Dunmire Named President-Elect,
Roughead Honored at Board Meeting
By AMY L. WITTMAN, Editor in Chief
By the time National President Daniel B. Branch Jr. greeted fellow Navy Leaguers at the Welcome
Aboard Reception to officially open the Board of Directors’
Meeting June 23, two full days of meeting already had
been conducted at the Gaylord National Resort Hotel and
Convention Center at National Harbor, Md.
The next two days would see workshops, award presentations, the selection of a president-elect to succeed
Branch in October, The Heritage Foundation’s Peter
Brookes addressing the Sea Services Luncheon and the
closing dinner paying tribute to Adm. Gary Roughead,
chief of naval operations (CNO), as the recipient of the
Adm. Arleigh A. Burke Leadership Award, the Navy
League’s highest honor.
Election & Awards
Three Navy Leaguers vied to become the organization’s
next national president — Patricia Du Mont, national
vice president for legislative affairs and former national
vice president for public affairs and public education;
Philip L. Dunmire, national vice president for corporate affairs and development and former national vice
president for youth programs; and Richard C. Macke,
a national director who has served as national vice
president for sea services liaison, national corporate
secretary and national vice president for youth programs. The Nominating Committee, tasked with interviewing the candidates and reviewing their respective
platforms and endorsements on June 23, put forth
Dunmire as its recommendation to succeed Branch.
The full board, at its meeting June 25, approved and
Dunmire was sworn in as president-elect.
Awards presented during the full meeting of the board
included the Navy League’s Nicholas Brango Award for
Inspirational Leadership to U.S. Naval Sea Cadet Corps
(NSCC) Lt. Cmdr. Hollie Brown, Paul Revere Division,
Riverside, Calif. The NSCC’s Judge R.T.S. Colby Award
for Excellence in Training Award went to Instructor
Anna Fishwick, NSCC America Division, Richmond, Va.
The Willis E. Reed NSCC Cadet of the Year award
went to Cadet Chief Petty Officer Tommy Cornes, Rear
Adm. Richard O’Kane Division, Vallejo, Calif. Not
present at the board meeting was the recipient of the
Keith T. Weaver Navy League Cadet Corps Cadet of
the Year award, Cadet Petty Officer 1st Class Nathaniel
Oh, Training Ship Barber’s Point, Honolulu.
LISA NIPP
Navy League National President-Elect Philip L. Dunmire
and his wife Linda, center, stand with Adm. Gary
Roughead, chief of naval operations, and his wife Ellen,
left, and Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Robert J. Papp
Jr. and his wife Linda during the President’s Circle
Reception at the 2011 Navy League Board of Directors’
meeting at the Gaylord National Resort Hotel and
Convention Center at National Harbor, Md., June 25.
National Security Concerns
At his Sea Services Luncheon address June 24, Brookes,
senior fellow for National Security Affairs and the
Chung Ju-Yung fellow for Policy Studies at The Heritage
Foundation, a conservative think tank in Washington,
focused on foreign policy and areas of concern that he
said should not be pushed aside as the United States
tries to get its “economic house in order.”
He recalled that Dean Acheson, secretary of state in
the administration of President Harry S. Truman from
1949 to 1953, was asked once by a reporter to define
foreign policy. Acheson replied that it was “just one
damn thing after another.”
Brookes noted “that has a ring of truth to it, doesn’t it?
“The fact is that we live in uncertain and dangerous
times,” he said. “There is no shortage of challenges
that we face on the national security front.”
Offering a few words on terrorism, Brookes said he
was “thrilled to see Osama bin Laden silenced. It’s a
major body blow to al-Qaida, but not necessarily a
knock-out punch. … We’re not out of the woods. We’re
likely to see more terrorism, especially from al-Qaida.”
Revenge, he said, is a good motivator.
