The Chief of Naval Operations (CNO), the Naval History and Heritage Command, and the U.S. Naval Institute announce the 2024 CNO Naval History Essay Contest. Papers must be submitted by no later than 30 April.
Essay entries should apply lessons from throughout naval history to solving challenges facing today’s U.S. Navy.
Essays will be accepted from entrants qualified in the Professional Category, the Rising Category, and the Midshipman/Cadets Category.
The Professional Category includes historians, professors, history curators, archivists, and those with history-related doctoral degrees; authors of books on naval history (not including self-published works); and civilians who have published articles in an established historical or naval journal or magazine.
The Rising Category includes those who do not fall within the Professional Category and are either: active duty, reservists, veterans, or federal civilian personnel of the U.S. Navy, Marine Corps, Coast Guard, or Merchant Marine; or members of foreign militaries who have orders and are serving in an official billet in one of the above services.
The Midshipmen/Cadets Category includes students enrolled at the U.S. Naval Academy, U.S. Coast Guard Academy, the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy, and the state maritime academies, as well as students enrolled in an official naval NROTC program.
All entries in each category must include either enumerated footnotes or enumerated endnotes; a bibliographic list of sources at the end of the essay is not permitted as a substitute for the footnotes or endnotes. Word counts—excluding footnotes or endnotes—are 3,500 words maximum for the Professional Category and 3,000 words maximum for the Rising Category and Midshipmen/Cadets Category. The word count should be included on the title page.
Submissions must not have been previously published, nor be currently under consideration for publication, nor previously submitted to the contest.
Essays should be submitted at usni.org/contests as a Microsoft Word attachment in one of the following categories:
• Professional Category
• Rising Category
• Midshipmen/Cadets Category
When filling out the electronic form, the short biography should detail the author’s eligibility for the contest. Essays are judged in the blind; do not include the author’s name anywhere on the pages of the essay.
