successes It is my pleasure and distinct honor to welcome you to the ward room as professional naval officers in the world's finest Navy It's my privilege this morning to introduce you to our guest of honor rear admiral Darren by acting surgeon general Admiral by as the native of Illinois. He holds a bachelor of science in biology from Millican University He enlisted in the US Navy Reserve in 1985 as a hospital corpsman and in 1987 the entered active duty as an ensign at the uniformed services University of the health science where you're into doctor of medicine in 1991 he completed a master's of health care delivery science from Dartmouth College in 2014 His professional training includes transitional internship and anesthesiology residency at the National Naval Medical Center and a trauma anesthesia Fellowship at the Adams Cowley shock trauma center at the University of Maryland He's qualified as an undersea and diving medical officer He's held numerous leadership positions within the American Society of Anesthesiologist and the uniformed services Society of anesthesiologists He served in various positions throughout the Navy medicine to include chairman the Department of anesthesiology Director for surgical services Deputy commander and commanding officer of Naval Medical Center Portsmouth Operation he's also served with mobile diving and salvage unit to aboard the US NS comfort at fleet hospital 3 first force service support group Camp Viper Iraq and the commanding officer of the NATO roll 3 multinational medical unit and commander of Task Force Medical South in Kandahar, Afghanistan He's also served as a command surgeon of US Pacific Fleet I'm selected as the first Navy medical officer to serve as US Central Command's surgeon Responsible for all health services support in theater as a sole advisor to the commander on medical matters His flag tours include serving as the deputy chief bureau of medicine and surgery for operations plans and readiness Commander Naval Medical Forces Atlantic and as a Navy deputy surgeon general The president has nominated from second star an appointment to the grade of rear-admiral and in March He became the acting surgeon general of the United States Navy His leadership is essential to continued force health protection Warfighter mission medical readiness and Strategic medical efforts of the world's greatest Navy We're privileged to have him here with us today to share his thoughts Ladies and gentlemen, please join me and welcome our guests of honor today. We're Admiral Darren by hey Good morning everyone. How's everyone doing? All right rough crowd. I can tell I told my staff coming in today So you all I know the skipper won't let you but you may have to laugh and have a little bit of fun with Us today. It's an exciting day for you, but Captain Alcorn. Thank you for that kind introduction I did tell my staff that my goal today was to be the best ODS graduation speaker you all have ever had I Think being a one-on-one I can probably accomplish that but what that also means I have the potential of being the worst Graduation speaker you've ever had simultaneously But graduates of ODS class 2 4 0 1 0 Sincere pleasure for me to be here with you all today to help mark your next step as a commissioned officer in the United States Navy I'm excited to welcome you to the ward room. I'm excited to call you shipmate. I Know for the last five weeks you've been required to pass through numerous physical Demanding mentally challenging events, but being here today means you have succeeded and you have what it takes for your journey ahead Before I go any further. I know we have many family members and friends in attendance It's a great honor to see my friend and colleague rear Admiral claims celebrating with his nephew who is on his journey to be a Navy physician But to successfully become a commanding officer. It's not something we accomplish on our own So I'd ask you to join me in recognizing all those family members and friends and attendance today as well as your instructors Who have supported you in achieving this important milestone? Let's have a round of applause, please Today's ceremony honors our Navy's heritage and traditions while simultaneously celebrating and recognizing today's graduates are the strength of our Navy's future You're each part of a tradition that links you to officers throughout the services and to our distinct past After today you and your classmates will always have your stories from Newport the city Known to many for historic mansions. It's beautiful scenery Sailing and music festivals will always hold special importance to you. This is where your career as a naval officer all started It is where you will have begun a meaningful chapter of your life to the betterment of our service and our nation To give you some framework of the elite membership. You're joining You're joining less than 1% of all Americans who have stepped forward to don the cloth for our nation's uniform And actively defend our freedoms Collectively you are part of a Navy that represents roughly one-third the population of the state of Rhode Island that we're in Yet you are part of a global force that produces combat-ready naval forces Capable of winning wars deterring aggression and maintaining freedom of the seas around the world This is a service of greater cause Whether you plan to serve for one tour or to make the Navy a career You will always be able to say that you stepped up and actively embrace the opportunity to serve our nation And it caused greater than yourself and for that I salute you But I also challenge you to make sure your time in uniform counts You leave here today prepared to be an officer in the greatest Navy the world has ever known The better understanding of what it means to wear the cloth of our nation to lead the women and men entrusted to you based on your new commission and training as You go off privilege to lead those who serve with and under you remember to be humble servant leaders Be confident in who you are and what you have accomplished, but remember you can always learn and be better We can learn from everyone in our organization Regardless of rank position or service not just those whom we serve under Hold the highest of standards and recognize that as China will soon outnumber us in size and scale of force It is our ability to constantly assess ourselves to embrace constant improvement and identify where we fall short of mission Through constant process improvement We belong to a force designed to learn and adapt faster than our adversaries. I Told you to be confident as I've learned early in my career that unfortunately Insecurity is one of the worst characteristics a leader can express But while I said confidence I did not say cocky nor arrogant As you continue profession And your career remember always be curious Learn to ask questions differently Identify potential bias in your thoughts and your assumptions and leverage and understand different opinions What sets us apart from our competitors is our ability to rapidly learn adapt and win As a chaplain said always remember that mission one is every sailor marine and civilian active and reserved that will have the Privilege we will have the privilege of leading This is what makes the operational readiness of today's all volunteer force the most dominant naval force in the history of the world Well, you're specially will be serving with the judge advocate corps as a chaplain as a Chang nuke Intel suppo information warfare Dentist nurse physician or part of the medical service corps. This is your mission With a large percentage of our ODS graduates heading into the naval medical department I want to extend a special welcome and take a few minutes to talk about what's going on in Navy medicine Anyone who has been around Navy medicine these last few years knows this is a transformational time for us And that is the force that you are joining today as our naval forces operate in battle space That is quickly growing in lethality complexity and scope China is our most consequential strategic competitor and our pacing challenge Russia poses an acute threat today and in the future We are and will continue to partner with our allies to reinforce robust deterrence and face of this aggression We're in a new age of warfare one in which the integration of advanced technologies into new joint fighting concepts across all domains Air sea land cyber will determine who is victorious in conflict The future operational environment will complicate military health care delivery The dynamic array of medical challenges resulting from disease and non-battle injuries new toxic chemicals radiological hazards bioengineered threats and traditional combat casualties Future traditional threats captured from a saying we had in Iraq Which was where the bangs kept keep getting bigger from high-end conventional forces combined with the threats of novel diseases Naturally occurring and unfortunately human re-engineered will create new injuries and illnesses Resulting in greater impact to our fighting force and larger numbers of casualties In Navy medicine we were answering this call through continued integration with the joint force and the naval force Resulting an alignment of our medical platforms across the maritime domain We're force-generating and deploying medical capabilities to meet demands of distributed maritime operations DMO expeditionary advanced operate base operations EABO and littoral operations in contested environments Loki The ability of Navy and Marine Corps team to prevail across this range of military operations depends on the military the medical readiness of every sailor and every Marine and demands that our Navy medical deployable units enhance their survival in that high-end fight Again in Iraq and Afghanistan. It was known that if you made it to a medical facility You were going a home alive We owe that same outcome on tomorrow's battlefield The lethality is ensuring our forces survivability that is Navy medicines contribution to the fight our Ability to meet operational needs of the fleet and fleet Marine force is constantly improving We're modernizing our culture or organization and our platforms to better support the national defense strategy The chief of naval operations navigation plan and the common honor the Marine Corps planning guidance This effort is what we call optimizing the human weapons system to accomplish this end state Let me give you a little insight on what we are doing and where we are going in Navy medicine We must deliver man trained certified expeditionary medical systems or X meds To the component and combatant commanders X meds are deployed medical units that support DMO in the fleet and across the fleet Marine force our X med capabilities must be for deployed and ready to fight now These capabilities provide the modular adaptive and scalable capabilities to support the joint force and are necessary to win our nation's wars Navy medicine has been actively developing modernized Maintaining X med capabilities through the joint capability integration and development system based on closing those fleet gaps an Example of this capability can be seen in the deployment of the first seven man expeditionary Suscitative unit for deployed in Guam with their equipment and set Most recently with the two-person in route care team deployed upon the USS Eisenhower These capabilities represent the first of several X med capabilities They'll be ready to forward lose strategic locations to support our war fighters As we look forward our destroyers amphibious warfare ships new platforms like the UN NS Cody, which is TPF 14 and the future Bethesda class expeditionary medical ship Named by the second nav Bethesda and Balboa will carry these and other medical teams into the fight Understanding that this focus of Navy medicine some of you may ask Where is the medical treatment facility? How does it fit into the equation? quite simply they remain our foundation and are Connected to each of these platforms MTFs are the vital base units that drive our medical readiness We work with the Defense Health Agency to advance the knowledge skills and abilities of our people to ensure That we will always be ready to fight in a joint war fight We look at the MTF much as we look like a warship or a fleet Marine unit with Navy medical personnel assigned to carry out a mission on that platform We also recognize that beyond X meds Navy medicine also operates a global network of medical laboratories Environmental and preventive medicine units as well as education and training activities that make vital Contributions each day to our war fighter and makes our Navy and Marine Force stronger Foundational for this effort is recognition that our people are our asymmetric advantage and our most valuable weapons system Navy medicine needs the right people in the right place at the right time and ready to execute our mission For all of you I ask we need you to ensure that we are bringing the right people like you into our service Right talent into the Navy and ensuring that they stay Across the Navy and Marine Corps. I'm all ready to give you your first task order Reach out to your peers to join you. I need you to recruit Ready and help maintain skilled war fighters that provide unparalleled power projection To the naval force whether it be in garrison pier side on above or below the sea throughout all levels of competition contest and conflict All of you are our biggest recruiters Encourage each of you to share your stories with others on why you decided to join the Navy and for as long as you wear this uniform and beyond Please be ambassadors for our service As you begin your career as naval officers you have enormous resources at your disposal use them As I quote Mark Twain the man who does not read has no advantage over the man who cannot read Use your resources Congratulations graduate best wishes for personal and professional success I look forward to hearing of the great things that you do in the years ahead I will simply conclude with bravo Zulu shipmates. I'll see you around the fleet Thank You captain Alcorn and rear Admiral by at the conclusion of each ODS class several students are recognized by their fellow classmates As well as OTC and staff for outstanding achievement during the five-week course of instruction ensign Amanda Neff front and center The honor student award is presented to the officer who best demonstrates an overall excellence in the areas of academics physical fitness and military bearing Consistently setting the example for his or her peers throughout the many challenges faced at officer training command the honor student award goes to ensign Neff Lieutenant Dylan Holly front and center The Alfred award is given to the officer who achieves the highest military grade derived from personnel inspections room inspections in general military bearing This award is named after the Continental Slope for the Alfred commissioned in 70 75 The Alfred served as a flagship of native Rhode Islander Commodore E. C. Hopkins and is regarded as the birthplace of Navy medicine as it was the first ship to appoint a dedicated ship surgeon Serving as a role model of Navy pride and professionalism maintaining the highest military standards and providing inspiration to all the Alfred award goes to Lieutenant Holly Lieutenant junior grade Jacob Weaver front and center The Pickens-Wills peer leadership award is presented to the officer who personifies the highest standards of personal example Good leadership practices and moral responsibility Officers were nominated by their peers and the winner was selected by the officer training command staff The winner of this award embodies the leadership traits in a spree to core of Harriet Pickens and Francis wills The first two African-American women to commission in the United States Navy Their courage and collaborative leadership paved the way for today's inclusive Navy The Pickens-Wills peer leadership award goes to Lieutenant J.G. Weaver Lieutenant junior grade Ashley Ireland front and center The E.D. Award named for Lieutenant Thomas E.D. United States Navy recognizes the highest achievement in academic and military performance Lieutenant Thomas E.D. who emigrated from Scotland and settled in Rhode Island was awarded the Navy Cross and the Medal of Honor For his courageous efforts as a diver during the salvage of submarines SS-4 and SS-51 off the coast of Massachusetts He was a member of the southeastern New England chapter of the retired officers Association at the time of his death in 1974 in recognition of this accomplishment in addition to a certificate of achievement the military officers Association of America has also Provided a three-year membership to the E.D. Award winner Lieutenant J.G. Ireland For the past five weeks the company guide on has been a symbol of spirit dedication teamwork and unit identity To symbolize the fact that these officers seated before you have completed their training They will return their guidance to the class chief FETI officers Chief fire controlman Daniel Thomas and Chief quartermaster Miguel Galarza Officer Lieutenant Pardue will now deliver the reaffirmation of the oath of office Would all military personnel in uniform please come to the position of attention? The commanding officer of officer training command Newport would like to present to you your newly reaffirmed naval officers Please rise for the plane of the service songs and the final dismissal Officer development school class two four zero one zero upon graduation from officer development school You are ordered to detach a report to your duty stations where you will assume your duties and responsibilities By order of Everett Alcourt Captain United States Navy commanding officer officer training command Newport Includes our ceremony on behalf of the commanding officer officer training command Newport. Thank you for attending today's graduation Ladies and gentlemen, please remain behind the rope until all class photos have been taken additionally following class photos will all