George P. Watt Luncheon

George P. Watt, USNA ’73, President and CEO United States Naval Academy Alumni Association, speaks at September Luncheon

In town with the USNA official party to attend the Navy – Georgia Tech football game, USNA Alumni Association President George Watt spoke before a packed house at the September Chapter luncheon at Jocks and Jills in Brookhaven.

George is also President of the U.S. Naval Academy Foundation, Inc., which is now the sole organization that seeks private funding to support the Naval Academy. That, he said, was a topic for another discussion.

George started out by reminding us that the national U.S. Naval Academy Alumni Association is headquartered in the Alumni House on King George Street in Annapolis and that annual memberships are $40.00. Memberships include a subscription to Shipmate Magazine, which will keep you current on association and alumni activities.

Next he presented some interesting figures: There have been approximately 67,000 USNA graduates in the last 150 years, 48,753 of which are living today! There are approximately 43,000 USNA Alumni Association members today out of 60,000 potential members.

According to George, the mission of the Alumni Association is three fold:

To support the Navy tradition.
To support the Brigade of Midshipmen and the Naval Academy through the association and bonding of its alumni, parents, and friends.
To find qualified candidates for the Academy and military service.

George said that the Naval Academy is a “four-year leadership factory” in that its mission is to produce leaders of great character. In order to do so, we must identify and recruit good raw material to start with, i.e. we must get the “right” young people. In that regard, he said, we are truly “in a war for talent” with all the other great learning institutions in the country. High achievers who are intelligent, active in athletics and other extracurricular activities are good raw material, but that alone is not enough. They must also “have service in their hearts”.

A new USNA recruiting program will soon be under way. In it, Midshipmen will go out during the year to high schools, middle schools, chambers of commerce, boy’s clubs, girl’s clubs and other similar organizations to promote and recruit for the Naval Academy. These Midshipmen will be accompanied by a junior officer and by a board officer from the local chapter of the USNA Alumni Association. This program will be started with the Atlanta Chapter and four other large chapters throughout the country. George said that local chapter involvement is critical for the success of this program.

In closing George made mention of a new tradition at the Naval Academy that was started with the class of 2000. Members of the class of 1950 participated in the graduation and commissioning ceremony for the class of 2000 this past June. As each graduate walked off of the podium after receiving their diploma and commission, a member of the class of 1950 presented each one with their Ensign’s bars or Second Lieutenant bars! What a great idea and what an honor. This tradition will now continue each year with graduates being presented their bars by a member of the class that graduated 50 years previous.

Many thanks to George for visiting with us and getting us up-to-date on the national USNA Alumni Association.

Chapter President Bob Bush ’65 presents George with his personalized USNA Alumni Association Atlanta Chapter apron.

George presents Bob with a Go Navy “N” banner for the Atlanta Chapter.