Naval Academy.I think one of the reasons the Cheers theme is one of the most beloved songs from a television show is that everyone can identify with it. Kennedy, 1 August 1963, in Bancroft Hall at the U.S. And any man who may be asked in this century what he did to make his life worthwhile, I think can respond with a good deal of pride and satisfaction: ‘I served in the United States Navy.’” “I can imagine no more rewarding a career. Kennedy, 6 June 1963, on board USS Kitty Hawk (CVA-63). The United States must control the seas if it is to protect your security…” “Events of October 1962 indicated, as they had all through history, that control of the sea means security. “The Navy has both a tradition and a future ─ and we look with pride and confidence in both directions.”Īdmiral George Anderson, CNO, 1 August 1961. 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.'Īdmiral Arleigh Burke, CNO, 1 August 1961, Change of command address at Annapolis, MD Far more importantly, they are the means for controlling peace. 'For in this modern world, the instruments of warfare are not solely for waging war. Among the Americans who served on Iwo Island, uncommon valor was a common virtue.”įleet Admiral Chester W. The United States Marines, by their individual and collective courage, have conquered a base which is as necessary to us in our continuing forward movement toward final victory as it was vital to the enemy in staving off ultimate defeat. Mason believed that he had sunk a German U-boat off Argentia, Newfoundland.Ĭommander 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. Message sent by an enlisted pilot, AMM 1/c Donald Francis Mason, on 28 January 1942. His words were later popularized in a song written by Frank Loesser and performed by Kay Kyser and his orchestra. Barred by his non-combatant status from actively participating in keeping the guns firing, Lieutenant Forgy decided that he could add his moral support to the ammunition bearers through words of encouragement, and so patted the men on the back and said, 'Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition!' Lieutenant Forgy saw the men of an ammunition party tiring as they labored to bring shells to the antiaircraft guns. Lieutenant Howell Maurice Forgy, USN (ChC), serving in the heavy cruiser USS New Orleans (CA-32) during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941, is credited with coining the phrase. “Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition!” President Woodrow Wilson, 8 December 1914, An Annual Message to Congress.

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. “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. President Theodore Roosevelt, 2 December 1902, second annual message to Congress. “A good Navy is not a provocation to war. Then Dewey addressed his order to Charles Gridley, captain of Dewey's flagship Olympia. The American squadron entered Manila Bay and took fire from the Spanish fleet, anchored under the guns of Cavite, for half an hour until in the position Dewey wanted.

“You may fire when you are ready Gridley.”Ĭommodore George Dewey,, at the Battle of Manila Bay during the Spanish-American War. The torpedoes to which Farragut and his contemporaries referred would today be described as tethered mines. The fleet followed and anchored above the forts, which, now isolated, surrendered one by one. He swung his own ship clear and headed across the mines, which failed to explode. As disaster seemed imminent, Farragut gave the orders embodied by these famous words. When the lead monitor Tecumseh was demolished by a mine, the wooden ship Brooklyn stopped, and the line drifted in confusion toward Fort Morgan. Aboard Hartford, Farragut entered Mobile Bay, Alabama, 5 August 1864, in two columns, with armored monitors leading and a fleet of wooden ships following. Admiral David Glasgow Farragut (1801-1870).

Famous command and conquer quotes