In 2004, Naval History ’s parent organization, the U.S. Naval Institute , decided to change the format of the seminar program that traditionally complemented the organization’s Annual Meeting. The program, which generally had focused on current national defense affairs, would from that point be known as the Annapolis Naval History Symposium. The idea was to commission four historians to write papers on a specific aspect of a general historical topic and invite them to make presentations at the symposium. Each paper would be discussed by panels comprised of other historians and at least one active-duty officer in the Sea Services. The overt purpose was to provide a venue for historians to address details of the topic that normally never would surface anywhere else. An underlying motive was to engage acting professionals in discussions concerning how these history lessons might apply to current operations.
