Back ||NOAA Home 104th NOAA Basic Officer Training Class Graduation VADM Conrad C. Lautenbacher, USN (Ret.) U.S. Merchant Marine Academy Kings Point, N.Y. December 10, 2003, 6:00 p.m. Thank you very much for inviting me to the graduation of this, the NOAA Corps’ 104th Basic Officer Training Class (BOTC). I am both delighted and honored to be here to participate in this grand occasion. Tonight 13 NOAA ensigns are embarking on their careers. Also as part of this class, we are pleased to have an officer making an inter-service transfer from the Navy to NOAA, and a US Public Health Service officer who is learning watch-standing skills. Most importantly, I thank the Class President, Ensign Jason Mansour, for inviting me to participate in this very special evening. I also recognize Rear Admiral Nick Prahl, Deputy Director of the NOAA Corps and Deputy Director of NOAA’s Office of Marine and Aviation Operations; and CDR Jon Bailey, the Director of Commissioned Personnel who are here tonight. I am also especially happy to see Rear Admiral Evelyn Fields, NOAA (Retired), here. I am certain that she is most pleased to see the culmination of much hard work on her part to make this class happen. I also thank Vice Admiral Joseph Stewart, the Superintendent of Kings Point, for hosting NOAA on this campus and for the superb support we receive from the Academy. A big thank you to Captain Chris McMahon, Director of US Merchant Marine Academy Continuing Education and his staff who have been responsible for coordinating all BOTC training. I know they put a lot of time and effort into teaching these officers the skills they will need as soon as they report aboard. I also offer special thanks to Captain John Hagedorn, the master of the training ship KINGS POINTER. Going to sea with a gaggle of green ensigns can be a hair-raising experience for all but the most capable mariners. And last, but certainly not least, I am delighted to recognize the families and friends that are here today to celebrate the beginning of a journey for these young men and women that is full of promise and adventure. As someone who spent 40 years in the United States Navy, I know what it’s like to put on a uniform and start a new way of life. And I know how much family support means to a successful and a personally satisfying career. To the members of BOTC 104, I congratulate each one of you on achieving this milestone in your careers. Wearing the uniform of the United States of America and serving in the NOAA Corps is a privilege and an honor. You can be justifiably proud of your achievements today as you have been highly successful in a very competitive and demanding process from selection for the NOAA Corps through completion of BOTC tonight. As NOAA Corps officers, you will be a critical part of the web of science and management that form the foundation of NOAA exploration and observation missions. These are missions that are critical to the homeland and economic security of our nation. NOAA touches 30% of the Nations’s GDP directly. People do not move without all the things that NOAA does, and you’ll be part of that. You have demonstrated that you have the discipline to succeed, and that you have the esprit de corps that builds strong teams. I understand you’ve already demonstrated that esprit de corps with interesting slogans for your watch teams like “Have no fear, watch team one is here” and “Watch team three, conn’s not me!” Followed by some sort of nose-touching ritual! Now I’m curious what the other watch teams were saying and doing, but I won’t ask! You’ve spent the last 13 weeks here at the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy, learning seamanship, navigation, rules of the road, safety, and the magic of radar. And you’ve spent significant time underway on the academy's small boats as well as time in radar and bridge simulators. The small boat, lab, and classroom activities led to several underway evolutions aboard the KINGS POINTER. Under the watchful eye of Captain Hagedorn, you safely navigated the academy’s training ship, KINGS POINTER, during round-the-clock operations where you practiced real-world navigation skills in real-world weather conditions. And of course, most importantly, you’ve already been using NOAA charts and NOAA weather reports–products that our entire nation uses and products that you will soon be responsible for developing. NOAA has 5 sister ships to the KINGS POINTER and may soon have a 6th, so this training will serve you very well. This all sounds nice, but let’s tell our guests here what you really experienced. Things like waking up at 3:00 AM and going to work in a completely darkened ship’s bridge, bumping into people and trying to operate those red flashlights. Like relieving the watch and interpreting a complex radar screen and determining which end of a bearing circle to sight through. Like being wet to the bones, red in the face and covered in soot as you learned to fight oil fires at firefighting training. Some of you are probably wondering “What have I gotten myself into?” The answer to that is “a whole world of adventure.” These are exciting times to be joining the NOAA Corps. We’re expecting the report from the US Commission on Ocean Policy to be released in the next couple of months. The recommendations in this report are likely to significantly influence how we treat and study the oceans and coastal regions. You’re going to be involved in the next generation of NOAA. The NOAA Corps will soon have new leadership with new ideas on how to fulfill the Corps’ critical roles within NOAA. As Admiral Prahl noted in his remarks, we have a tremendous amount of renewal going on in the NOAA fleet right now. I am delighted that he mentioned the metric about the age of the fleet and how that age is declining. We need metrics like this to compete successfully for the resources NOAA needs. The fleet is the bedrock of what NOAA does, and the NOAA Corps is essential to the success of NOAA. This is just a small sample of the many exciting new developments that are taking place within NOAA and the NOAA Corps. You will soon begin your career adventure with travel to Woods Hole, Charleston, Norfolk, Pascagoula, Seattle, and Honolulu to meet and join what you will call home for the next two years, a NOAA ship. I encourage you to take advantage of every opportunity your first assignment offers, and also to learn everything you can about the broader context of NOAA. At no time in history has there been such an important need for a broad science base like we have in NOAA. The challenges this nation and the world face in understanding and managing our ocean and atmospheric environment are staggering and will require each of you to perform and serve to your utmost. Because you are very young, take advantage of each particular evolution you encounter. Don’t lose the opportunities that are there, because they may not come back. As NOAA Corps officers, you will have the opportunity, as a very special part of NOAA, to be involved with all aspects of this agency, and with each of our strategic goals: ecosystem management–an incredibly complex issue; understanding climate variability in the world from which we draw our resources; serving society’s needs for weather and water information–water is a huge issue around the world; and supporting safe, efficient, and environmentally sound transportation. Maritime, surface, and air transportation are a big deal, and NOAA is a big part of it. At sea you are a part of operational NOAA involved with supporting all of our shoreside line offices from weather to fisheries to research. Ashore, your operational experiences will serve as a vital integrating function across all of NOAA. The earth sciences must work together if we’re to accomplish what we need to. For example, if assigned to the NOAA weather arm, you bring with you valuable knowledge of fisheries, ocean conditions, and practical experience as to how the various physical and biological sciences are related in the accomplishment of our large mission goals. This has the potential to be enormously satisfying to you as well as key to the future success of this agency in meeting national needs. It also offers great diversity in the direction your NOAA career may take. As our world’s population grows to six billion and increasingly stresses our environmental resources, NOAA’s issues become ever more important. The concept of sustainable development needs to be a guiding principle for twenty-first century economics. This vital concept can only be realized if NOAA does its job! With integrated and sustained observations of the Earth’s physical and biological systems, we will finally have the opportunity to understand the complex interactions taking place on our planet and to develop the science necessary to deliver accurate forecasts of the future. NOAA is leading efforts to develop this understanding. I challenge each of you to become a part of this national and global effort. Once again, congratulations to each one of you for reaching this pivotal milestone in your careers. I’m delighted to be with you at this time. In closing, I offer the traditional parting from one mariner to another: May you always have fair winds and following seas! Thank you.