Citizens in Support of the Sea Services
A Centennial Celebration
To celebrate the 100th anniversary of its founding in 1902, the Navy League
of the United States has scheduled a full year of Centennial-Celebration events,
including special observances and ceremonies during the 2002 NLUS Sea-Air-Space
Exposition--26-28 March, at the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel in Washington,
D.C.--and, in late June, at the Navy League's 2002 National Convention at
the Marriott Marquis Hotel in New York City.
Other observances are scheduled or being considered to coincide with such
patriotic holidays as Memorial Day, Armed Forces Day, Independence Day, and
Veterans Day. Navy League councils throughout the United States and overseas
also have been encouraged to sponsor and/or participate in community observances
of National Maritime Day, the Coast Guard, Navy, and Marine Corps Birthdays,
and the 40th anniversary of the founding of the Naval Sea Cadet Corps.
Those are some but by no means all of the national "highlight" events and
observances on the Navy League's Centennial Planning Calendar, which is included
in a kit distributed toward the end of last year to all NLUS council presidents
and other local, state, regional, and national officers for use in planning
Navy League Centennial Celebrations in their home communities.
Also included in the "Centennial Celebration Council Kit" is a wealth of other
information about the U.S. sea services (and about the Navy League itself),
as well as a Navy Speakers Program brochure, a Centennial Celebration information
disc, a planning checklist, a news media primer, copies of the NLUS centennial
logo, directions for submitting publicity materials to NLUS headquarters,
lists of sea-service websites, and a ream of other helpful "how to" information.
"When the Navy League was founded in 1902, with the strong support of President
Theodore Roosevelt and other farsighted American leaders," said National President
Timothy O. Fanning, "the United States was only beginning to emerge as a naval
power. Today, the U.S. Navy is the strongest force for peace in the entire
world--and in all world history. In all times of international crisis threatening
U.S. economic and political interests and/or the lives of Americans overseas
the nation's forward-deployed carrier battle groups and Navy/Marine Corps
amphibious ready groups are almost invariably the first fully combat-ready
forces already on the scene and immediately available to the president and
the warfighting commanders in chief. They are the peacekeepers, the forward
edge of freedom, and a continuing reassurance to our friends and allies throughout
the world that the United States will never let them down.
"But that is not all," Fanning continued. "Our nation is also the world's
foremost economic superpower today, and the greatest trading nation in all
history. It is sea power in the broad sense--commercial as well as naval sea
power--that Alfred Thayer Mahan emphasized in his prophetic teachings, and
which the Navy League itself supports through a broad spectrum of educational
programs."
It is in that context, Fanning said, that Navy League councils should develop
and implement their own NLUS Centennial observances. "This 100th-anniversary
year is not only a unique opportunity for the Navy League to carry out its
patriotic educational mission," Fanning said, "it is also an obligation. The
tragic events of 11 September and all that has occurred since underscore how
dependent we are on a strong national-defense program in general, and on sea
power in particular. The Navy League supports the men and women in all of
the nation's armed services, and will do all it can to help them, and their
families, in the months and years ahead. Despite the spectacular combat successes
of U.S. and allied forces in Afghanistan in the first four months of this
'new type of war' on international terrorism, it is abundantly clear that
the challenges facing our nation's armed forces in the 21st century will be
even more daunting, and exponentially more dangerous, than ever before in
our nation's history.
"I urge all members of the Navy League, and all NLUS councils," Fanning said,
"to take the lead in educating their fellow citizens about the continuing
need for a strong U.S. defense posture, and to rally support for the men and
women serving today in our nation's armed forces." JDH
For additional information about the Navy League's Centennial-Celebration
events throughout the United States and overseas, and about the League's new
Centennial Leadership Awards program, contact:
Director of Public Relations
Navy League of the United States
2300 Wilson Boulevard, Arlington, Va. 22201-3308
Attention: Mark Rosen
703-528-1775, ext. 1557
Fax 703-528-4175
E-mail: mrosen@navyleague.org
