Cold War Veterans Blog

Adm. Mullen CNO Trumpets Cold War

CNO Message on Navy's 231st Birthday: Still Defending Freedom
Story Number: NNS061013-03

10/13/2006............Special message from Adm. Mike Mullen












WASHINGTON (NNS) -- For the fifth straight year we will celebrate our Navy's birthday -- this one the 231st -- at war. In fact, it was five years ago this month that naval forces launched the first strikes against the Taliban from ships steaming in the Indian Ocean. Today, from the Western Pacific into the Persian Gulf and Mediterranean, all the way to the Horn of Africa and even to our own shores, tens of thousands of deployed Sailors continue to take the fight to the enemy.

We are helping stem the tide of terrorism and preventing the conditions from which it proliferates, and we are doing it all in magnificent fashion. I note with particular pride that there are more Sailors supporting operations on the ground in the CENTOCM AOR (12,500) than we have at sea in the same theater. As Individual Augmentees or as units, these brave men and women are bearing well the legacy of courage under fire left us by our predecessors in Navy blue.

Some of those predecessors helped win the Cold War, another global struggle against enemies of freedom, which began sixty years ago. More than 2,000 of our shipmates made the ultimate sacrifice in Korea and Vietnam, and thousands of others were wounded. Due to their efforts, and the sustained, steady effort by the hundreds of thousands of other men and women who served in the Navy during this critical period, the Cold War ended peacefully and democracy was embraced by much of the world. I encourage Navy commands to incorporate Cold War themes into their 2006 Navy Birthday events and to honor former cold warriors during appropriate ceremonies.

The Naval Historical Center [NHC], Naval Historical Foundation [NHF] and Historic Naval Ships Association [HNSA] stand ready to assist. The NHC webpage - www.history.navy.mil - contains a vast archive of Cold War-related material and includes many historical resources. The center has also initiated an expansion of the national museum of the U.S. Navy to include a gallery entitled "The Navy in the Cold War: Korea, Vietnam, and the Soviet Confrontation." While the gallery will not be completed in 2006, there are materials available the NHC can provide that discusses the gallery's proposed content.

The NHF website - www.navyhistory.org - features a naval heritage speakers list that includes experts conversant on cold war subjects and, like the NHC, offers oral history collections featuring interviews with numerous Cold War veterans. Information about ships that saw service during the cold war can be found at www.hnsa.org. Points of contact include: NHC: Mr. Jack Green, 202-433-7880, jack.green@navy.mil; NHF: Dr. Dave Winkler, 202-678-4333, dwinkler@navyhistory.org; HNSA: Mr. Jeff Nilsson, 757-356-9422, info@hnsa.org.

As one of my predecessors, Admiral George Anderson (CNO 1961-1963) -- a cold warrior himself -- put it, "The Navy has both a tradition and a future, and we look with pride and confidence in both directions." I know you share that pride and confidence with me.