Shipmates,
Last Friday (27 March) I delivered the mid year graduation address at the Naval Postgraduate School at Monterey, CA. The NPS was established in 1909 and is celebrating its 100th year. After World War II it was moved from the East Coast to the site of the historic Del Monte Hotel in Monterey. http://www.nps.edu/
"Naval" is probably a misnomer, as students from all services attend, as well as foreign students. With the establishment of the Department of Homeland Security, NPS established a Homeland Security Masters Program in the Center for Homeland Defense and Security. Among the graduates were many state and local emergency managers and responders. I had a chance to visit with our students and meet with the families of the graduates. A quality institution that produces skilled professionals.
Monterey is a wonderful venue with a rich history. In my remarks I used two quotes from Nobel Prize author John Steinbeck who lived in the area and wrote about the experiences of working class people from the Salinas Valley to Cannery Row in Monterey.
To the faculty I noted Steinbeck's words:
"I have come to believe that a great teacher is a great artist and that there are as few as there are any other great artists. Teaching might even be the greatest of the arts since the medium is the human mind and spirit."
To the gaduates I provided these words:
"A journey is a person in itself; no two are alike. And all plans, safeguards, policing, and coercion are fruitless. We find that after years of struggle that we do not take a trip; a trip takes us."
ADM A
