U.S. Naval Institute 127th Annual Meeting

Naval Institute members and friends gathered at the U.S. Naval Academy's Alumni Hall on 25 April for the 127th Annual Meeting of the U.S. Naval Institute. Attendees celebrated the induction of new Golden Life (50-year) members and the achievements of the winners of the 38th Annual Naval Institute Naval and Maritime Photo Contest; the Business Associate of the Year; Naval Institute Press, Proceedings, and Naval History Authors of the Year; Special Awards of Merit; and winners of the Arleigh Burke, Enlisted, and Vincent Astor Memorial Leadership Essay Contests.

Editorial Board Chairman's Remarks

I remember joining the Naval Institute as a young lieutenant and marveling at the utmost professionalism of the Proceedings and the Naval Institute Press. I always could count on finding solid discussions, and yes arguments, on the most relevant naval and maritime issues of the day. The Naval Institute never seemed to shy away from controversy, and I can tell you now from being an "insider" 30 years later, that leads to some extremely "interesting" Editorial Board discussions. All the more interesting the dialog, all the more reason to publish!

The Naval Institute Press published 99 new titles in 2000. Two of the titles were chosen as Main Selections of the Military Book Club, and Norman Friedman's The Fifty-Year War won the Westminster Medal for Military Literature, a very prestigious award sponsored by the Royal United Services Institute for Defence Studies in London. Norman will travel to England to accept the award.

Dog Company Six by Brigadier General Ed Simmons was selected by the Navy League for its Alfred Thayer Mahan Award for Literary Achievement, won the Samuel Eliot Morrison Award sponsored by the New York Commandary of the Naval Order, and will receive the American Library Association's Boyd Award for the best novel written about a period when the United States was at war. In addition, Dog Company Six took the 3rd Place ForeWard Magazine Books of the Year Award.

What makes Proceedings the true independent forum is its contributors—people such as those we honor today. They tell us what's important and by so doing set the Naval Institute's publishing agenda—there is no one "behind the curtain" as in the Wizard of Oz. They write the articles, commentaries, letters to the editor, and yes, Nobody asked me, buts. And both well-known and not so well-known contributors share printed space.

As an example of the forum at work, when the USS Cole (DDG-67) was attacked on 12 October, the article "Combating Terrorism" by Navy Lieutenant Commander Thomas Rancich was already in production and then published in the November Proceedings. In December, we published five short pieces related to the attack—two anonymously by on-scene Navy personnel. January's Proceedings included a commentary by retired Army Lieutenant General Jack Cushman, who questioned the accountability of the commanding officer, and another piece examined the rules of engagement. And in February, the CO of a guided-missile frigate that had been steaming with the Cole answered the General in Comment and Discussion. And the dialog continues.

Integrating the issues from the pages of the Proceedings live in the Naval Institute's seminars is a high priority. And in the instance of the Cole attack, in January at West 2001 in San Diego, Admiral Hal Gehman delivered a major address on the resulting investigation, immediately followed by a panel that included the November author Commander Rancich, the January author of the rules of engagement piece, retired Marine Reserve Colonel Hays Parks, and the retired Marine colonel who commanded the 24th Marine Amphibious Unit during the 1983 barracks attack in Beirut.

Naval History continues to celebrate the mystery, wonder and adventure of the world's maritime heritage. It also takes on the issues and controversies confronting historians—many still unresolved for numerous decades. The magazine has tackled such continuing favorites as the debate over the presence of Japanese midget submarines during the attack of Pearl Harbor and analysis of new evidence of the disappearance of Amelia Earhart.

With the Defense Review by the new administration going on as I speak, I submit that whatever they might be contemplating in the maritime arena, if it has any merit, then it already appeared in the pages of the Proceedings, in a Naval Institute Press book, or as a topic at a seminar—and more than likely within the past 12 months or so.