The class gathered virtually to hear remarks from Rear Admiral Shoshana Chatfield, Naval War College president.

She went on to say how important this education will be going forward.

“Your personal investment in your education is a direct investment in our U.S. Navy warfighting advantage," said Chatfield. “Your charge now upon graduation is to commit to the transformative power of education and to link what you've learned through your master's program and the joint professional military education to how we fight, how we operate, how you will frame problems and develop and assess solutions.”

The keynote address was delivered by retired Rear Adm. Louis Tripoli.

“In my experience, one of the most enduring training programs has been this joint professional military education, because understanding the military planning process with its emphasis on operational planning is more valuable than most other programs I've been exposed to over the years,” said Tripoli.

He then spoke about his experience serving as the command surgeon for U.S. Indo-Pacific Command from February 2018 to September 2020 and how it helped prepare him for the current pandemic during one particular exercise in 2019.

“As the exercise was reaching its conclusion at the end of 2019, we started to get those first reports of the 2020 pandemic,” he said. “Having a plan and one that had just been exercised turned out to be a significant advantage when the real pandemic hit. Plans give us a basis for reacting to events, even unpredictable ones and a system for managing the unexpected. When the entire team understands the military planning process and everyone's role in it, then the team works efficiently and effectively.”

The graduates, who are officers in the U.S. Navy, Marine Corp and Army, received a Naval War College Command & Staff diploma.

The U.S. Naval War College, College of Distance Education partnered with the Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) by opening an office on the NPS campus in September 1999 to provide NPS students the opportunity to earn an NWC Command and Staff diploma while completing their NPS Master's degree program. The completion of the three NWC courses in this program include Strategy and War, Theater Security Decision Making and Joint Maritime Operations and certifies they have met the requirements for Intermediate Level Service College and Joint Professional Military Education (JPME) phase I credit.

The Naval War College Monterey Program has graduated 5,980 officers since its establishment in 1999.

You can watch the graduation on NWC’s YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/user/usnavalwarcollege