Good evening ladies and gentlemen and welcome to this promotion ceremony. We are glad to see that you have chosen to take a few moments out of your busy lives to come and honor a great navy tradition and maybe have a few hors de’oevres and drinks at the same time.

First, let me thank vp-62 and your skipper commander Ron Soroka for your hospitality and for yielding the podium here to me tonight. It is rightfully the commanding officer’s prerogative to promote their junior officers so i am humbled by your graciousness. The broadarrows of vp-62 are a class act and a great organization and the excellence of everything I’ve seen here today is testimony to your leadership. So thank you for what you and vp-62 do for the navy and the nation. So, on behalf of all our guests here i extend my gratitude to the entire wardroom and squadron – thank you for your service.

Now I’d like to take a moment to thank Tom for asking me to preside over this occasion. Since i retired over seven years ago, these offers to cut my hair, chop off the mullet, knock off the ear rings and shave off the beard are coming fewer and even more far between. And then seeing if i can still squeeze into a uniform. And to tell you the truth, it’s more than a thrill to be a captain at least one more, time so i intend to milk it for what it’s worth. So, now that i have the bully pulpit and if you will bear with me for the next couple of hours or so, i will tell you some sea stories, etc. And then we’ll get around to the business of promoting tom.

More importantly, i want to recognize some special guests. First is tom’s wife Candice and their children Kyle and my girlfriend Addison. Tom’s parents are also here – tom senior and jean. Candice’s parents are also here, Elmer and Phyllis as well as her sister Tara and her husband Michael, and sister colleen and her husband Bret. I’m a big believer in families being part of these events so we thank you for being here.

Now, speaking of families, there is, as Duke Ellington use to term it, another family that is beyond category and that is your professional friends. So, i want to take a moment to recognize some of the luminaries from tom’s past that have made the special effort to be here today. First, there are his former colleagues from jiatf-south that have made the journey to be here – rich and bob. It’s great to see you guys here and reminds me too well of the sense of family that we had down there in key west back in the day. I would also like to recognize chip who has played a great part in all of our lives – a kinder, more generous and giving man does not exist in nature so you honor us with your presence. And for the record, however, all of those speeding tickets you got in Germany still belong to you. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

Lastly, i would like to recognize a mutual friend of many people here and one of my oldest colleagues in naval intelligence – tom and his lovely wife Judy. I first met tom when i was an ensign newly reporting aboard the uss kitty hawk in Perth, Australia in 1981, a little over 33 years ago. Then lcdr costarino was the assistant ship’s intel officer and was one of my earliest role models. He did that so well that i wound up ultimately succeeding him at jiatf-south once removed. During my career, i stayed in touch with tom and always sought him out when i had my minor career management crises. It was great to be able to call tom and tell him that i needed his advice and he was always there, and unerringly right. His wise counsel was always welcome and i’m still glad that he didn’t shoot my ass a couple of years ago at the safe house. But more than that, i want you folks out there to know that tom was one of the original naval intelligence war heroes in vietnam. He was a skipper of a swift boat cruising around on the mekong river delta and was engaged in many a firefight. We captains have lots of ribbons but among his many decorations is the purple heart for wounds suffered in combat. For that and many other things, he deserves our respect – so please, rise and lets give captain tom, us navy, retired, a round of applause for his service.

In the navy, we have a tradition of many formal and informal ceremonies. On the formal side within the officer corps, these are commissioning, promotions, changes of command, and retirement. There is also mast but not too many folks get to enjoy the incredible richness of that experience – i am one of those who got to do it all – i don’t recommend it, promotions are better.

On the informal side, we have ceremonies that involve both groups and individuals. The group events include crossing the various global lines of demarcation – the equator, international date line, going north of the arctic circle, etc. For individuals, there are blanket parties, which you would normally not want to be part of, foc’sle follies, and wetting downs which traditionally follow promotion ceremonies. So, this evening we get the best of both navy worlds – a promotion and then a wetting down.

So, let’s explore for a little bit our officer ranks, which is why we are here, and what they symbolize and what they are in reality. The us navy has been the beneficiary of the British royal navy’s practices and traditions. Many of the things that we do and our organization are descendant from the royal navy and other European navies that were distilled from several hundred year’s of experience. That inheritance includes our rank structure.

Our most junior officer rank is ensign. The Brits call it sub-lieutenant. The etymology of the word is Latin and later from the french who called it “ensign” which was a fancy form of saying “flag bearer.” Later, the ensign, still bearing his banner, led a military unit of about 500 foot soldiers called an “ensign.” as a military rank ensign started in the french army as a junior officer and soon entered the french navy whose lowest commissioned rank is still ensign. Ensigns served in our revolutionary war in infantry regiments where they were the lowest ranking commissioned officers. After the war they also served in regular army infantry regiments from 1796 to 1814.

Ensigns did not join our navy until 1862 to fill the need for a rank for graduates of the naval academy who had been called passed midshipmen, and to have an equivalent rank to the army second lieutenant. Ensigns and sub-lieutenants are not expected to do much, and were forgiven many youthful transgressions and indiscretions – i maxed out that qual. Indeed in the french army they were targets for the enemy as shooting down an enemy’s banner was tantamount to victory. Ensigns and sub-lieutenants were expendable as someone else could always pick up the flag and carry on.

The next rank to discuss is lieutenant (j.g.). Until i made commander, that was my favorite rank. It dates back to the age of sail when ships had two people in charge. First was the captain, who fought the ship, and the second was the sailing master, who sailed the ship. Back in the age of sail, they had to work together. In those days, the sailing master was a professional technician. In the royal navy, they had no rank per se although they were the equivalents of sub-lieutenants. In the us navy, there were afforded the ensign rank but ultimately were given the half stripe and the terminology of ltjg was created after the civil war to afford sailing masters a status above ensign but below lieutenant which was a war fighting rank which we will get to later. Just as an aside, the ltjg rank ultimately paved the way for the warrant officer ranks for technicians which we and the Brits instituted at about the same time in the mid-1800s.

The next rank is lieutenant. The word lieutenant comes from the french which is a portmanteau word that means “to stand in lieu of the commander.” A lieutenant is a war fighting rank and was considered to be a position of understudy for a senior officer. There is a good reason that almost all cdo’s in the navy are lt’s. It just makes sense – besides, there are a lot of them. The other thing about being a lieutenant is the time required in grade. As a jg, everyone sort of knows where you are coming from – not a dumb-ass ensign but not a real man or woman yet, either. Lieutenant is a long grind and no one knows if you have one month or five years time in grade. Like ensign, the rank of lieutenant is more ancient than ensign, and goes back to the 12th century, almost a thousand years afloat. And in reality, it really goes back to the Romans. The ground equivalent is the rank of centurion, which was a legionnaire rank for someone in command of 100 people.

Shortly after 1775 a senior lieutenant who was “captain” of a smaller, of a 10- to 20-gun warship was called a lieutenant commanding, sometimes lieutenant commandant. In 1862 that rank became lieutenant commander. The British used the rank senior lieutenant until 1914 when they changed it to lieutenant commander. The new rank of lieutenant commander added a half stripe so people were able to understand the officer’s status. The Brits adopted the rank of lieutenant commander to differentiate between the seniority of lieutenants waiting their turn in the line for command by adding the half strip and title to lieutenants with more than eight years of service.
After lieutenant commander, comes the rank of commander which in the Brit navy was a rank associated with being the xo of a man-o- war, with the captain being in charge. Obviously, we in the us navy have followed a slightly different path and we can and do assign command at various levels starting with lieutenant as the co’s of small boats on up.

So, let’s look at the rank of lieutenant commander, which in my experience is the worst officer rank in the navy. Why? Let’s look at where it stands, which is right in the middle of a career. Our sister services – army, air force and marines – have a concept of company grade vs. Field grade in their lower officer rankings. It goes back to their history of being a horse-based service, even the air force. Their transition point is the move from captain to major – which is rewarded with the scrambled eggs on the combo cover. It is not considered a sin to retire as a major in those services. However, we in the navy have a much more cynical and diabolical plan which is to make you slave away for six more years until you can get promoted to commander and thus achieve senior officer rank. Tom, this is going to be your life for the next five-six years so welcome to it – not for the faint of heart. If you are going to make it as a naval officer, then you have to earn the rank of commander. The hard part is the purgatory social existence you have to endure. No longer can you find safety in numbers within the jo ranks – you stand alone – and your peers are competing with you for that number one spot on your next fitrep which will either make you or break you, and your seniors think you are just trying to kiss their ass to get ahead. Yeah, it’s a great rank…so say good bye to your former friends and hello to your new enemies which are the other 0-4s competing with you.

So, your choice is to own it and not let it own you. Don’t fall into the trap – just continue to do things the right way and be better than everyone else and more success will come you way, which is why we do promotions. But it’s more than that, for what’s past is past, and not just what have you done for me lately.

In the navy, getting promoted is not so much based on what you have done, but the anticipation of what you can do. It’s a lot different from an end of tour award – that’s what that is for. A promotion holds promise for the future, raises the bar for your performance and in effect, challenges you to be even better. When we finally getting around to administering your oath, that is the charge that you must be willing to take up – to be better in every respect both as a person and also a naval officer. We can demand no less from those of you who choose to take on this very grave and important charge. You will also need to learn a new affinity for leadership and really strive to take care of your troops. They can and will make or break you. More than ever, you owe them your loyalty and instilling in them the thought that you really care for their welfare and will go the extra mile to ensure that their professional and personal needs are met, and that they have your respect. Leading people is a sacred trust and you must not ever fail them.

In the realm of naval leadership, we senior officers learn over time that there are four types of officers. You can almost assign them to the quadrants of a quad chart – is everyone here familiar with a quad – or maybe an x/y graph? At any rate, the quadrants from left to right are dumb and smart, and from the bottom to the top is lazy and hardworking. Almost no leader wants dumb lazy guys – what you want is hardworking guys. Dumb is okay but smart is preferred. And almost everyone i know, myself included, start out as a smart, hardworking guy. But as you get older, it starts to dawn on you that if you can get the dumb and smart hardworking guys working for you, then you can turn into a smart, lazy guy. That transition for me and i think a lot of other senior folks started when I made lieutenant commander, after i got back from desert storm for my year off at the naval war college. I made the conscious decision then that i would never work that hard again because it almost killed me. I learned from that experience that you need to empower smart and even dumb hardworking guys and let them figure it out – burn up their energy. Give them some very basic guidelines and then see what results you get. It works every time. Tom is an example of a smart, hard working guy but you vp-62 jo’s need to watch this character because now that he is an 0-4 there will be a tendency for him to slack off and let you, his former friends and peers, do all of his work. You’ve heard of jopa, yes? Well, you are probably going to need it.

So, now let’s get to the matter of tom. Some of you out there may not know this but he is a graduate of Florida state. Is this news to anyone? I think if you cut him he will bleed burgundy and gold. Another thing that i admire about tom is how well he takes bad news, everything in stride. Nothing fazes him, he almost zen-like under high-pressure – oops, i got the wrong speech here. Wait a minute.

Okay, so tom does wear his heart on his sleeve, and tells you exactly what he is thinking and feeling, all at the same time, all of the time. Well, at least you know where he is coming from and he doesn’t sugar coat it, to keep his opinions to himself. Maybe now would be a good time to do what we used to call in a-6 natops during an in-flight emergency and that was to “wind the clock.” Take a few minutes and think your way through things to find the right course, and then act. And now, we gotta talk a minute about his squadron call sign – some of you call him Hebrew tom or just spy? Really, c’mon man. The genius of the ready room is that the new guy or gal gets assigned a call sign that fits, either earned by some otherworldly accomplishment (either professional or otherwise), or in my case, because of your name. Mine is “point”, because the guys in va-52 couldn’t figure out how to pronounce my last name once my orders were on the read board, your resemblance to certain celebrities, physical characteristics, or some other reason that is usually derogatory or shrouded in double entendre. After tom got his orders to vp-62, we had a little internet contest to determine what his call sign should be. We were all over the map but i thought i nailed it with my choice which was “grumpy.” Not to say that you guys need to change it but Hebrew tom sort of strikes me as little bit uninspired. Sorry tom, but that’s what you get when you ask an old school guy to come out of retirement to do you a favor – of course i will…

Professionally tom has had an impressive career to date – and after 22 years, he is not done yet.
Tom started out in the marine corps reserve, serving from 1991 to 2004 in a wide variety of active duty and reserve units and capacities as an infantryman (which is where all marines start), reconnaissance, and remote sensor technician finally finishing as an nco in marine intelligence. You have heard the names of some of the real world missions he has been in to include, operation enduring freedom, operation joint forge in Kosovo (nato), and operation joint guardian in Bosnia (NATO). He also participated in many marine air ground task force deployments, NATO exercises and operations, jtf-6 counterdrug missions and lots of training missions. He has served at all levels of command in the marines – company, recon platoon, battalion, marine expeditionary unit and brigade, as well as being dispatched for independent duty.

Tom became a civilian intelligence officer in 2003, where he worked for me in the jiatf-south j-2 as an eastern pacific cell analyst and collection manager. It was shortly after i arrived in 2003 that tom approached me to ask that i write a letter of recommendation for him to obtain a direct commission into the naval intelligence reserve. As any commanding officer worth a shit, i of course did that and a couple of months thereafter, he informed me that despite all odds, we had succeeded and he would shortly receive a commissioning date in 2004, and asked me if i would preside over the ceremony – to which i agreed of course. And we got him commissioned. The next week, tom came into to tell me that he was taking a contractor job in dc and that it had been great working for me…

So, for the next two years, tom worked for, of all people, tom at saic in the DIA counter narcotics trafficking office as a senior collection team lead and site lead. Then one day, i get this phone call “sir, i hate it here and i want to come back to key west. I’ve found some reserve tdy money and if you can give me something to do, Ill be back down there tomorrow.”

So, i acquiesced and we found a reserve job for tom so he could get away from his civilian job and find a place where the palm trees were greener. We created a job for him called “special projects officer” and he ultimately turned this into a full-time civilian position with dia, where he was the dia technical collection liaison/program manager at jiatf-south for a program called eastern clipper. Of course, the payback was that when i was looking for a job a few years later, tom asked me if i would consider being his eastern clipper guy working up in dc for him through our good friend chip, to which i agreed. So you see, truth is really stranger than fiction some times.

But just to make it fun for everyone before tom got back down there, everyone knew he was coming in that incestuous peyton place of a command, and the speculation of why and how were ramapant. We quietly started to spread the rumor that tom was coming back on active duty to be my aide. You know how the rumor mill works – we had all of the other j-heads spun up and in complaining to the chief of staff and the vice director that i couldn’t do that. We set the hook in and let them run with it like stupid fish, as if they had better things to do than worry about me and what i was doing.

Since joining the naval intelligence reserve in 2004, he was one of the first officers selected for the information dominance corps, and has performed exceeding well in a series of highly technical and diverse multi-intelligence operations with several naval and joint intelligence units as well as here with you in vp-62, where he most recently returned from rimpac 2014. Now tell me why a Jacksonville-based squadron spends almost all of its deployed time in the pacific? Just another one of those navy things that doesn’t make that much sense, so there must be a good deal in there somewhere to explain it.

So, after commissioning him ten years ago, it is my very great pleasure to now promote him to the very important middle career rank of lieutenant commander. In a moment, i am going to administer the oath of office to tom and i want to make a few comments on what that oath really means. As officers we don’t swear allegiance to the president, or the secretary of defense, or some admiral or captain, even to our national symbol, the flag, but to the constitution. The constitution is the living document which describes how we, as free American citizens, interact with each other and the rest of the world. The constitution is a sacred document that guides the course of our great country. It is meant to be a guiding light for us and all free people everywhere. Lately, the constitution has been under siege from all sides and all sorts of enemies, foreign and domestic so we live in a world where uncertainty has become the status quo amd danger lurks seemingly everywhere. Today, we need to remember our guiding principles as set down by the constitution, and brave men and women like tom and his shipmates in vp-62 who choose to stand on watch to protect the freedom and inalienable rights of all of us.

So, will the guests please rise?

Raise your right hand and repeat after me:
“i, state your name, do solemnly swear to support and defend the constitution of the united states of America, against all enemies foreign and domestic; that i will bear true faith and allegiance to the constitution and the country whose course it steers. That i take this obligation freely, without mental reservation, or purpose of evasion; and that i will well and faithfully execute the duties and responsibilities of the office upon which i am about to enter. So help me god.”