WHERE WE WERE
October 1918 Proceedings—In a Secretary’s Notes item titled “New Members,” Secretary and Treasurer Commander G. M. Ravenscroft, U.S. Navy, wrote: “It has been the experience at the Naval Academy that officers who have entered the Navy since the beginning of the war are interested in becoming members of the Naval Institute when the object of the Institute is brought to their attention. As the Secretary reaches only a few of these officers it is requested that members afloat interest officers who are not members in becoming such.”
October 1968 Proceedings —“The true mission of the Navy is to provide a base for projecting our national power on and over the land overseas,” Captain Carl H. Amme, U.S. Navy (Retired) wrote in “Sea Power and the Superpowers.” “For this, we need to command the seas we must use. We must above all have the capacity to deter any interference with our naval operations, the capacity to retaliate in greater measure for attacks on our ships, and the capacity to accomplish our mission in the face of any obstacle the enemy may place before us.”
October 1993 Proceedings —In his article “2015,” Rear Admiral W. P. Houley, U.S. Navy, wrote, “Now in 2015, we can see how important it was to continue building SSNs. If we had not preserved the nuclear submarine construction base in 1995, we still would be struggling—at a staggering and perhaps unaffordable cost—to reconstitute an undersea warfare capability. Dominance from beneath the sea is recognized as an essential element of maritime and military leverage. Adequate submarine force levels and timely introduction of capabilities into our submarines were key to successful conclusion of the conflicts that threatened the ability of the United States to remain a world leader during a frightening period.”
A. Denis Clift
Golden Life Member