Highlighted Major Speeches
Naval Institute Annual Conference
United States Naval Academy, Annapolis MD
April 25, 1996
Thank you very much Admiral Marryott. Men and women of the
Brigade, it is indeed a privilege for me to be able to spend an hour
with you tonight and to talk to you about a number of things. A few
administrative matters: first, I know how much the Brigade
traditionally has enjoyed dress parades and I heard there were a
number of contingents praying to the Rain God today for the
opportunity to be able to march for me. You were successful and
those of you who were not sailing or otherwise disposed did an
excellent job today. I was really proud to watch you performing that
function.
Secondly, I understand that the morning of my Swearing In Ceremony,
certain female undergarments could be seen hanging from the branches
of trees that bordered Tecumseh Court.
Given the history of my views on certain military subjects, I can
only come to one conclusion: that some female members of the
Brigade, becoming delirious with joy in learning that the person
confirmed to be Secretary of the Navy is a man well-known for his
progressive views on the role of women in the military, held a
spontaneous pep rally in Tecumseh Court the night before my
Swearing-In Ceremony, and in their delight at my appointment freed
themselves of those ornaments of past repression and tossed them
into the air, where they accidentally became entangled in the
branches of nearby trees.
I appreciate this enthusiasm, but a few difficulties remain as a
consequence of this display of unmitigated joy. The first is for me
to assure all of you that I am not biased in any way on the issue of
women here at the Academy or in the naval service, and in fact feel
strongly that men and women should be treated equally in such
matters. And secondly, through a circuitous series of events I am in
wrongful possession of an article of clothing that belongs to a
member of the Brigade. Since the laundry number has been rather
carefully stenciled out, it's difficult to know who in fact is the
owner of this item, but I'm going to give this to my aide and if a
suitable method can be found, the owner can take this back to the
Hall tonight after my speech. As you know I'm a product of this
institution. I feel deeply about it and about all of you. I'm here
tonight to congratulate you on your choice of a way of life, and
also to challenge you to examine a fundamental question: Why are you
here, and what do you wish to accomplish during your time as a
midshipman? Never having been shy about holding an opinion, of
course, I have a rather strong one on this point and I would like to
share it with you tonight.
These are great years in your lives, though you may not think so
because they are also years of pain, brought on from separation, the
realization that you will never be quite the same again when it
comes to your relationships with your families and your home
community, pain brought on also from a demanding and yet tedious
routine, most of which you cannot control. But they are great years,
especially if you choose to use them wisely.
Using them wisely means, above all, learning to be a leader.
Everything else, as the physicists say, is relative. There are
plenty of other places in this country where you can learn physics
and engineering, where you can play football, where you can join a
debate team, sail on a yawl, argue politics, pursue members of the
opposite sex. But there are precious few institutions where your
country has decided to bet a few hundred thousand dollars of the
taxpayers money on each and every person who has the good fortune to
be admitted, with the assumption that in a four year space of time
that investment is going to produce a guaranteed leader, one who is
smart, and tough, and dedicated to the principles that have made
this the greatest society on earth.
As you know for every person who has been accepted to this Academy,
roughly fifteen have applied. And of those fifteen, probably five
could have made it through this program. And it's no exaggeration to
say that, for everyone here, someone else who did not get in could
have contributed just as much had he or she been given the chance.
Don't ever lose sight of that reality.
What that means is that you have a special obligation, different
than the obligation of almost any other group of college students.
That obligation is to test yourself and others around you and to
grow, not simply as a scholar, not simply as an athlete, but in a
variety of ways.
What kind of ways? The present mission of the Naval Academy is "to
develop midshipmen morally, mentally and physically to be
professional officers in the naval service." Let me first say that
I've been puzzled for more than a decade, because somewhere in the
bitter confusion of the Vietnam era, when the military was being
torn apart by vicious criticism, this institution apparently either
lost its guts or its esteem, and backed away from the traditional,
more ambitious mission, one to which I still subscribe. Until the
early 1970's, the mission of the Naval Academy was as follows: "to
develop midshipmen morally, mentally and physically, and to imbue
them with the highest ideals of duty, honor and loyalty, in order to
provide graduates who are dedicated to a career of naval service and
have potential for future development in mind and character to
assume the highest responsibilities of command, citizenship and
government." I used to walk by that pedestal out there and read that
when I was a midshipman and think about people like Nimitz.
And these are the standards against which you should be testing
yourself, and that is the direction you should be attempting to
grow. I've discussed this with the Chief of Naval Operations and
beginning this week, as soon as I sign the appropriate documents,
this will again be the mission of the Naval Academy. Most of you
have been doing this already, but all of you should know that this,
above all, is what is expected of you: that you will have developed
morally, mentally and physically, and will hold yourself and others
to the highest ideals of duty, honor and loyalty. You owe it to your
country, you owe it to the people who will never get to be
midshipmen at the United States Naval Academy, and most importantly,
you owe it to the men and women you are going to lead. You must,
above everything else, leave this institution with the dedication
and talent it takes to become a leader.
So a number of questions naturally follow. What is it that a leader
does, and what traits should he or she possess? Is the Naval Academy
presently geared to producing that sort of behavior? What is the
environment in which you will very shortly be leading sailors and
marines? What sort of challenges will you be facing?
First of all a leader is someone who sets the example, ,through the
strength of his conviction and his personality. He makes decisions.
He has a sense of mission, and can articulate it. He has the courage
to do what is right, and to make sure that those who are under his
authority do what is right. He creates the right tone, one of equity
and goodwill, which allows creativity to flourish from below. He
understands loyalty, and understands that loyalty sometimes calls
for disagreement, even disagreement with your boss. He is a comrade,
a judge, a tutor. He is a student of human motivation. He's a
problem solver.
And he is a person not merely of thought, but of action. General
George Patton, when he was a Major, wrote about this distinction in
1931, in an article entitled "Success in War," where he pointed out
that "high academic performance demands infinite intimate knowledge
of details, and the qualities requisite to such attainments often
inhabit bodies lacking in personality. Also, the striving for such
knowledge often engenders the fallacious notion that capacity
depends upon the power to acquire such details rather than upon the
ability to apply them.... And yet volumes are devoted to armaments,
and pages to inspiration." And always, every day, a leader and
particularly a military leader must balance a sometimes volatile
paradox: He must get the job done, and he must take care of his
people. In this paradox reside the greatest rewards of leadership,
and the most painful price, particularly if one must lead in combat.
Throughout your life, you will judge yourself against two harsh and
often painful standards: Did you get the job done? How many people
did it cost?
There are those who claim that leadership skills are situational,
that no specific traits can be identified as common to most leaders.
I disagree. I'd say that, first, a true leader must set the example.
You cannot ask of your subordinates that which you do not demand of
yourself. And one who does not set the example will never be
respected. He might be obeyed, but he will not be followed. Think
about it. There is a difference.
He must possess knowledge, in a variety of forms. He must understand
first the intellectual framework in which his unit works: the
technical aspects of the mission, the capabilities of the weapon
systems and other machinery, the responsibilities of his
subordinates. He must also understand human motivation in order to
create the environment in which his people will want to succeed. He
must understand the system, whether it is a rifle company or a
Pentagon staff, in order to know how to get things done. As you can
readily understand, knowledge is not simply book learning, it is
people studying and strategic thinking as well.
A leader must be a person of impeccable character. Honesty begets
honesty. To the contrary, a person who will manipulate a superior
invites his subordinates to manipulate ,him. A person who will
manipulate or lie to a subordinate invites disloyalty and reciprocal
lies. Courage, both moral and physical, is a character trait, and it
is infectious. Humility before one's subordinates invites both
loyalty and respect.
A leader must be true to himself, and be confident in his own
personality. For lack of a better term we call this style. If your
natural personality is quiet, develop firmness, rather than trying
to convert yourself into an extrovert. If you are an insufferable
loudmouth, learn to be positive, to be a motivator, rather than
trying to become a stoic. Your troops can pick up false behavior in
a heartbeat.
And finally, a true leader must possess a sense of vision, an
ability to communicate to his people what they are doing and why,
and how it fits into the larger scheme of things. Part of this sense
of vision requires an understanding of the traditions and heritage
of the military and of our country. Part of it requires an
understanding of events going on, as they say, above one's pay
grade. Put together, a leader gives context to the activities of his
people, and this itself gives a unit a sense of mission and
momentum.
The Naval Academy has traditionally produced leaders with these
qualities. One of the reasons has been the selection process for
admission, which as they say gives us good grist, people with the
right sort of potential from the outset. But the greatest reason has
always been that the institution itself has tested such people,
brought them along through a rigorous set of challenges, and, to use
a word from the mission statement, "imbued" them with the highest
ideals. And it is vitally important that this institution reflect
the highest ideals, that it be the standard bearer for all other
training programs in the naval service.
As Dirty Harry might say, "Uh huh, I know what you're thinking. Is
this guy getting ready to tighten up, or what?" And my answer is,
well, yeah, I guess so.
Let's start from the bottom line. Academics are important, and you
should by all means work hard on your grades. Athletics are
important, and if you are a world-class athlete, all the better for
you and for us. If you are a blossoming business genius like Ross
Perot once was or an aspiring writer like I once was or a
Monday-night Monet like my classmate Bernie Barnaby was, the more
power to you. But don't ever forget that the guiding impetus of this
institution is military performance. If you don't want to be a
military officer, and if you cannot put your preparation for
leadership at the top of your order of priorities, you don't deserve
the time, money and energy that we are putting into your future. And
I, for one, would rather graduate 800 highly motivated, highly
dedicated ensigns and lieutenants than 1000 whose collective energy
has been lowered by marginal performers whose interests might be
elsewhere.
This means that we will continue to take a hard look at a number of
areas, as Admiral Marryott has done with some excellent success over
the past year. We want to challenge you, we want to ensure that the
leadership of this institution is challenging and helping you grow.
First, as I already mentioned, we're going to restore the
traditional mission of the Naval Academy, I think you will
understand that this creates the expectation to aspire, not to mere
adequacy, but to unlimited excellence. And again, it is important
that academic achievement not stand apart from its military
application.
Second, in those cases that have come to my desk since I've been in
office, I've already reinstituted the absoluteness of the honor
concept. There will be no second chances for honor offenders.
Military systems, which often operate under extreme duress, are
greased with the oil of absolute trust and fidelity. You don't learn
that when you get to the fleet; you take it to the fleet. This may
seem to be a harsh standard, but it's not that difficult to
understand what your obligations are. Don't lie, cheat or steal or
tolerate among you those who do.
Third, I have some questions, as many of you already know, about the
current plebe indoctrination system. Plebe year is not simply a part
of the harassment package. It is intended to place people under
stress continually, literally 24 hours a day, in order to filter out
those who cannot handle it before we take an additional three years
and work on leadership traits. I have no desire to return to the
extremes of plebe year that existed in the early 1960's -literally
hundreds of my classmates were run out of the Naval Academy by the
upper-class, and in at least two companies, the 4th and the 11th,
more than half of the plebes were run out by the end of plebe year
-- but a tough standard of military performance is essential. I was
encouraged in talking with Admiral Marryott to see there are efforts
in place to extend plebe summer. I've been through three versions of
plebe summer: as a plebe, as an upper-class member of the detail,
and as a drill officer, and I know how important it is to the
development of the attitudes of midshipmen. I think this is
particularly true with the more demanding academic requirements of
today, which of necessity cut into the plebe indoctrination cycle
during academic year.
I was surprised to see how short your cruises have become. Four
weeks with the operating forces is in my view not enough. I
understand the difficulties in finding midshipmen billets with the
reduced size of the fleet, but there are a number of alternatives,
and you should not be denied your greatest opportunity to rub elbows
and learn from those who are presently serving around the world.
Spending my youngster cruise living and working with a division of
snipes on an old converted Essex class carrier was one of the most
important learning experiences of my young life, and to this day I
never fail to visit the boiler rooms when I go aboard ship. You need
these sorts of experiences, as much as you need to study entropy and
enthalpy. Maybe more than you need to study entropy and enthalpy,
which quite frankly I have yet to use in my adult life.
Those of you who wish to serve in the Marine Corps, can start
thinking about Bulldog. The average class standings at Basic School
have dropped dramatically over the past twenty years for Academy
graduates. The class of 1986 did particularly poorly. They averaged
in the bottom 40 percent. This is inexcusable, after four years of
study and training. In addition, I signed the promotion board to
Captain a couple months ago, and was shocked to see that 11 Naval
Academy graduates failed selection to Captain in the Marine Corps.
No one who graduates from this institution should be either so
unprepared or so lacking in military skills that he fails promotion
at that rank -- no one.
There are a number of possible reasons for such shortcomings. We
could be taking too many Academy graduates into the Marine Corps. We
could be drawing some who are not properly motivated, or who don't
know what they're getting into. But Bulldog will remedy this, and I
am very confident that the Naval Academy marines will do superbly at
Bulldog, and will benefit greatly from the training.
You should get the drift by now. All this adds up to a single
referent: you're here to become military officers whose quality
should be guaranteed to the fleet. And the greater the heat, the
tougher the steel.
What awaits you? I would call it the ultimate final exam: the
judgment of the men and women of the fleet. Our sea services are in
great shape today. As you know, our Navy and Marine Corps are on
duty throughout the world, are the first to be called upon in any
crisis, and are required to operate with the smallest margin of
error. The weapon systems are excellent, and the young men and women
on duty are superb. They are tough and they are dedicated and they
are good, and they're going to expect you to be tough and dedicated
and good.
In the last six months I have visited with them all over the world,
speaking personally with thousands of them as they operated and they
trained in 13 different countries. I've been on just about every
kind of ship the Navy has, I've been with all forms of operating
units in the Marine Corps. I want to show you some faces from around
the world. (Could I have the lights off.)
That's AMERICA, Persian Gulf; Norfolk, Oceana, Mayport, USS SAMPSON,
Persian Gulf; morning watch on the USS STANDLEY, CIC USS STANDLEY. I
will say when I got down in the engineering spaces on the USS
STANDLEY the railings on the ladder were so hot you couldn't touch
them; that was the engineering spaces; on deck in the Persian Gulf;
flight deck GUADALCANAL; USS RANGER air control status; crash crew,
USS RANGER; air refuelers in the hatch, USS KANSAS CITY; plane
directors and handlers FA18, RANGER, Persian Gulf; this is the
LEFTWICH in the foreground and the KANSAS CITY underway after the
USS MISSOURI shot. That right now is one of the hardest jobs in the
Navy; it's incredible, the MCM 53 minesweeper helicopter, they're
doing an incredible job out there; USS MISSOURI; addressing the crew
on deck on MISSOURI. There they are (if I can have the lights).
There will be no greater reward in your young lives than to be these
peoples' comrades, tutor and judge. If you do your job right, you
will learn more than you will teach, and you will come away with
memories more precious than could be possible in any other
profession. And I mean that.
This is the Navy. This is the Marine Corps. And you will be leading
it, sooner than you can ever imagine.
UNITED STATES MARINE CORPS