Digitizing Proceedings
Realizing an important strategic goal, the U.S. Naval Institute has just completed digitizing every issue of Proceedings published over 140 years. With the contents preserved electronically, they will be available to Members now and in the years to come to access, use, and enjoy.
For many in my generation, the 2000s were the years when our children were born, we took command of ships and squadrons for the first time, and we again learned that the world is a dangerous place. Indeed, by the time the decade concluded, our nation had endured attacks on our own soil, two wars, and a sobering natural disaster, and Proceedings was there through it all.
For a decade often defined by war, it is easy to forget the optimism the dawn of the 21st century inspired. In 2000, Proceedings reflected that optimism in its pages with insightful and hopeful articles such as Lieutenant Dave Adams’ award-winning “Win Without Fighting,” “Powering the 21st Century Fleet” by Lieutenant Commander Timothy McCoy on the potential of electric drive, and “Digital Training Calls for Live Fire,” by Marine Corps Captain Charles M. Andrews.
On the far edges of the horizon, however, storm clouds were gathering. On 12 October 2000, an attack on the USS Cole (DDG-67) occurred in the seaport of Aden just weeks before our nation would elect a new president. A few months later, Admiral Hal Gehman’s article “Lost Patrol: The Attack on the Cole” examined the implications of an attack that forever changed the way the Navy protected its ships. Gehman, who led the official inquiry into the incident, concluded, “the terrorist threat is not going away. It will be the weapon of choice of our future adversaries.”
Yet our focus remained on the future. Spurred on by Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld’s call for transformation, writers explored the potential and challenges of concepts such as Streetfighter, SSGNs, littoral warfare, and optimal manning. Rear Admiral Jim Stavridis, in the September 2001 issue, captured this spirit well with his superb call for us to embrace innovation in “Making Room for Risk.”
Then the world changed. On 11 September 2001, 3,000 people lost their lives in ways heretofore unimaginable to most Americans. Proceedings responded with a special issue in October with the words “Freedom isn’t Free” emblazoned on the cover just weeks after the attacks. The following month, more writers reflected on the emotions we all felt: shock, anger, grief, and ultimately resolve as we prepared to fight a different kind of enemy waging a different kind of war.
Soon, the Sea Services assumed a wartime footing and Proceedings mirrored that fact. Amid early successes in Afghanistan, senior leaders pondered the challenges of a post-9/11 world. Coast Guard Commandant Admiral Thomas Collins wrote of his service’s need to balance traditional roles with the new demands of homeland security in his aptly titled piece, “Constancy Amidst Great Change.” Admiral Vern Clark, Chief of Naval Operations, wrote of Sea Power 21, a vision that would shape the Navy for much of the decade.
After a year that included combat operations on the ground and in the air over Iraq, the realities of “the long war” were setting in. Lieutenant Colonel Sam Mundy, USMC, wrote of the challenges Marines faced as they headed back to Iraq in April 2004’s “’No Better Friend, No Worse Enemy,” a fitting title given all the Marines would go on to do during the 2000s. Former Secretary of the Navy John Lehman, a member of the 9/11 Commission, pointedly wrote in the May 2004 Naval Review that “Our enemy is not terrorism. Our enemy is violent Islamic fundamentalism.” Later that year, Rear Admiral Stavridis and Captain Frank Pandolfe reviewed the Navy’s shift to counterterrorism, deterrence, and stability operations in their article “From Sword to Shield.”
Closer to home, Hurricane Katrina presented a stark reminder of our own vulnerabilities. While the hurricane that devastated New Orleans revealed gaps among state, local, and federal entities, the Sea Services, particularly the Coast Guard, led on-scene by Vice Admiral Thad Allen, executed their duties superbly, a fact highlighted in Proceedings’ October 2005 issue titled “The Sea Services Take on Katrina.”
In the second half of the decade, some notable strategic thinkers shared their perspective on the era’s conflicts. In “Future Wars: The Rise of Hybrid Warfare,” Lieutenant General Jim Mattis, USMC, and Lieutenant Colonel Frank Hoffman, USMCR (Ret.), wrote that the enemy not only “got a vote” but he also did not have to play by our rules. Vice Admiral Stavridis helped put these emerging developments into context in “Deconstructing War” as we faced a faster, more splintered, and potentially more deadly world ahead.
In 2006, the new CNO, Admiral Mike Mullen, published a revealing and honest treatise, “What I Believe.” A solid contributor to Proceedings over the years, Admiral Mullen, in his roles as VCNO, CNO, and ultimately Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, arguably shaped the second half of this decade for the U.S. Navy more than any other individual.
Voices from other generations weighed in on the issues of the day as well. Admiral Stansfield Turner proclaimed in July 2006 that “Carriers Are on Their Way Out.” In September 2007, “Get the Carriers,” by Rebecca Grant and Admiral John Nathman, USN (Ret.), declared that when it came to U.S. power projection, there was no substitute for the aircraft carrier. Other related articles followed, continuing the kind of healthy debate that has long been a hallmark of Proceedings.
Cultural shifts also shaped this decade. In 2000, Lieutenant Commander Bryan McGrath presciently explored retention challenges with the rise of two-career couples, now a reality in today’s Navy. In December 2007, Proceedings dedicated a special issue to the growing roles women were filling in the Sea Services. “Lead or Get Out of the Way: Winning the Millennial War” by Vice Admiral Mark Edwards charged leaders to embrace technology and unleash our tech-savvy young warriors.
Toward the end of the decade, Proceedings authors wrestled with other emerging challenges. In July 2008, Vice Admiral Sandy Winnefeld’s “Maritime Strategy in an Age of Blood and Belief” foretold, among other things, the rise of a “new Russia” that shared many ambitions of the old Soviet state. Looking farther east, Andrew Erickson and David Yang, in their May 2009 article “On the Verge of a Game-Changer,” focused on China’s development of antiship ballistic missiles that hinted at a looming policy challenge for the next decade: the rise of China and its navy.
Through it all, some of our brightest stars and clearest voices encouraged us, in the words of Admiral Stavridis’ August 2008 article, to “Read, Think, Write, and Publish.” Lieutenant Commander Claude Berube echoed similar sentiments in February 2009 with “The Navy Can Handle the Truth: Creative Friction without Conflict,” pointing to the power of the blogosphere as a marketplace of ideas among Navy professionals.
The 2000s began with the promise of a new millennium but ended as an era marked by our nation’s most enduring conflict. Like so many previous eras, the burden of war fell disproportionally on the shoulders of our youngest men and women in uniform, young Americans fighting—and dying—for us. It is their bravery, resilience, and commitment that provide us hope for a better future—a future that no doubt will be debated and documented in the pages of Proceedings for years to come.