NEWPORT, R.I. - The U.S. Naval War College’s (NWC) College of Distance Education (CDE) hosted their Naval Command and Staff online program graduation in a virtual ceremony honoring 183 students on Dec. 17.
The graduates, who are U.S. federal civilian employees and military officers in the U.S. Navy, Coast Guard, Marine Corps, Army, Air Force, Merchant Marine and Public Health Service, received the Naval Command and Staff diploma, including the Joint Professional Military Education (JPME) Phase I credit.
The class gathered virtually to hear remarks from Rear Adm. Shoshana Chatfield, U.S. Naval War College president.
“And for all the things that you learned along the way, we ask you to think critically, to put on different lenses, whether it be strategy, whether it be looking at things through the lens of diplomacy, ethics, history, operational art,” said Chatfield. “Through that process, you developed an enhanced way of thinking critically and developing frameworks: to outline what the problem is and how to solve it. I know that there will be a myriad of challenges in the future that you will have to tackle and that you will be doing this in support of your own unit and even on a grander scale to support our national security apparatus.”
The Naval Command and Staff online program spans the operational and strategic levels of war. It is designed to engage students in the challenging complexities of the national security and theater security environments to facilitate critical thinking. Students understand the fundamentals of U.S. national security policy, military strategy and the relationship between them.
Established in 1884, the U.S. Naval War College is the oldest institution of its kind in the world. More than 75,000 students have graduated since the first class of nine students in 1885.