The General Prize Essay contest is perhaps the oldest continuously conducted writing contest in the entire United States. The Institute began work on the Contest in 1878 under the leadership of the most recognized and celebrated Naval Strategist in United States history, Alfred Thayer Mahan, then the Chairman of the Naval Institute.
Lieutenant Commander Allan D. Brown first proposed the idea for an essay contest sponsored by the U.S. Naval Institute for "a paper which shall be deemed the best" on 9 May 1878 at the organization's meeting in Annapolis. The first contest was in 1879. The name of the contest was changed in 1985 to the Arleigh Burke Essay Contest in honor of the World War II hero, former Chief of Naval Operations, and President of the Naval Institute. The name reverted to the General Prize in 2008. Today, the prizes honor the first, second, and third best articles published in Proceedings over the previous year, from October through September of the succeeding year.
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Essay Contests - 2000 to Present
| 2009 General Prize Essay Contest Winners | ||
| First Prize | Kirk Ross | "Where Marines Could Be Marines" |
| Second Prize | Commander Henry J. Hendrix, USN | "Buy Fords, Not Ferraris" |
| Third Prize | Barrett Tillman | "Fear and Loathing in the Post-Naval Era" |
| Third Prize | Andrew Erickson and David Yang | "On the Verge of a Game-Changer" |
| 2008 General Prize Essay Contest Winners | ||
| First Prize | Colonel Mark Cancian, USMC (Ret.) | "Capitalizing on al Qaeda's Mistakes" |
| Second Prize | Lieutenant Daniel A. Hancock, USN | "The Navy's Not Serious About Riverine Warfare" |
| Third Prize | Captain Charity Winters, USAF | "Not Home Yet..." |
| Third Prize | Captain Kevin S.J. Eyer, USN | "The Bitter Cost of Business" |
| 2007 Arleigh Burke Essay Contest Winners | ||
| First Prize | Commander David Allan Adams, USN | "Preemption without Regime Change" |
| Second Prize | Commander John Patch, USN | "The Navy Homeland Role: Vigilant Guard or Forward Defense?" |
| Third Prize | Lieutenant Commander John D. Dotson, USN | "A New Naval Strategy for a New Century" |
| Third Prize | Lieutenant Commander Thomas VanHook, MC, USN | "On Demand: Sustaining the Military Health Benefit at a Reasonable Cost" |
| 2007 General Prize Essay Contest Winners | ||
| First Prize | Commander Henry J. Hendrix, II | "Control of the Sea Protects the New Global Heartland" |
| 2006 General Prize (Arleigh Burke Essay) Contest Winners | ||
| First Prize | Rear Admiral William J. Holland, USN (Ret.) | "The Fleet: Low Profile Today—Vital Tomorrow" |
| Second Prize | Nate Braden | "The Storozhevoy Mutiny" |
| Third Prize | Commander Christopher R. Davis, USNR | "The Navy Needs a Strategy, and This One Fits the Bill" |
| 2005 General Prize (Arleigh Burke Essay) Contest Winners | ||
| First Prize | Commander John Patch, USN | "Sea Basing: Sound Concept or Chimera?" |
| Second Prize | Lieutenant Commander Eric R. Johns, USN (Ret.) | "Boats in the Water, Boots on the Ground" |
| Third Prize | Captain John Byron, USN (Ret.) | "Three Great Apes" |
| 2004 General Prize (Arleigh Burke Essay) Contest Winners | ||
| First Prize | Paul H. Marx | "Barbarians at the Gate: Sea Power 21" |
| Second Prize | Rear Admiral William J. Holland, Jr., USN (Ret.) | "The Navy in the Twenty-first Century: More Than Hauling Marines" |
| Third Prize | Captain John Byron, USN (Ret.) | "U.S. Navy, Inc." |
| Third Prize | Captain Randall G. Bowdish, USN | "Between Scylla and Charybdis: Discussion and Dissent in the Navy" |
| 2003 General Prize (Arleigh Burke Essay) Contest Winners | ||
| First Prize | Captain Chris Johnson, USN (Ret.) | "Net Centric Fogs Accountability" |
| Second Prize | Captain Sam Tangredi, USN | "Rebalancing the Fleet, Round 2" |
| Third Prize | Commander Kevin S.J. Eyer, USN | "How Does It Profit a Man?" |
| 2002 General Prize (Arleigh Burke Essay) Contest Winners | ||
| Prize Winner | Captain Terry C. Pierce, USN | "Sunk Costs Sink Innovation" |
| First Honorable Mention | Captain Sam Tangredi, USN | "Imagined Conflicts, Ethical Differences: The Fantasy of the Growing Civil-Military Gap" |
| Second Co-Honorable Mention | Lieutenant Commander Douglas L. Edson, USN | "Naval Warfare: A Necessary Proficiency" |
| Second Co-Honorable Mention | Captain John Byron, USN (Ret.) | "A Navy Out of Balance" |
| 2001 General Prize (Arleigh Burke Essay) Contest Winners | ||
| Prize Winner | Commander Sheila A. Scarborough, USN | "Network-Centric Warfare Meets the Laws of the Navy" |
| First Honorable Mention | Lieutenant Kenneth Ehlers Harbaugh, USN | "Bridging the Civil-Military Divide" |
| Second Honorable Mention | Captain Sam J. Tangredi, USN | "Regaining the Trust: Damage Control for the Crisis in Credibility" |
| 2000 General Prize (Arleigh Burke Essay) Contest Winners | ||
| Prize Winner | Captain Sam J. Tangredi, USN | "The Fall and Rise of Naval Forward Presence" |
| First Honorable Mention | Commander Charles W. Laingen, USN | "On War, in the New Millennium" |
| Second Honorable Mention | Lieutenant Thomas R. Williams II, USN | "Examining Junior Officer Professional Development in the Fleet" |
