We are honored to publish in this issue the winners of the Naval Institute’s longest running essay competition—the General Prize Essay Contest, launched in 1879 as the Prize Essay Contest. The authors of the first winning essays in the inaugural competition were:
• 1st Prize: Lieutenant Commander Allan D. Brown, USN
• 1st Honorable Mention: Lieutenant Commander Caspar F. Goodrich, USN
• 2nd Honorable Mention: Commander Alfred T. Mahan, USN
Over the years this contest has experienced a few name changes. In 1948 it became the General Prize Essay Contest. In 1985, the Naval Institute’s then-Board of Control voted to name the contest to honor World War II naval hero and one-time Naval Institute President Arleigh Burke. From 2008 to 2013 the Naval Institute selected three authors published in Proceedings during the year to receive General Prize Awards. Then, in 2014, the Naval Institute brought back the General Prize Essay Contest in name and in the spirit the Naval Institute’s founding fathers intended. All essays are judged in the blind, and the Naval Institute’s Editorial Board selects the winners. The authors of the winning essays are recognized and presented medals at the Institute’s Annual Meeting. This year the event will be at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C.
How important has this contest been to the Naval Profession? In this editor’s opinion, this contest has given voice to and recognized many of the profession’s finest thinkers. Some contest authors have attributed some of the success in their careers to having been selected as winners.
In this issue alone, in addition to the impressive winning essays by three serving naval professionals, there are references to past winners’ contributions—Dudley Knox and Ernest J. King in both Captain Dale Rielage’s and Commander B. J. Armstrong’s prize-winning essays and another winner in Denis Clift’s “Where We Were” on this page.
In addition, past prize winner Admiral James A. (Sandy) Winnefeld Jr., U.S. Navy (Retired), has a feature, “Break Out or Fail,” in this issue. Another past prize winner, Captain Dave Adams, U.S. Navy (Retired), contributed to “SSG Served as an Innovation Incubator” in this issue.
This past year’s General Prize Essay Contest also generated other quality content for the Naval Profession in addition to the prize-winning essays; 12 submissions were accepted for publication as articles in Proceedings and one for publication in Naval History. Eleven more were accepted for publication in other departments in Proceedings.
Last year, thanks to a generous gift from Andrew and Barbara Taylor and The Crawford Taylor Foundation, the General Prize Essay Contest will be funded in perpetuity.
Where We Were
April 1917 Proceedings—Writing in “History of the Capture of Guam by the United States Man-of-War Charleston and Its Transport,” Judge Frank Portusach of Guam would recall his June 1898 meeting—war with Spain looming—with Captain Glass of the Charleston. “I answered that I would let him have the lighters and boat without any pay, as being the only United States citizen on the island it was my duty to give all aid I could in time of war. February 1899, the American colors were raised by Captain Taussig at the Government House.”
April 1967 Proceedings—In “Stop, Look, and Listen,” retired Rear Admiral Kemp Tolley, a naval intelligence practitioner, urged all naval officers to develop their powers of observation and their collection of maps, photographs, and information that might one day prove of value. “When World War II broke, ONI’s files contained nothing about our own territory which had been occupied by the Japanese. For example, such was the paucity of information that when the plans were being written for the recapture of Guam, frantic searches were made in the photograph albums to find some impression of what be the character of the beaches and the land.”
April 1992 Proceedings—In his Arleigh Burke Essay Contest winner (previously and once again named the General Prize Essay Contest) “Bull? Or the Real Thing?” former naval officer John H. Mitchell challenged the Navy’s pillorying of the liberal arts as “Bull.” “Knowledge is a broad thing, and all of it matters. The military officer of today must create and facilitate at the very least an interface between flesh-and-blood human beings and highly technical and capable combat systems. Knowing people and getting the most from them means studying their multidimensional character through a conscientious and open-hearted study of the humanities, from art and literature to history and political science.”
—A. Denis Clift, Golden Life Member