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| Commander Stoner |
By Navy Commander Dave Stoner
Commanding Officer, USS RAMAGE (DDG-61)
A strong Navy is a recognized United States commitment to the world.
Your Navy is unique among all others in that the Fleet is not garrisoned
in U.S. home ports but is spread across the globe.
There is no question
that there is a high demand for the naval forces from our political
leaders and combat commanders worldwide. The visible power of your Navy,
steaming just over the horizon in areas of high tension matters has a
significant impact on our opponents as well as our allies and friends.
Your Navy protects and defends America on the world’s oceans. Navy ships, submarines, aircraft and, most importantly, tens of
thousands of America’s finest young men and women are deployed around
the world doing just that.
They are there now. They will be there when
we are sleeping tonight. They will be there every Saturday, Sunday and
holiday this year. They are there around the clock, far from our
shores, defending America at all times.
I can
assure you that your Navy is there, because I am there.
I have the
privilege and honor of commanding one of our Navy’s great warships, the
USS RAMAGE DDG-61, homeported in Norfolk, Va.
Our crew of 300 set
sail in early August of 2013 for a regularly scheduled deployment to
the Eastern Mediterranean which will last about nine months. Shortly
after we left the shores of the U.S. the news that chemical weapons had
been used in Syria broke. We quickly found ourselves on the front lines
of an international crisis. Just as countless ships have found
themselves before on dozens of coasts over the last two hundred years.
Being there matters.
That the Navy is there is
critically important because, as in nearly any global endeavor, being
there matters.
It matters in business: it is why American firms
maintain a presence in their overseas markets. It matters in politics:
it is why the State Department maintains a diplomatic contingent in
nearly every other nation on Earth. It certainly matters to our
national defense: it is why U.S. forces are stationed around the world.
Technology has changed American culture along
with the vast majority of the world over the last several decades. The
digital age has ushered in a new standard for being present. Email,
text messages, social media and online video streaming can
instantaneously make us virtually present with others around the globe.
Even at sea on RAMAGE we do what we can to stay connected to our
families back home.
To be virtually present however, is to be actually
absent. Virtual presence simply will not suffice when it comes to naval
operations.
On our planet, more than 70 percent of
which is covered by water, being there means having the ability to act
from the sea. The Navy is uniquely positioned to be there; the world’s
oceans give the Navy the power to protect America’s interests anywhere,
and at any time. Even in the far reaches of Afghanistan, the long arm
of Naval aviation could complete its mission.
When
America’s national security is threatened by the existence of a weapons
facility or a terrorist camp on the other side of the world, being there
matters. Where these threats exist, chances are high that Navy ships,
submarines, aircraft and special forces are very close by, with the
ability to destroy targets located hundreds of miles inland.
When the
decision is made to act on one of these threats, the solution may
involve launching attack jets or unmanned aircraft from aircraft
carriers, firing cruise missiles from ships or submarines or inserting a
team of Navy SEALs to do what only Navy SEALs can do. In any case, the
Navy can do all of these things, and do them all from the sea, without
the need to get another country’s permission to operate within its
borders.
This is the exact situation that RAMAGE
and a small handful of other destroyers found ourselves in the late
summer of 2013. The boundless reach of information stretched easily
from our location at sea to media outlets around the globe. The world
knew that we were there, the world knew why we were there. And being
there mattered.
Weeks later, in a nearly unprecedented move, a
government agrees to peacefully turn over their stocks of chemical
weapons to be destroyed by the international community. Presence is
powerful. Being there mattered. Presence goes far beyond influencing
political decisions.
More than 90 percent of the
world’s commerce travels by sea. When piracy threatens innocent lives
and disrupts shipping traffic in the Indian Ocean, when rogue nations
threaten to deny access to vital Middle East waterways through which
much of the world’s oil is shipped, being there matters. America’s Navy
is there, patrolling what is essentially the world’s interstate ocean
highway system, ensuring the free flow of global trade and, in turn,
preserving America’s economic prosperity.
Following a humanitarian crisis, like the devastating typhoon that
ravaged the Philippines in 2013 or the tsunami that struck northern
Japan in 2011, being there matters. Because the Navy is always deployed
around the world, it can provide nearly immediate humanitarian relief
in the wake of a disaster, ferrying supplies, medicine and trained
medical personnel ashore from Navy ships via helicopters and landing
craft.
When narcotics traffickers use speedboats
and rudimentary submarines to ferry illegal drugs across the oceans and
into America, being there matters. Navy ships and submarines work the
waters near Central and South America with law enforcement agencies to
intercept shipments of illegal narcotics before they reach our shores.
As the world’s geopolitical and economic climates continue to evolve,
the case for America maintaining a strong Navy grows. Indeed, the
President’s national security strategy calls for a renewed focus on
enduring threats in the Middle East region, as well as an increased
American commitment in the Asia-Pacific region -- a vast, mostly
ocean-covered area of the world ideally suited for operations from the
sea and in which the Navy maintains a robust presence.
When it comes to protecting and defending America, being there
matters.
Since the early 1800s when by order of President Thomas
Jefferson the first expeditionary squadron entered the waters of the
Mediterranean to protect American interests, your Navy has been there.
Today RAMAGE and the other ships and aircraft squadrons of the Sixth
Fleet are still here in the Mediterranean. Our presence and our actions
are mirrored by other U.S. fleets in all the oceans of the world.
Always know that around the globe America’s Navy, your Navy, is already
there.
Being there matters.
Emmett O'Brien graduate
Stoner was born in Queens, N.Y. and grew up in Ansonia. He is a 1986 graduate of Emmett O’Brien Technical High School
in Ansonia.
Enlisting in the Navy in 1986 he initially served as a
Machinist Mate on several attack submarines stationed at the submarine
base in Groton. Earning a commission in 1995 he has served
in various positions aboard cruisers and destroyers before assuming
command of the USS RAMAGE in January 2013.
Stoner is a
graduate of the University of North Florida in Jacksonville Florida
majoring in Computer Information Systems. He is also a graduate of the
Naval War College where he earned a masters degree in National Security
and Strategic Studies.
A father of four and grandfather of one, Stoner resides in Norfolk, Va. His parents reside in the
New Haven area.
http://www.ramage.navy.mil/
