Prize Essay Winners Announced
If naval officers honor the oath they have taken—to support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic—they must now speak out against those who endanger the country from within. This thought, amplified in the essay that commences on the following page, won for Captain Robert J. Hanks, U. S. Navy, the Naval Institute gold medal, a life membership, and an award of $1,500 at the Annual Meeting, held at the U. S. Naval Academy on 19 February 1970.
Captain Hanks’s achievement is no novelty for him. This is his third consecutive appearance; in 1968 and 1969, respectively, he won a First and a Second Honorable Mention.
This 1970 Prize Essay Contest was unusual also for the fact that all the winners were naval officers. First Honorable Mention, for which the award is a silver medal and $1,000, went to Captain Ralph E. Williams, Jr., Supply Corps, U. S. Navy (Retired), whose essay, “After Vietnam,” warns that the nation may be beginning one costly misadventure—the Safeguard ABM—even as it is liquidating another—Vietnam. Captain Williams has won the Prize Essay’s gold medal five times.
Second Honorable Mention, for which the award is a bronze medal and $750, was won by Captain Paul R. Schratz, U. S. Navy (Retired), who won the gold medal in 1968. Captain Schratz’s essay, “Red Star Over the Southern Sea,” will be published in the June 1970 Proceedings.
The following essays, entered in the Prize Essay Contest, were purchased for future publication in the PROCEEDINGS:
“The U. S. Coast Guard—And Its Military Traditions” by Lieutenant Commander Robert F. Bennett, U. S. Coast Guard
“Naval Warfare Specialists—A Must” by Captain R. A. Bowling, U. S. Navy “The Case For Strategic Mobility” by George E. Lowe
“The Strategic Hazards of High Productivity” by Colonel Frank B. Case, U. S. Army
“The Merchant Marine Oblivion” by Walter McNab Miller, III
“The National Need for Ocean Surveillance: A Foundation of the Future Navy” by Frank Al. Murphy
“The Spirit and The Ghost” by Stefan T. Possony
“A Navy Psychiatrist Looks at Drug Abuse” by Commander Joseph A. Pursch (MC), U. S. Navy
“Time of Change: The Naval Service, American Youth, and History” by Clark G. Reynolds
“Low Altitude Multi-Purpose System” by Lieutenant Albert H. Robbins, U. S. Navy
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R. T. E. Bowler Jr.
Secretary-Treasurer and Publisher
U.S. Naval Institute