Massachusetts Maritime Academy - Muster Yearbook (Buzzards Bay, MA)

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CHIEF OF NAVAL OPERATIONS Sea Power is a familiar term when linked with the combatant ships of a nation ' s navy. It is less familiarly connected with a nation ' s merchant shipping. And yet, the man who did more to popularize the term than auiyone before or since. Rear Admiral Alfred Thayer Mahan, viewed a navy and a merchant marine as equally important parts of a nation ' s ability to use the seas effectively for trade, defense and foreign policy. A little reflection quickly reveals why this is true for a msuritime nation like ours in today ' s world. Most of our customers are across the oceans of the globe. So are our sources of many scarce raw materials. Most importantly, so are our overseas military bases and our allies. Sea transport is the most economical method for intercontinental movement of commerce in peacetime; it is also the most feasible method for movement of vast quantities of military supplies and men in war. An active and efficient Merchant Marine of a size to match the nation ' s needs is thus vital both to our nation ' s economy and its defense. Such sea transportation requires ships of the most modern type. But ships are only hardware. A far more difficult component of the Merchant Marine to produce than hulls, engine rooms and gyrocompasses is represented by this graduating class of Massachusetts Maritime Acswiemy. Intelligent and highly trained leader- ship for service at sea takes more time to prepare than it does to produce hardware. Raw material of the required quality is more limited. There is also a limit to the amount of time which can be devoted to the task. But now, in your case, the task is completed. Proudly bearing your degrees, your licenses to hold down a berth at sea, you 52 young men who have been graduated as the Class of 1964 will move out, each to take up his individual course and speed. You all share a proud heritage from the early yeturs of our nation when the American Clipper Ship was queen of the seas and, even earlier, when the infant nation asseinbled its Navy from the trained seagoing manpower of its merchant shipping and, for that matter, the ships as well. Those times were characterized as the days of iron men and wooden ships. Virtually everything else but man has changed in the life at sea since that time; remember we still need iron men. This is the challenge which you young men go eagerly to meet. I wish you fair winds and a following sea. God speed DAVID L. McDO: 22

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THE COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT STATE HOUSE, BOSTON ENDICOTT PEABODY GOVE RN O R December 20, 1963 TO THE 1964 GRADUATING CLASS OF THE MASSACHUSETTS MARITII ' lE ACADEMY It is a pleasure to have this occasion to extend my personal congratulations to each of you upon your graduation from the Massachusetts Maritime Academy. You merit every recognition for your achievement, since I am fully aware that hard work, diligence, and sincerity of purpose are the real factors that have helped you attain this significant distinction in your lives . V herever your aspirations and endeavors may now lead you, th e training at the Academy which you received and the experiences that you encountered will prove invaluable. Massachusetts always will be proud of your accomplishments and knows that, in you, she will be always well-represented. Best of luck. 24