As anyone who knows Proceedings can tell you, this is a contributor-driven publication. The members of the professional staff do not write the content of the publication. Instead, we work with enlisted professionals to four-star officers to well-informed civilians “who dare . . . to write to advance the professional, literary, and scientific understanding of sea power and other issues critical to global security.”
An important element in the Naval Institute’s ability to stimulate new thinking is the sponsorship of essay contests. The Naval Institute’s General Prize Essay Contest first awarded prizes in 1879. Past winners include Commander Alfred Thayer Mahan, Lieutenant Charles Belknap, Commander Bradley A. Fiske, Lieutenant Ernest J. King, Commander Dudley Knox, Captain Wayne Hughes, Lieutenant Commander James Stavridis, Ron O’Rourke, Lieutenant Niel Golightly, Lieutenant Chris Abel, Captain Jon Hoffman, Commander James A. (Sandy) Winnefeld, Jr., and Lieutenant Dave Adams. (All authors listed are with the ranks they held when they won prizes in this contest.)
This year’s winners—all serving naval professionals—are published in this issue. Vice Admiral Daly lists the authors with their prizes in his CEO Notes, pages 6–7. We received 120 essays in this competition, and the Naval Institute Editorial Board judged the top essays in the blind and selected the winners. Other essays submitted in the contest will be published as articles and other features in Proceedings and possibly in USNI News and the Naval Institute’s Blog.
In addition to unsolicited manuscripts and essays, Proceedings maintains a stable of subject-expert columnists who ensure we can deliver timely technical and current-issue content.
Over the next few months we plan to feature these columnists and some of the people who work behind the scenes that make Proceedings the unique publication it has been for 142 years.
Before embarking on introducing the current cast of columnists, we wish to thank two Proceedings stalwarts—Norman Polmar and Senior Chief Jim Murphy.
Norman first published in Proceedings in 1957. The author of numerous books, including Ships & Aircraft of the U.S. Fleet (published by the Naval Institute Press), Norman has the distinction of having more bylined contributions in Proceedings than any other author. He also was a columnist for the very popular “U.S. Navy” column from 1978 through the end of 2015. Norman continues to write for Proceedings with a comment in this issue, pages 8–9.
Senior Chief Jim Murphy first came to the attention of Proceedings readers in 2002 when he won a prize in the Enlisted Essay Contest. From 2009 until last month Jim was our “From the Deckplates” columnist. When we brought back the Enlisted Prize Essay Contest, Jim was the first person we approached to serve as a judge. (He will continue to do so.) We are going to publish essays from this contest to keep delivering content from enlisted professionals in “From the Deckplates.”
To both these professionals and gentlemen, on behalf of a readership that has benefited from your thoughtful research and insightful observations, thank you.
The Naval Institute’s Strategic Plan challenges Proceedings “to embolden our contributors; increase the ‘dare factor.’” Proceedings provides an open forum where—as Vice Admiral Robert Dunn captured in his contribution to the 125th anniversary issue and also quoted in the Strategic Plan—“Radical ideas, nontraditional approaches, and the sparks that fly as they beat against the status quo and are exposed to light and to each other are the stuff of progress.”
Enter the forum. Share your thinking.
Fred H. Rainbow
Editor-in-Chief
Life Member since 1976