Live
Simulcast Satellite and Webcast of Homeland Security Chief
Addressing Merchant Marine Academy Grads
Secretary
Tom Ridge, head of the new Department of Homeland Security,
will address the 200 members of the U.S. Merchant Marine
Academy’s class of 2003 on June 23.
Capt.
William Schubert, the U.S. Maritime Administrator, and Congressman
Peter King of New York will also attend the Academy’s
67th commencement exercises.
During the graduation ceremony, honorary degrees will be
presented to Tom Crowley, Jr., chairman, president and CEO
of Crowley Maritime Corp.; and Stanley Willner, a merchant
mariner who spent nearly three years as a Japanese prisoner
of war during World War II.
The members of the academy’s class
of 2003, who have been trained as merchant marine and Naval
Reserve officers, represent 38 states. The class also includes
two students from the Republic of Panama.
Among the graduates from the Metropolitan
New York area are 10 students from Long Island, two from
Queens and one from Staten Island.
During the graduation ceremony, the academy
superintendent, Vice Admiral Joseph D. Stewart, will present
third mate licenses to 110 members of the class. Third assistant
engineer licenses will go to 90 midshipmen. All graduates
received bachelor of science degrees.
Following the terrorist attack on the World
Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001, 29 members of the 2003 class
participated in a nine-day relief mission, operating a fleet
of the Academy’s small boats in New York harbor. They
transported firefighters, police officers, other emergency
personnel and tons of food, water and medical supplies from
locations in Brooklyn and New Jersey to the “Ground
Zero” area.
Two
members of the class also participated in sea training assignments
on U.S.-flag merchant ships in support of Operation Iraqi
Freedom.
Fifty-one graduates are scheduled to be commissioned for
active duty service in the Armed Services: 28 in the U.S.
Navy; four in the Marine Corps; 12 in the Coast Guard; five
in the Air Force; and two in the Army.
All graduates not entering active military duty will be
commissioned as ensigns in the U.S. Naval Reserve. These
graduates also have obtained, or are in the process of obtaining,
employment at sea or in the maritime industry ashore.
Twenty-two women are part of this year’s
class, bringing the total number of Academy female graduates
to 479.
Commencement marks the end of a demanding
academic and regimental training process for the class of
2003. Each midshipman, in addition to classroom studies,
spent a year at sea in a work-study program aboard various
U.S.-flag merchant vessels.
The academy, which celebrates its sixtieth
anniversary this year, was dedicated by President Franklin
Roosevelt in 1943. Its college level, four-year program
is fully accredited. More than 20,000 academy graduates
have served the maritime industry and the Armed Forces both
at sea and ashore.
The
academy is operated by the Maritime Administration of the
U.S. Department of Transportation.
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