Time, Tide and Formation...

It is neither necessary nor possible to review here in detail the events of history and technology of the past 65 years as they influenced and were influenced by our Navy. World War II itself, radar, the atom bomb, Korea, jet and nuclear propulsion, spaceflight, Vietnam and on and on to Lebanon, stand off missilery, Somalia, Kuwait, Iraq, and now Kosovo and maybe, even to East Timor. Who knows what's next! The end is not in sight, nor even definable. But we have lived these events. It has been some 65 years!

That’s George “Rhythm” Moore in his address to his remaining Naval Academy classmates at their 60 year reunion in 1999, a few months after I graduated from the same institution. Some lifetimes are marked by more change than others. Born around 1916-17, it’s hard to imagine a world more drastically changed over time than what those young men would have seen play out in theirs.

The 60th reunion at Annapolis is the last one really. For the class of ‘39, 350 of the original 581 of them were left. Only a handful would be alive for the 70 year, most too old to travel. They’d likely never admit it, but they knew the gathering for what it was; their goodbye. ‘39 was on their way out as we were on our way in; two ships passing in the night. None of us knew it at the time, but our classes would be bound by something other than the chance reunion. Roughly the same time passed between their graduation and the attack on Pearl Harbor as passed between ours and the attacks of 9/11. Both classes joined in peace and found our ways to war. We were two groups of Ensigns and 2nd Lts with the world shifting on the fulcrum of our service with the same lumps in our throats wondering what it would mean not just for the world, but for us. Only time separated.

But time is the most powerful force in the universe. It’s relentless march never ceases. We can try to hold on to it but the best we can do is to use these anchor points to zoom out to examine its work. Through that we gain some perspective. As George reminded us in his speech, 100 years before his graduation, a young Abraham Lincoln talked about the passing of the generation of America’s founders and challenged his fellow Americans to step up and become the leaders of the next era of American history. Despite how we see our history as fixed and final, it wasn’t in his time as it isn’t in ours. There is only the certainty of problems and the mandatory future that someone was going to lead the world through. It’s the same truth that has existed at every moment in time. Then, now, for George in 1939; for us, 25 years ago today when we tossed our covers into that beautiful blue Annapolis sky.

The class of ‘99 is just under halfway to our goodbye reunion. The first part of our George’s speech will speak of the birth of the internet, the smartphone, AI and the information age; the global war on terrorism; the birth of drone warfare and electric cars. Much of what’s not written yet is clearly laid out before us. What comes of Russia’s wars in Europe. 100 years of China as a modern global power. The question of Israel and Palestine. Full scale drone warfare. RNA vaccines. The birth of general artificial intelligence and machines that can do anything and everything we can. The return to space travel. Of climate change. The death of fossil fuels. And how to feed 12 billion humans with protein and nutrients to keep us flourishing. The end of cancer. What’s to come of a brittle and ailing American Democracy. And of course all those more important things none of us can see yet.

These are the problems and questions that will be solved or answered in our time. And it will largely be up to us to lead through them. George’s generation is gone. The boomers are in their twilight of utility. And so it falls to us to be the one constant of an uncertain future. We will be there. And we will matter. What’s left to question is how. And to what end. To ask the same question asked of George and his classmates who answered the call as best they could to steer the world from what was to what is.

What of ‘99? Time, tide and formation waits for no one…

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