Skip to main content
USNI Logo USNI Logo USNI Logo
Donate
  • Cart
  • Join or Log In
  • Search

Main navigation

  • About Us
  • Membership
  • Books & Press
  • USNI News
  • Proceedings
  • Naval History
  • Archives
  • Events
  • Donate
USNI Logo USNI Logo USNI Logo
Donate
  • Cart
  • Join or Log In
  • Search

Main navigation (Sticky)

  • About Us
  • Membership
  • Books & Press
  • USNI News
  • Proceedings
  • Naval History
  • Archives
  • Events
  • Donate

Sub Menu

  • Essay Contests
    • About Essay Contests
    • Innovation for Sea Power
    • Marine Corps
    • Naval Intelligence
  • Current Issue
  • The Proceedings Podcast
  • American Sea Power Project
  • Contact Proceedings
    • Submission Guidelines
    • Media Inquiries
  • All Issues

Sub Menu

  • Essay Contests
    • About Essay Contests
    • Innovation for Sea Power
    • Marine Corps
    • Naval Intelligence
  • Current Issue
  • The Proceedings Podcast
  • American Sea Power Project
  • Contact Proceedings
    • Submission Guidelines
    • Media Inquiries
  • All Issues

Editorial Board Chairman's Address

By Vice Admiral Howard B. Thorsen, U.S. Coast Guard
June 1990
Proceedings
Vol. 116/6/1,048
Article
View Issue
Comments

This html article is produced from an uncorrected text file through optical character recognition. Prior to 1940 articles all text has been corrected, but from 1940 to the present most still remain uncorrected.  Artifacts of the scans are misspellings, out-of-context footnotes and sidebars, and other inconsistencies.  Adjacent to each text file is a PDF of the article, which accurately and fully conveys the content as it appeared in the issue.  The uncorrected text files have been included to enhance the searchability of our content, on our site and in search engines, for our membership, the research community and media organizations. We are working now to provide clean text files for the entire collection.

 

By Vice Admiral Howard B. Thorsen, U.S. Coast Guard


It is an honor to be elected to the Naval Institute Board of Control, and I consider it a privilege to serve as Chairman of the Editorial Board. Members of the Naval Institute recognize the diversity of professional back­grounds and experience from which members of the board are nominated. The annual election, by members’ secret ballot, ensures continuation of a truly representative group of individuals, and I emphasize that last word: individuals.

While I preside during our meetings, my vote on any agenda item carries no more weight than any other board member’s. Each month, we discuss articles to be consid­ered for publication in Proceedings or Naval History, books proposed for publication, and the schedule for the increasingly popular seminar program. During the course of a year, we also reach agreement on which articles are the best in each of seven separate essay contests. (In the Arleigh Burke and Vincent Astor contests, by the way, we choose the winning articles before knowing their authors’ names). All in all, each member probably reads between 250 and 300 articles in a 12-month period and comes to his or her own decision on each one, determining whether it is valuable, appropriate, and reasonable as a vehicle for the advancement of professional knowledge in our constit­uency, members of the sea services.

The title page of each issue of Proceedings declares that the Naval Institute is a non-profit professional society that publishes the personal opinions of the authors. When we assemble around the board room table each month to share our views and cast our final votes, there is a high likeli­hood of earnest debate, freely entered, markedly devoid of constraint. To reject an article as unsuitable takes but two votes of the eight cast. We occasionally remind ourselves that our votes must not be based on whether or not we, as individuals, agree with the author’s views. We are not charged with the responsibility of determining which top­ics are, or should be, of highest interest to the member­ship. A healthy, steady influx of manuscripts each month will clearly identify what is uppermost in the minds of the members. Our task is to maintain the level of professional integrity that is attributed to the United States Naval Insti­tute. Its reputation, recognized and acknowledged through­out the world, today has been earned by hundreds of pre­vious board and staff members; we incumbents are keenly aware of that legacy, and firmly committed to “stay the course.”

In the 50th year of the Naval Institute, 1923, the fol­lowing was published in Proceedings: “The continued value of the Institute to the service and the country is largely bound up with the question of censorship, or de­partmental muzzling. This is a most delicate subject to tackle, but one that must be faced squarely and honestly.” Twenty five years later, another article addressed the independence of the Naval Institute: “Its independence of the Navy Department has always lacked emphasis, so much so that in the past some naval officers of rank and authority have misguidedly assumed that it should speak

opinions only favorable to the stand they have taken or in accord with their public statement.”

Now, during the 117th year, we have become aware of the very real possibility that an onerous change in pre­publication review requirements is being prepared for the Secretary of the Navy’s signature—i.e., expanding review to include conformity to established or current policy. If that be the case, there is no kind way to describe the in­tent. It will be censorship, plain and simple.

Institutions of higher learning within the military estab­lishment may succeed in deflecting such intent; for the clarion cry of “academic freedom” will bring support from all quadrants.

But who will muster support for the young men and women such as those recognized here, today, for their in­sightful, responsible, and carefully crafted essays? We must.

In my years as a member of the Editorial Board, I have read perhaps 1,000 articles. Some have not met the test of worthiness; some have been rejected because they were not wet enough; and a very, very few, were rejected because they appeared to attack something without con­structive intent. During those three years, the professional stafl and the Editorial Board have continuously demon­strated impeccable integrity, along with an unswerving loyalty to the Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard.

Where is the problem? What needs to be fixed? What examples can be cited to counter our claim to have estab­lished and maintained a reputation deserving of special trust and confidence—unbroken for 116 years?

How important is it to allow the continuation of a forum for the personal opinions and assertations of young officers such as those we have recognized today? Is there truly an advancement of professional, literary, and scien­tific knowledge in the Sea Services when young naval professionals are given a forum for their views?

It is too bad we cannot ask that question of some previ­ous young authors who were published in Proceedings- Ensign Richard Byrd and Lieutenants W.F. Halsey, Forrest Sherman, Edward L. Beach [Class of 1888], Ernest J.

King, Chester Nimitz, and Hyman G. Rickover.

In light of the drastic changes taking place in many parts of the world today—considering the uncertainties of the future is it not obvious that the pen may be the best instrument with which to sharpen our sword?

Editor’s Note: Admiral Thorsen delivered this address at the Naval Institute’s 116th Annual Meeting in New Lon­don, Connecticut, at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy on 20 Aprd. Material related to Admiral Thorsen’s topic is published on pages 46-50 of this issue. Transcripts of Admiral C.A.H. Trost’s address, Admiral Paul A. Yost’s address, and the seminar—“DoD Enters the Drug War:

Will It Make a Difference”—are available for $10.00 by writing to: Customer Service, U.S. Naval Institute, 2062 Generals Highway, Annapolis, MD 21401.


Proceedings / June 1990

Digital Proceedings content made possible by a gift from CAPT Roger Ekman, USN (Ret.)

Quicklinks

Footer menu

  • About the Naval Institute
  • Books & Press
  • Naval History
  • USNI News
  • Proceedings
  • Oral Histories
  • Events
  • Naval Institute Foundation
  • Photos & Historical Prints
  • Advertise With Us
  • Naval Institute Archives

Receive the Newsletter

Sign up to get updates about new releases and event invitations.

Sign Up Now
Example NewsletterPrivacy Policy
USNI Logo White
Copyright © 2025 U.S. Naval Institute Privacy PolicyTerms of UseContact UsAdvertise With UsFAQContent LicenseMedia Inquiries
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Instagram
Powered by Unleashed Technologies
×

You've read 1 out of 5 free articles of Proceedings this month.

Non-members can read five free Proceedings articles per month. Join now and never hit a limit.