Sailors from Navy Expeditionary Intelligence Command (NEIC) took pause from the daily battle rhythm, Oct. 13, to take time to recognize the Navy's 241st birthday.

Capitalizing on the 2016 theme of "America's Sailor: Tough, Bold, and Ready," the NEIC team invited the command's commissioning commanding officer, retired Capt. Michael Murray, who spoke about the theme as it applies to NEIC's command history and his service.

Joining Murray were Master Chief Petty Officer Jim Brooks and Senior Chief Petty Officer Brian Kaneta, both retired, who shared their experiences. Members of the local American Legion Post 35 also participated in the ceremony reflecting on the past and future of our Navy.

"Our Sailors' ability to learn, adapt, innovate on the fly, and ultimately overcome will continue the make the U.S. Navy the most formidable sea power and benchmark that others measure against," read Chief Petty Officer Samuel Gonzalez, master of ceremonies and organizer of the event.

In her remarks, current NEIC Commanding Officer Cmdr. Danielle Lukich directed her attention to intelligence exploitation teams deploying in October, instructing Sailors to listen to "the thoughts that you need [to have], as you prepare yourselves to be tough, bold, and ready [on deployment]."

A sense of pride of service was evident throughout the room and in the words of Brooks, "Pride comes with what you do when you fight with and for your shipmates."

Murray aptly summarized the event. "You are not in the Navy, you are the Navy. You serve the American people who will never know your face, who will never know your service."

Established in 2007, NEIC is the Navy's only dedicated fleet unit of deployable intelligence professionals which fuses the disciplines of human intelligence, signals intelligence, and intelligence analysis. Comprised of nine intelligence exploitation teams deployed worldwide, the Sailors of NEIC support named intelligence operations in response to intelligence priorities throughout the fleet. NEIC has been awarded the Meritorious Unit Commendation (2 awards) and the Department of Defense HUMINT collector (Overt) Team Award in 2011 and 2014.

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