As an Air Force Academy graduate and career Air Force officer, I’ve always appreciated the contributions of “my” service to our nation’s security; however, I tended to take the Navy for granted—or even view it as a rival. In the mid-1990s, while serving as Deputy Director, Plans and Policy, at U.S. Pacific Command, a predominantly naval-focused organization, I started reading Proceedings. Interactions with my Navy and Marine Corps comrades and the thoughtful, informative articles in Proceedings helped me to better recognize the contributions of the Sea Services to national security. I became a Naval Institute member and found that—both as an active-duty officer and, later, as a consultant on national security matters—I frequently turned to the Institute for credible and useful information.
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