“It follows then as certain as that night succeeds the day, that without a decisive naval force we can do nothing definitive, and with it, everything honorable and glorious.”
“President George Washington, 15 November 1781, to Marquis de Lafayette.
[The Writings of George Washington from the Original Manuscript Sources 1745-1799. vol.23. (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1937): 341.]
“…without a Respectable Navy, Alas America!”
Captain John Paul Jones, 17 October 1776, in a letter to Robert Morris.
[Morgan, William James ed. Naval Documents of the American Revolution. vol. 6. (Washington, D.C.: Naval History Division, 1972): 1303.]
“A good Navy is not a provocation to war. It is the surest guaranty of peace.”
President Theodore Roosevelt, 2 December 1902, second annual message to Congress.
“A powerful Navy we have always regarded as our proper and natural means of defense; and it has always been of defense that we have thought, never of aggression or of conquest. But who shall tell us now what sort of Navy to build? We shall take leave to be strong upon the seas, in the future as in the past; and there will be no thought of offense or provocation in that. Our ships are our natural bulwarks.”
President Woodrow Wilson, 8 December 1914, An Annual Message to Congress.
[Link, Arthur S. ed. The Papers of Woodrow Wilson. vol. 31. (Princeton University Press, 1979): 423]
“For in this modern world, the instruments of warfare are not solely for waging war. Far more importantly, they are the means for controlling peace. Naval officers must therefore understand not only how to fight a war, but how to use the tremendous power which they operate to sustain a world of liberty and justice, without unleashing the powerful instruments of destruction and chaos that they have at their command.”
Admiral Arleigh Burke, CNO, 1 August 1961, Change of command address at Annapolis, MD
[Arleigh Burke, Speeches, Box 1, Operational Archives Branch, Naval Historical Center]
“The Navy has both a tradition and a future ─ and we look with pride and confidence in both directions.”
Admiral George Anderson, CNO, 1 August 1961.
“Take her down!”
Commander Howard Walter Gilmore, desperately wounded and unable to climb back into his submarine, USS Growler (SS-215), in the face of an approaching Japanese gunboat 7 February 1943.
[Roscoe, Theodore. United States Submarine Operations in World War II. (Annapolis, MD: United States Naval Institute, 1949): 208.]
