Thanks for all the fish

Wouldn't it be nice if we could have a Supe leave without a cloud over his head?

USNA Faculty and Staff,
VADM Miller and I will conduct a change of command ceremony on Aug 3 at 1p.m. in Alumni Hall. While the ceremony is not open to the general public, I want to extend an invitation to faculty and staff who are available and desire to attend.

It has been an honor to serve as the superintendent of the Naval Academy these past three years.

Throughout my tour I have been impressed with the dedication of USNA’s faculty and staff who are committed to the singular purpose of educating and developing the future leaders of Sailors and Marines.

Additionally, the support of the community, alumni, parents and friends of USNA has been and will continue to be instrumental in the Naval Academy being able to achieve its mission with a margin of excellence beneficial to all midshipmen.

It also has been a privilege to be affiliated with the young men and women of the Brigade of Midshipmen. They come from across the United States of America, representing the greatest attributes and future of our nation. During my tenure, every class that was present entered and graduated from the Naval Academy while the nation’s military was engaged in combat. These Americans seek the responsibility of service to their country. Many have proven their mettle with deployments in harm’s way shortly after graduation. It with the greatest confidence that I say our Navy and Marine Corps will be in good hands with this newest generation of leaders.

I welcome Admiral Miller and his wife Barbara to the Naval Academy family. His leadership and career experiences will no doubt serve the academy well in accomplishing its important mission. I hope that you soon get an opportunity to make them feel at home, and I wish them the best.

While Katie and I look forward to the future, we will always look back fondly upon our time with the Navy family after my 32 years of commissioned service, including our most recent years spent here at Annapolis. We have met many great friends, shipmates and mentors. We wish you and your loved ones “fair winds and following seas.”

Vice Adm. Jeffrey L. Fowler

Superintendent, USNA

Yep ... I'd keep it private too.

In case you need a reminder - there is a common thread to both Rempt and Fowler's less than happy ending at Annapolis. At the end of yesterday's episode of Midrats, I asked Navy Times's Phil Ewing the following,

... you had Rempt and Fowler both leaving under clouds - clouds really of their own making. If you could sit down with the incoming Supe over a Coke-a-cola, ... and he was nice enough to ask you, .. "What should I not focus on, or what should I not do over the next year so I could concentrate getting the Academy and my leadership on a firm setting? "

Phil's response was spot on.

If I were having this Coke-a-cola with him as a reporter, what I would ask him is, "How can you ensure your immediate constituency in Annapolis; the many alumni and many friends of the Academy out there, that you and the Academy's priorities are in the right place."

He might say, "I am going to continue what my predecessor might be doing." or he may say, "Here is the new way I want to go."

But I think that what keeps coming up over and over in the story that we at Navy Times have done and other reporters have done is that the Naval Academy right now is a football oriented/Diversity orientated school that seems to take its other responsibilities at lower levels of importance. I know that the Administration outgoing and incoming might dispute that, but that is what comes through in the reporting that you hear from sources up there, the IG Report the Navy did that detailed all these things - and so on one had there is a lot of pressure from alumni to beat Army and have a good football team and there is a lot of pressure from Big Navy to bring as many non-white Midshipmen aboard as they possibly can in order to get this hypothetically diverse officer corps that the Navy wants to build some years down the line.

But on the other hand, they seem to be losing sight of what a lot of people would agree are their core goals at Annapolis to get those goals. So I would be very curious if that is going to be and that is the way it is going to stay, or there are new directions he wants to take the institution.

The new Supe should probably ponder that.