General Prize Essay Contest Sponsored
The Naval Institute is grateful to Andrew and Barbara Taylor and to the Crawford Taylor Foundation of St. Louis for gifts that will fund in perpetuity the Institute’s oldest and most prestigious essay contest, the General Prize Essay Contest, which dates to 1879. These generous gifts reaffirm the critical role of the Naval Institute’s open and independent forum and ensure that it will remain vibrant for future generations of Sea-Service thought leaders.
Emerging & Disruptive Technologies Essay Contest Winners Announced
For a focused topic in its initial offering, this contest, sponsored with Leidos, generated an awesome response in terms of quality and number—82 contributions. The winners are:
• First Prize: $5,000
“Operating Under Constant Surveillance”
By Sean Cate and Jesse Sloman
Note: Published on pages 46–51 in this issue.
• Second Prize: $2,500
“Dynamite at the Speed of Light”
By Commander Timothy McGeehan, USN, and Commander Douglas Wahl, USN (Ret.)
• Third Prize: $1,500
“Additive Manufacturing at the Nanoscale”
By Lieutenant (junior grade) Michael W. Haydell Jr., USN
Note: In addition to the cash prizes, all winners receive one-year extensions to their memberships in the Naval Institute.
The authors of these prize-winning essays will be recognized at the Navy League’s Sea-Air-Space Exposition on 17 May at the Gaylord National Convention Center in Maryland.
The Coast Guard Essay Contest Is Back
With a generous sponsorship from Huntington Ingalls Industries, the Coast Guard Essay Contest returns after a ten-year absence. See the ad on page 21.
This contest will complement other recent Naval Institute initiatives with the Coast Guard: a new conference series at the Coast Guard Academy, presentations by Coast Guard leaders at Naval Institute conferences on both coasts, and cadets from every Coast Guard Academy company becoming student members, thanks to the generosity of donors who once stood in the cadets’ shoes.
We are proud and eager to hear new voices and new thinking about the Coast Guard’s critical role in the 21st century, and ways to make the Coast Guard stronger.
Big Media Cite USNI News
USNI News is increasingly becoming a source of sources. USNI News was first to name the Navy officer charged with espionage in a national-security case on 10 April. Major media outlets such as The Washington Post, The New York Times, CBS Morning News, and The Wall Street Journal all cited USNI News as “first to report.” At one point, USNI News was simultaneously the top story on both Google News and the Drudge Report. In all, USNI News was cited by more than 150 news outlets and organizations for this particular story, which is just one example of our improved reach through USNI News.
In other good developments, on 7 April 2016, USNI News launched an important new initiative to feature deployed Navy, Marine, and Coast Guard units, their capabilities, and their contributions. Using both video and an accompanying article, we seek to present these in a manner particularly suited for those who might not be intimately familiar with the ins and outs of the Sea Services. The first feature presents the building blocks of the Marine Air-Ground Task Force (MAGTF), the Corps’ self-contained, expeditionary fighting force that can sustain itself with limited outside assistance, far from home. Our next effort will cover the carrier air wing embarked in the USS John C. Stennis (CVN-74), currently deployed in the Western Pacific. We look forward to your feedback on these.
Giving Members Voice
Our growing interactions with you as Members and your feedback are high priorities as the Institute continues to evolve and grow in the 21st century. As part of this process, we have introduced use of Waggl as a tool for dialogue and engagement. We will use it to pose questions to our audience who can then answer anonymously. These open-ended answers are then voted on by others, and the results are tabulated in real-time.
As our first step, USNI News posed the question, “What is the greatest warship of all time and why?” The entirely user-generated response was overwhelmingly in favor of the USS Constitution.
We look forward to innovating and experimenting with the use of Waggl as a survey tool to engage our readers and Members across all the Institute’s publication and presentation platforms. We welcome your feedback! We also welcome questions you propose that we consider.
Annual Meeting Scores High with Members
My thanks to all who were with us at the Naval Institute’s 143rd Annual Meeting on 28 April. The speakers, award winners, and interaction among Members combined to make it a powerful and rewarding event. The election results have given us an outstanding Board of Directors and Editorial Board. It was my privilege to report on the Institute’s good health and direction as set forth in our 2016–2018 Strategic Plan. The plan is available to all our members on the Naval Institute website at http://www.usni.org/about/mission.
Maritime Security Dialogue Set for June
Please mark your calendars. We are looking forward to having Admiral Philip S. Davidson, Commander, U.S. Fleet Forces Command, as our speaker in the Maritime Security Dialogue cohosted with the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) at CSIS Headquarters in Washington, D.C., on 24 June 2016.
Peter H. Daly, VADM, USN (Ret.)
Life Member and Member since 1978