Month: May 2024

Source: United States Navy

Good afternoon, everyone. How wonderful to gather here today to celebrate everything good about our Navy and our Blue Angels.

Vice Admiral Davids, thank you for that kind introduction. Thank you, as well, for hosting this event and for your service to our alma mater—you truly have earned the title of 64th Superintendent of the Naval Academy, and I couldn’t be prouder to serve with such an immensely impressive leader and example for all our midshipmen.

But let us not forget that even while we’re here today—and this week, while we congratulate the Class of 2024 on Friday—that nearly a third of our Fleet and 30 thousand Marines are deployed around the world on any given day.

Just Sunday, I was in Mayport to welcome home the crew of the USS Carney (DDG 64)—named in honor of Admiral Robert Carney, a Veteran of both World Wars who would go on to serve as the 14^th Chief of Naval Operations—after their eight-month deployment to the Fifth, Sixth, and Second Fleet Areas of Operations.

As many of you know, since October 7th, our Fleet and our Force have defended against nearly daily missile and drone attacks from the Iranian-aligned Houthis in Yemen.

The operations of the Bataan Amphibious Ready Group and the Eisenhower and Ford Strike Groups—exemplified by Carney—have proven time and time again the professionalism, expertise, and bravery of our Sailors and Marines.

Our people—including the pilots and crew of the Blue Angels, the Naval Academy’s Class of 2024, and indeed all the Midshipmen here at USNA—truly represent the best this country has to offer.

Their actions have also proved that we have the best, most capable ships in the world, defending our allies and partners against threats both at-sea and in the air.

And the backbone of our air defense fleet, the Aegis Combat System, first became a program—then named the Advanced Surface Missile System—60 years ago this year.

And 51 years ago, the first model of SPY was installed on USS Norton Sound (AVM 1).

These air defense systems our ships have used to engage scores of anti-ship cruise missiles, ballistic missiles, and lethal and non-lethal drones can be traced back to decisions made by visionary naval leaders—and Naval Academy graduates—like Admiral George Anderson Jr. and Rear Admiral Wayne E. Meyer in the 60s, 70s, and 80s.

Still, it is hard to believe how much these systems have grown and changed—and become yet more capable—in the past sixty years.

Late last year, we commissioned the first Flight III destroyer, USS Jack H. Lucas—the most technologically advanced surface combatant ever built.

And the destroyers that came before it in Flights I, II, and IIA have created an already storied legacy of defending American interests and promoting peace around the world.

And now I have a very special announcement.

I am incredibly grateful and proud to be able to announce that our next two destroyers will bear the names of two other truly extraordinary naval leaders.

The future DDG 143 will be named USS Richard J. Danzig, and the future DDG 144 will be named
USS Michael G. Mullen.

Secretary Danzig and Admiral Mullen are visionary leaders in the mold of the greatest naval leaders that came before them. Together they devoted nearly 100 years of service to our Nation.

While the challenges we face today are different than the challenges faced by the Department of the Navy, our Fleet, our Force, and indeed our Nation during Secretary Danzig and Admiral Mullen’s time at the helm, our priorities remain similar.

For Secretary Danzig, that meant emphasizing—as he wrote for Proceedings in 1999—improving “how we work, how we fight, and how we live.”

And for Admiral Mullen that meant—as he said in an All Hands Call at Naval Station Norfolk in 2007—prioritizing efforts to “get it right for our people, operate our fleet, and build the fleet for the future.”

Both Secretary Danzig and Admiral Mullen worked tirelessly to ensure our Sailors and Marines had the resources, technologies, and capabilities to succeed in warfighting and times of peace.

And after they both left naval service, they continued providing significant national security counsel to future CNOs, Commandants, and Presidents of the United States, which they still do to this day.

DDG 143 and DDG 144—once built and commissioned—will be the most technologically advanced warships ever built, just as Jack H. Lucas, Carney, Arleigh Burke, and each of their predecessors in the long and storied life of this class.

And these ships will carry on the legacies of public service that Secretary Danzig and Admiral Mullen personify, and will be crewed by the most capable young men and women our nation has to offer.

Gentlemen, thank you both for your incredible service to our Nation, and may God continue to bless our Sailors, Marines, civilians, and their families with fair winds and following seas. Thank you.

Source: United States Navy

Good morning on this fine National Maritime Day! What a great day to be a citizen of a maritime nation!

Ms. Flack, thank you for that kind introduction and for your leadership at MARAD.

I was inspired by Secretary Buttigieg’s remarks! We are so fortunate to have a former Naval Officer leading such a critical component of our nation’s maritime power as Secretary of Transportation.

Senator Kelly, we are grateful so many of your fellow Kings Point alums have followed your stellar example and chosen a career in the U.S. Navy. Merchant mariners not only make great SWOs but also Naval Aviators and even astronauts! Thank you for your leading and authoritative voice on the Senate Armed Services Committee as well as on the broader aspects of national maritime power.

Administrator Phillips, I appreciate your partnership and the opportunity to speak today.  Many here know you are a retired Navy Admiral, but may not know you were the first woman to command a guided missile destroyer. It was an honor to serve beside you on the waterfront all those years ago as commissioning commanding officers of DDGs, and I’m proud to serve with you once again.

It strikes me today that you are hearing from three former naval officers now serving as Administration leaders in the maritime domain—AND an Air Force Four Star!

General Von Ovost, thank you for your leadership of 6,000 civilian mariners serving in our Navy’s Military Sealift Command. You and your TRANSCOM team deliver!

To all maritime teammates here today, it’s a privilege to honor your sacrifice and service.

Since the American Revolution, our Merchant Marine has been at the heart of our economic life and indispensable to our national security. 

George Washington fielded our first naval force by converting merchant schooners to raid sea lines of communications sustaining the British.

American Mariners have faithfully answered the Nation’s call ever since.

In two weeks, I’ll represent our nation at the 80^th Anniversary of D-Day and will highlight the extraordinary contribution merchant mariners made to winning that war. 

We must never forget the nearly 10,000 U.S. Merchant Mariners who lost their lives in World War Two, a higher casualty rate than any other service, including our beloved Marine Corps.

I am blessed to know one of our last surviving U.S. mariners of the quarter-million who braved the dangerous seas of the Second World War. 

Chief Officer Bob Bessel is the grandfather of a dear friend. He was 12 years old when Congress declared National Maritime Day on May 22^nd, 1933. 

I spoke to Bob to get his advice on my speech. First and foremost, I’m honored to relay his gratitude and congratulations to all of you on this very special day.  

And I received Bob’s permission to share a few snippets of his extraordinary sea stories, priceless history MARAD’s wonderful historian, Wendy Coble, has curated into the national archive.

In the early months of the war, Bob’s ship, the West Hardaway, was torpedoed in the Caribbean by a German U-Boat.  After abandoning ship, the crew went back aboard the slowly sinking vessel for cigarettes and other supplies, only for a second torpedo to send them right back in the lifeboats! Thankfully, all made landfall in Venezuela a few days later.

Using our Leigh Searchlight, a Navy pilot sunk the U-Boat shortly after.

I spoke to Bob about my trip to Mayport, Florida this past weekend, where we welcomed home USS Carney after an extraordinary performance defending mariners and commercial shipping in the Red Sea.

Bob responded with advice that all of us must never forget—the wisdom that teamwork between American Sailors and Mariners in harm’s way is absolutely critical—a tradition forged out of hard lessons and sacrifice he experienced firsthand.

After the convoy system was established, Bob sailed alongside the Navy, navigating multiple vessels as part of nine North Atlantic convoys. He brought the first U.S. transatlantic invasion force to Casablanca for Operation Torch, resupplied the beachhead at Normandy, sustained V1 rocket attacks in the Port of Antwerp and even met his future wife Shelia in Liverpool. 

After VE Day, Bob signed on to a Liberty Ship in the Pacific, the Gutzun Borglum, or the “Guts and Boredom” as he calls her.

Bob displayed famous American mariner “Guts” as he sailed off Okinawa with the greatest armada ever assembled amid a continuous hailstorm of kamikazes, enduring powerful typhoons.

Bob turns 103 years young in a few weeks, and he can still work his sextant. Although his Coast Guard licenses have lapsed, he still has his North Carolina driver’s license!

Just in case he wants to come out of retirement, I let him know I announced a National Call to Maritime Service in Miami two weeks ago.

Bob is emblematic of the maritime service so many here today and around the country contribute to our nation’s prosperity and security.

Securing America’s maritime prosperity and the mariners who make it possible is not a new mission—it is our founding mission.

History reveals that no nation has endured as a great naval power without also being a commercial maritime power, both in shipbuilding and shipping.

And for the first time in 125 years, we have a full-spectrum, global maritime competitor.

That is why as Secretary of the Navy, I have advocated so forcefully to revive commercial shipbuilding and the U.S. Merchant Marine.

I have engaged across the Cabinet to advance a whole-of-government effort to rebuild our nation’s comprehensive maritime power.

Last May, I met with Secretary Buttigieg and Administrator Phillips here at DOT headquarters to begin laying key groundwork for interagency collaboration that is at the center of our new national Maritime Statecraft.

Our collective efforts have catapulted the importance of restoring America’s comprehensive maritime power to the top of the national agenda.

We are now participating in multiple White House-led interagency processes on naval and commercial shipbuilding.

We, as a nation, must also create more opportunities for U.S. seafarers. 

I know first-hand the skill and commitment of U.S. civilian mariners from observing those manning our Military Sealift Command vessels. Nearly half of America’s 11,000 civilian mariners serve their nation in MSC. 

Creating a broader job base means revitalizing U.S. commercial shipbuilding and rebuilding a globally competitive U.S. Merchant Marine.

Last year, I brought together the Maritime Administration, the Coast Guard, NOAA—and even the Army—to join us in forming a Government Shipbuilder’s Council to tackle our common challenges.

Ann, thank you for leading the next principals’ meeting here at MARAD. Thanks to you and Senator Kelly and your staff for supporting our very successful Maritime Statecraft stakeholders conference last week.

We are also working closely at the state level, including with the Governors of Wisconsin and Michigan on improving shipyard communities and mobilizing the “North Coast’s” world-class industrial workforce.

We are engaging with organized labor. Unions built America’s 20^th Century maritime dominance and will be key partners in bringing it back. Mr. Heindel, it is an honor to have you here representing mariners as President of Seafarers International.

Last month, my Senior Advisor was present at the signing ceremony of an innovative union contract between Bartlett Maritime and the President of the Boilermakers Union.

This new program will train union welders in the construction trades in shipbuilding work and deploy them as a rotational force to shipyards around the country.

And we are working to restore genuine competition to the U.S. shipbuilding marketplace.

Earlier this year, I traveled to Asia to meet with the top executives of the world’s most advanced and productive commercial shipbuilders.

I brought to the table a simple, yet profound opportunity: “invest in America”—modernize and invigorate the U.S. shipbuilding ecosystem with your cutting-edge technology and processes.

In recent weeks we have witnessed unprecedented interest in and partnerships with shipyards here in America, to build ships in America, with American workers.

Senator Kelly, thank you to your staff for helping raise awareness on unfunded Title 46 authorities both Secretary Buttigieg and I have to grant construction differential subsidies for vessels with national security purpose.

Additionally, DOE has recently expanded eligibility for its significant infrastructure and IRA loan program to include new and modernized commercial shipyards as well as construction of commercial ships at scale.

These incentives should open a path for U.S. built ships to once again be part of our commercial sealift programs.

In closing, America has been a leading shipping and shipbuilding nation before, and as Secretary of the Navy, I am determined to work alongside you to restore this vital strategic industry. Our pacing threat demands no less.

Thank you for this tremendous opportunity to speak to all of you today.

On this National Maritime Day, I want mariners and those who love and support them to know a renaissance in American maritime power has begun—and we in the Department of the Navy are with you—All Ahead Flank!

Source: United States Navy

Participants included U.S. Navy Independence-variant littoral combat ship USS Mobile (LCS 26), Lewis and Clark-class dry cargo ship USNS Wally Schirra (T-AKE 8) and Royal Netherlands Navy De Zeven Provinciën-class frigate HNLMS Tromp (F803).

“The Netherlands is one of our oldest, continuous bilateral relationships, stemming from the 18th century. I look forward to any opportunity to work together with partners and allies, especially at sea,” said Capt. Sean Lewis, commodore, Destroyer Squadron 7. “We share a deep commitment to maintaining stability and free use of vital sea lanes in the Indo-Pacific.”

The bilateral operation provided a valuable opportunity to improve allied interoperability and conduct complex scenarios to improve combined readiness.

“We’re fortunate to work together with allies and to have them provide replenishment to us. Operating together fortifies our existing relationship with our partners from the U.S.,” said Cmdr. Yvonne van Beusekom, Commanding Officer HNLMS Tromp. “We look to continue coordination between our nations to promote regional peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region.”

The U.S. Navy regularly participates with allies and partners in high-end maritime exercises and operations, which have continued to grow in scale, scope and complexity, to create combined operations that enhance interoperability, boost deterrence and demonstrate shared resolve.

“We are fortunate to work with friends at sea in the region. Consistent collaboration makes us better as a crew and more capable as a joint force,” said Cmdr. David Gardner, commanding officer for Mobile. “Bilateral operations like these strengthen bonds with our Royal Netherlands Navy partners and deepen our understanding of how to operate together.”

During the operation, Commander, Destroyer Squadron 15 acted as a facilitator between DESRON 7 and the Netherlands. Multilateral operations improve interoperability between allied navies and support a free and open Indo-Pacific. These evolutions demonstrate the strength of regional partnerships, interchangeability and cooperation.

As the U.S. Navy’s forward-deployed DESRON in Southeast Asia, DESRON 7 serves as the primary tactical and operational commander of littoral combat ships rotationally deployed to the U.S. 7th Fleet area of responsibility, functions as Expeditionary Strike Group 7’s Sea Combat Commander and builds partnerships through training and exercises and military-to military engagements.

7th Fleet is the U.S. Navy’s largest forward-deployed numbered fleet, and routinely interacts and operates with allies and partners in preserving a free and open Indo-Pacific region.

Source: United States Navy

CTF 154 provides multinational maritime training across the Middle East, centered on five core areas: maritime awareness, law of the sea, maritime interdiction, maritime rescue and assistance, and leadership development. CTF 154 customizes training to meet partner needs, enabling more nations to participate in training evolutions, even without ships or aircraft.

Since standing up last year, CTF 154 has completed nearly 30 training exercises across five operations: Compass Rose I and II in Bahrain; Southern Readiness in the Seychelles, and Northern Readiness I and II in Jordan. These events connected more than 135 subject matter experts with over 400 participants from 23 countries.

“Working and training collectively allows us to operate more effectively,” said Vice Adm. George Wikoff, CMF commander. “With CTF 154 we’re boosting regional maritime security by providing the ‘go-to’ training that partners and members need to keep the advantage in a dynamic environment.”

The task force conducted their inaugural event, Compass Rose, in Bahrain May 22-25, 2023. The training included more than 50 participants from Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, the United Kingdom and United States and focused on first aid and vessel boarding procedures. The second Compass Rose exercise also occurred in Bahrain that December, with training on visit, board, search and seizure procedures, vessel security, and watch officer fundamentals.

In July, CTF 154 traveled to the Seychelles for Exercise Southern Readiness. The exercise involved vessel boarding, search-and-rescue operation techniques, maritime law and navigation. This was undertaken by field experts from Canada, Australia, France, United Kingdom, India, Italy and the United States of America, including experts from Seychelles Coast Guard and the locally based office of the United Nations on Drugs and Crimes.

CTF 154 conducted operation Northern Readiness at the Royal Jordanian Naval Base in Aqaba, Jordan, in October. More than 30 CMF facilitators from eight nations led training courses on maritime awareness, law of the sea, VBSS, search and rescue, medical evacuations, seamanship development, public affairs, and leadership development.

In February, the Task Force held its largest scale event to date, Operation Northern Readiness II. Approximately 150 participants, facilitators, and observers took part, including representatives from CMF, European Union Naval Force Operation, and the United Nations Institute for Training and Research.

“Being the commander of Combined Task Force 154 is an honor for the Royal Jordanian Navy and for myself,” said Capt. Ayman Salem Alnaimat, who became CTF 154’s second commander in November. “As we celebrate a year of impressive accomplishments, I believe the task force has more to achieve. All CMF members and our regional maritime partners support our efforts, which promote interoperability, capacity, capability and cooperation.”

CMF is the largest multinational naval partnership in the world, with 43 nations committed to upholding the international rules-based order at sea, which promotes security, stability, and prosperity across approximately 3.2 million square miles of international waters, encompassing some of the world’s most important shipping lanes.

CMF’s other task forces include CTF 150 that focuses on maritime security in the Gulf of Oman and Indian Ocean; CTF 151, which leads regional counter-piracy efforts; CTF 152, dedicated to maritime security in the Arabian Gulf; and CTF 153 in the Red Sea.

Source: United States Navy

The Yokosuka-based destroyer visited Shimoda for the 85th annual Black Ship Festival, commemorating the arrival of Commodore Matthew Perry and his ‘Black Ships’ in July 1853, and the signing of the Japan-American Treaty of Trade and Amity on June 17, 1854. The events opened Japan’s borders to trade and fostered relations between the countries.

“The citizens of Shimoda welcomed the crew of the Higgins with open arms,” said Cmdr. Ron Jenkins, commanding officer of Higgins. “It was an honor to have Higgins and her crew representing the U.S. Navy. From the parades, to the different sporting events, to the beautiful ceremonies, we could not be more thankful for their generous hospitality.”

Higgins Sailors represented the U.S. Navy during the three-day festival by volunteering, attending ceremonies, participating in various games, and enjoying the festival themselves.

On the final day of the festival, Sailors were able to participate in a Friendship Beach Volleyball Game and Friendship Tug-A-War Tournament with Shimoda locals.

Ensign Brienna Bruun, a participant in the tournaments said, “I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to participate in the games. Everyone was so kind and welcoming, and it was great to be able to enjoy the day with the community.”

The city of Shimoda hosts the annual event which draws tourists from all over Japan in mid-May.

USS Higgins is assigned to Destroyer Squadron (DESRON) 15, the Navy’s largest forward-deployed DESRON and the U.S. 7th fleet’s principal surface force. DESRON 15 is responsible for the readiness, tactical and administrative responsibilities for 10 forward-deployed Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyers as well as any surface unit conducting independent operations in the region.

U.S. 7th Fleet is the U.S. Navy’s largest forward-deployed numbered fleet, and routinely interacts and operates with allies and partners in preserving a free and open Indo-Pacific region.