Our dependence on mobile devices has changed the way we go about our daily routines and fueled our voracious appetite for up-to-the-moment, accurate information. This becomes a huge opportunity for a content producer such as the Naval Institute, and we have streamlined our mobile app for reading Proceedings magazine to be a faster, smoother, and better user experience that far exceeds the first generation of apps.
We’ve taken new announcements from Adobe and Apple to heart. In technology news, Adobe has said, “mobile platform first.” We have bought in fully to this concept. Adobe’s well-received launch of new app designs focuses on mobile first and tablet/web second. We are scaled to launch a user-friendly version this month, which I encourage you to download from the App Store if you are an iPhone user, or from Google Play if you are an Android user. Designed first with your mobile phone form factor in mind, it will also render very nicely on your tablet. The new app includes Adobe’s “Explicit Download” feature, which allows users to download entire issues of Proceedings. This is especially important for those who expect to be out of Internet range because they will still have access to any issues they have downloaded.
This is another huge step forward that aligns the way we provide content with the way our community wants to receive it, so I encourage you to give it a try. Please let us know how you like it. I will keep you informed on related app developments.
The new Innovation & Risk: Striking the Right Balance Essay Contest, sponsored by Engility, generated 93 submissions. This is a tremendous response to a first-time essay contest.
The panel of judges selected the winners:
• First Prize: $5,000“Learning to Ride Tsunamis”By Dr. Terry Pierce (Captain, USN, Retired)Note: This essay is published in this issue on pages 66-71.
• Second Prize: $2,500“Exploiting the U.S. Navy’s Learning Capacity: Unrestricted Warfare in the Pacific”By Lieutenant Colonel Francis G. Hoffman, USMC (Ret.)
• Third Prize: $1,500“Strategic Corporal, Innovative Petty Officer”By Lieutenant Roger Misso, USN
These prize winners will be recognized either at the Naval Institute’s Defense Forum Washington in December or at WEST 2016 in February in San Diego.
In addition to the three prize winners, many of the essays submitted for this contest have been recommended to the Editorial Board for publication as articles. Additional entries are being considered for publication as “Professional Notes” and in other departments.
The deadline for the General Prize Essay Contest—the Naval Institute’s oldest-running essay contest, first awarded in 1879—is 31 December. Past winners have included: Commander Alfred Thayer Mahan, Commander Bradley Fiske, Lieutenant Ernest King, Lieutenant Commander Dudley Knox, Lieutenant T. Wood Parker, Captain Wayne Hughes, Lieutenant Commander James Stavridis, Lieutenant Kevin Peppe, Mr. Ron O’Rourke, Commander James A. Winnefeld, Captain Jon Hoffman, Lieutenant David Adams, Lieutenant Thomas Williams, and Lieutenant Roger Misso. See the ad on page 5 in this issue for details.
Of importance to all Members, the 2015 Naval Institute Holiday Catalog is now available and ready for your viewing and ordering at www.usni.org. The catalog offers a 50 percent discount and free shipping on books, along with Member discounts on other products.
There is much more to read, view, and enjoy. Featured prominently this year as part of “What’s the Scuttlebutt?” is the “Warrior Writers” exhibit, on display at the U.S. Naval Academy Museum through January 2016. The exhibit showcases the unique partnership between the Museum and the Institute, featuring more than 125 Institute authors, nearly 100 artifacts, portraits, and books, 53 Naval Academy classes, two Assistant Secretaries of the Navy, and two future Presidents.
The catalog also showcases the Naval Institute Oral History program, founded in 1969 and supported entirely by the generosity of donors. More than 270 oral histories of important Sea Service figures have been recorded and published, and many more are planned and under way.
A Coast Guard cutter in the North Atlantic during World War II, her afterdeck loaded with depth charges, is on the catalog cover. The image, one of thousands donated to the Institute photo archive, depicts one facet of what Lieutenant (j.g.) Claiborne Pell, U.S. Coast Guard Reserve—later Senator Claiborne Pell (D-RI)—detailed in his December 1942 Proceedings article “The Coast Guard at War.” The cover embodies both the Institute’s rich history and its mission as the independent forum of the Sea Services.
I commend the Holiday Catalog to you. To receive the 50 percent discount and free shipping on books ordered by 18 December, use the coupon code “Holiday 2015.” You may order online at www.nip.org or via phone at (800) 233-8764.
Peter H. Daly, VADM, USN (Ret.)
Life Member and Member since 1978