The American Navy was born in Philadelphia, like me, and the Navy has served and protected America faithfully since the country’s beginnings.
I’ve “stood the watch,” as the Navy puts it, serving two years on the aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk in 1970-1971 during the Vietnam War. I later served two years on the Navy tugboat USS Saugus at the U.S. nuclear submarine base at Holy Loch, Scotland.
You can take the proverbial boy out of the Navy, but you can’t take the Navy out of the boy.
The U.S. Navy offers the below on her 246th birthday:
The 13 October 1775 resolution of the Continental Congress established what is now the United States Navy with “a swift sailing vessel, to carry ten carriage guns, and a proportionable number of swivels, with eighty men, be fitted, with all possible despatch, for a cruise of three months….” After the American War of Independence, the U.S. Constitution empowered the new Congress “to provide and maintain a navy.” Acting on this authority, Congress established the Department of the Navy on 30 April 1798.
In 1972, Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Elmo R. Zumwalt authorized official recognition of 13 October as the birthday of the U.S. Navy. Since then, each CNO has encouraged a Navy-wide celebration of this occasion “to enhance a greater appreciation of our Navy heritage, and to provide a positive influence toward pride and professionalism in the naval service.”
13 October 2021 will mark the Navy's 246th Birthday. The central theme of this year’s 246th Navy Birthday and Heritage week is “Resilient and Ready”, which speaks to the Navy’s history of being able to shake off disaster, such as the loss of a ship or a global pandemic, and still maintain force lethality and preparedness. It allows the messaging to showcase readiness, capabilities, capacity, and of course the Sailor—all while celebrating our glorious victories at sea and honoring our shipmates who stand and have stood the watch.
God Bless America and the U.S. Navy.
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