One of the Naval Institute’s top priorities is to engage young naval personnel and help them advance as the next generation of naval professionals. We believe an important first step in this effort is to introduce Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps (NROTC) and service-academy midshipmen and cadets—our future naval leaders—to their professional association.
The Institute is now setting up a network of sponsors to underwrite student memberships for all midshipmen. Prior to announcing this new initiative officially, several individuals stepped forward as sponsors for three NROTC programs. Through tax-deductible contributions to the Naval Institute Foundation, all four classes of midshipmen at Marquette University in Milwaukee and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign will receive sponsored one-year memberships. The project was kicked off when Institute CEO retired Vice Admiral Pete Daly offered to champion memberships at his alma mater, the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts.
Digital-media entrepreneur and author Christopher P. Michel of San Francisco has agreed to underwrite Institute memberships for midshipmen in the NROTC unit at the University of Illinois for the next several years. A former naval flight officer, Chris received his commission through this program on graduation in 1990. “Reading Proceedings as a midshipman helped ignite my passion in the Navy,” he says. “I think every mid would benefit from being an active member of the Naval Institute from Day One. In a very real sense, all sailors are members of a professional community, and USNI membership is the best way to engage with our profession.”
David D. Chomeau of St. Louis, vice chairman of the Reliable Insurance Company, echoes these thoughts. He was the senior instructor of the Marquette University NROTC unit in the mid-1960s and has gathered several of his former mids—Class of ’64 graduates—to sponsor the current midshipmen.
“I am confident that the newly commissioned ensigns from Marquette will benefit from membership in the Institute,” Dave says. “As these young men and women begin their naval careers, I want them to have the same advantages that USNI membership brought me. The Institute is the only true independent forum for naval officers and others to share their views, and Proceedings is a powerful tool. The huge bonus is that at the same time we help these individuals, we also benefit Marquette NROTC. I and my fellow sponsors hope to establish ties with the class of 2013 so we can follow their careers and they can tell us the real scoop. I will never forget, a few months after the Gulf of Tonkin events of August 1964, I had a visit from one of my mids who, shortly after his commissioning, became radio officer in the USS Picking (DD-685). The Picking had been diverted to escort duty off Vietnam after the Tonkin incident. His account of events was fascinating.”
There are dozens of NROTC units across the country and, together with the Naval Academy, Coast Guard Academy, Merchant Marine Academy, state maritime academies, and OCS programs, we’d like to bring many thousands of midshipmen on board as Naval Institute members. You can sponsor an entire unit, or your tax-deductible gift can help underwrite student memberships where they are most needed. The Institute has performed due diligence through the Department of the Navy to ensure these gratis memberships fall within the guidelines of what active-duty military personnel can legally accept. For more information about this initiative, please contact Heather Lancaster at (410) 295-1048, or at [email protected].