The Annual Meeting of the U.S. Naval Institute is scheduled for 1500 on 16 April 2014 at the Navy Memorial, 701 Pennsylvania Avenue N.W., Washington, D.C.
It will be my privilege to report on the state of the Institute at that time. When you consider that our membership has grown more than 5 percent over the past year, I am sure you will find it a report worth hearing. Following the report, we will present Author of the Year awards for 2013. We will then have the privilege of hearing two outstanding speakers. The first, already confirmed, will be the distinguished James M. McPherson, the George Henry Davis ’86 Professor Emeritus of United States History at Princeton University. A foremost Civil War historian, Professor McPherson received the 1989 Pulitzer Prize for Battle Cry of Freedom. His most recent book is War on the Waters: The Union and Confederate Navies, 1861-1865 and his remarks will help commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Civil War. The Annual Meeting will be followed by a reception, giving all an opportunity to congratulate the winners, meet the speakers, and connect with Institute staff and Members.
Dominant information capabilities—intelligence, counterintelligence, and information in the network, space, and oceanographic realms—are essential to 21st-century naval and joint-warfighting success. The Naval Institute thanks Hewlett-Packard for its generous and forward-looking sponsorship of the 2014 Information Dominance Essay Contest. Entrants are invited to address a critical challenge: What are the appropriate roles for the military services and the Defense Information Systems Agency to establish, sustain, and operate the Joint Information Environment? The deadline for submission of essays is 31 March 2014. More details about the contest can be found on the next page and online at www.usni.org/infodominance2014. We look forward to your participation, and we again thank HP for its sponsorship.
The accompanying photograph of 8th Company, U.S. Naval Academy, should bring a smile to the face of all Members. The Midshipmen have just accepted memberships in the U.S. Naval Institute and are holding up cards thanking generous donor C. W. Richardson, an Institute Member and grandfather of 8th Company’s Midshipman First Class Julia Zook. The Sponsoring Student Membership Program continues to make great strides. If you would like to participate in this powerful and rewarding generation-to-generation initiative and sponsor a company at the Academy or an NROTC unit, please contact Heather Lancaster at [email protected].
It was wonderful to see so many Members at WEST 2014 in San Diego. I received a lot of positive feedback from you on the superb speakers and overall conference content. The event was well attended, high-quality, fast-paced, and high-energy! It was also a pleasure to host a special reception for Institute Members for the third straight year. Our staff and I really enjoy the opportunity to interact with our West Coast Members in such a beautiful setting.
We are most grateful to all our distinguished keynote speakers and panelists who made WEST 2014 such a success. You may view all the content online at WEST 2014 Playlist at www.youtube.com/usnavalinstitute, and I encourage you to do so.