December already? It feels like my first COVID-19 vaccination was seven years ago, not seven months ago. It would be easy to get mired down in a year punctuated by a rough transition between presidential administrations, an ongoing pandemic, a messy and deadly pullout from Afghanistan, and nonstop bickering in Washington. Fortunately, I received a powerful shot of enthusiasm and optimism at the end of October, when I had the privilege to speak at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy’s annual ethics conference. It was my first visit to the Coast Guard Academy, and the Corps of Cadets filled me with hope and energy. They were sharp, full of ideas, eager to serve, and they asked mature, insightful questions. Spending a day with them was a bright sun rising in the east after a long stormy night at sea. Thank you, Bears!
This issue features two American Sea Power Project articles and another feature addressing the mismatch between the supply of ready U.S. naval forces and the demand for those forces. Captain Robert Rubel’s “Think Differently about Naval Presence” calls for managing forward deployments on a global basis. Former Deputy Secretary of Defense (and retired Marine Corps colonel) Robert Work (who also chairs the Naval Institute Board of Directors) does not mince words in “A Slavish Devotion to Forward Presence Has Nearly Broken the U.S. Navy.” On any topic, I am always interested to hear what junior people think—and it was interesting (but not surprising) that Navy Lieutenant Jeff Zeberlein agrees with Work and Rubel. In “Can-Do Is Not Working,” Zeberlein writes, “Ships, submarines, planes, and infrastructure are run ragged from decades of overuse.” All three authors come at the unbalanced equation from different but overlapping perspectives, and all offer different but complementary ideas to address the imbalance.
This is the second year of the Naval Institute/CIMSEC Fiction Contest, and we received an outstanding group of submissions! The winner is “Security by Obsolesence” by Captain James Schmitt, U.S. Air Force. Second prize went to Michael Barretta, and Lieutenant Robert Williscroft, U.S. Navy (Retired), took third. Proceedings will publish the second and third prize winners online soon. CIMSEC will publish the top ten essays online during its upcoming Fiction Week.
In “A Sea Service Gone Ashore,” Coast Guard Lieutenant Commander Karen Love Kutkiewicz builds on a series of articles about sea duty and the need to induce more Coast Guardsmen to be career cuttermen. Commander Kutkiewicz was a Naval Institute Federal Executive Fellow from 2020 to 2021. She draws on Commander Brian Smicklas’s 2015 article, “Demise of the Cutterman,” and offers excellent recommendations.
In closing out the year, I should mention another recent highlight for me. In November, we published Chief Petty Officer Elliott Fabrizio’s “Bring Back the Constitution’s Marines.” In the run-up to publication, I spoke with the chief, and he said, “Sir, if you ever get to Boston, we’ll set you up with a tour of the ship.” So, after the conference at the Coast Guard Academy, I visited “Old Ironsides” for the first time since I was a schoolkid. The crew did me the great honor of piping me aboard and back ashore. The combination of youthful exuberance at the Coast Guard Academy and visiting one of the Navy’s original six frigates was just what the doctor ordered. Onward we sail into 2022!
