WEBVTT

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- Ladies and gentlemen, please be seated.

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Before Secretary Mabus makes his remarks, he would

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like to recognize the recipient of the SECNAV

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Energy and Management Awards.

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These awards recognize those sailors, Marines,

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and civilian employees whose ingenuity and dedication

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have led the way to achieving aggressive energy goals

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with the purpose of driving change in how we think

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about the use of power.

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Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point is being awarded

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the Blue level of achievement award.

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This award recognizes a well-rounded energy

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and water program.

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Receiving the award today is Colonel Todd Ferry,

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Commanding Officer, Marine Corps Air Station, Cherry Point.

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Ladies and gentlemen, a round of applause for

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this award recipient.

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(applause)

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Ladies and gentlemen, the 75th Secretary of the Navy,

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Ray Mabus.

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(applause)

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- Afternoon, Cherry Point.

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- [Crowd] Oohrah!

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- And happy birthday, Marines.

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- [Crowd] (Loudly cheering) Oohrah!

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- What the Navy and Marine Corps uniquely

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gives this country, is presence.

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Around the globe, around the clock, being where

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we need to be, not just at the right time,

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but all the time.

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We get there faster, we stay longer, we bring everything

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we need with us.

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And because we're operating from sovereign U.S. territory,

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we don't have to ask any other nation's permission

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to get the job done.

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We're America's away team.

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When soldiers and Marines are forward deployed,

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doing your jobs, you're usually a long, long way

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from home.

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To get that presence, you've got to have those

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big, gray hulls on the horizon.

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Those gray hulls that launch and recover aircraft,

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and project power ashore.

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In 2001, the U.S. Navy had 316 ships.

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Seven years later, by 2008, we were down to 278 ships.

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In those seven years, the Navy put 41 ships under contract.

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It wasn't enough to keep our fleet from getting smaller,

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and it wasn't enough to keep our shipyards in business.

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41 ships from '01 to '08, those seven years, I've been

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there more than seven years now, but '09 to '16,

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86 ships.

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We've done it with a smaller top line, and we haven't

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done it at the expense of air.

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We bought 35% more aircraft, too.

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We'll be back to 300 ships by 2019.

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We'll get back to our assessed need of today,

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of 308, by 2021.

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One of the great privileges, and one of the great

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responsibilities I have in this job is to name

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all these ships.

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And each ship pays tribute to a place, a battle, a person.

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So this morning, at Camp LeJeune, I named Bougainville,

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a big-deck amphib, after one of the longest Marine battles

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in the Second World War, the Battle of Bougainville.

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We have other amphibs: Belleau Wood, Bataan, Iwo Jima.

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We name our destroyers after Navy and Marine Corp heroes.

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In the past few months, I've had the privilege of naming

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ships after Colonel Barney Barnum, Sergeant Woody Williams,

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Gunnery Sergeant John Basilone, General Chesty Puller.

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Honoring those Marines who have been great in combat.

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but also who have blazed the trail that everyone

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in the Corps follows today.

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And so today, we honor a Marine.

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Both a hero in combat, and a pioneer in civil rights:

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Lieutenant General Frank E. Petersen, Jr.

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Frank Petersen grew up in Kansas.

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Went to segregated schools.

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He enrolled in Washburn University in Topeka

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when he was 17 years old and then, against his mother's

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wishes, he enlisted in the Navy when he turned 18.

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President Truman had only desegregated the military

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two years before.

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After acing his Navy entrance exam, a recruiter told him

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to retake the test.

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He thought he had cheated.

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And then when he did it again, he told him that he

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would make a great steward, because at that time,

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African-Americans who were Marines or sailors

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were primarily longshoremen or laborers or stewards.

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In 1951 there were only three black officers in

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the U.S Marine Corps.

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Frank Petersen, motivated by the stories of the Korean

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war pilot, Jesse L. Brown, the Navy's first black aviator,

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Frank Petersen vowed to, and earned, his wings of gold.

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After first serving as a Senior Apprentice,

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an Electronics Technician, he entered

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the Naval Aviation Cadet Program in 1951

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and was commissioned in 1952, joining the Few,

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the Proud, and becoming the first African-American

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pilot to call himself a Marine.

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But becoming a Marine Corps officer wasn't enough

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to end his encounters with racism.

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When he went to training in Florida, he was removed

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from a bus because he refused to sit in the back.

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On his first day at Marine Corps Air Station El Toro,

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a Captain accused him of masquerading as a Lieutenant,

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had him arrested.

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And then in Hawaii, a landlord refused to rent a house

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to him because of his race.

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Even though he was treated, far too often, as

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a second-class citizen he was a first-class patriot,

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a first-class pilot, first-class Marine.

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During his career, he flew more than 350 combat missions

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in Korea, in Vietnam.

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And in Vietnam, he successfully bailed out of his F-4

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when it was shot down in 1968, and evaded the enemy

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until he could be rescued.

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He became the first African-American to command

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a fighter squadron, the famous Black Knights,

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first to command an air group, first to command

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a major base.

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When he finally retired, 38 years after he'd first

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put on the uniform, Frank Petersen was

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Lieutenant General Frank Petersen, a senior-ranking

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aviator in the Marine Corps and in the Navy.

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Known as the Silver Hawk, the Gray Eagle, and he was

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commander of the Combat Development Command at Quantico.

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He, like all great leaders, led by example.

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He committed himself to institutional change

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in order to make it better for those who

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followed behind him.

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He was a Special Assistant to the Commandant of the Marine

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Corps where he eradicated barriers so that we could get

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recruits from different backgrounds, different experiences,

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different lives.

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He pointed out that promotions, job assignments

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and punishments were the three areas where racism

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was most likely to rear its ugly head.

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So that's where he put his focus and he made some

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visible improvements.

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In his words, "The signs of those improvements are subtle.

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"You go off of base, look around.

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"You see a white kid and a black kid going off together

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"to have a beer, you know you've achieved

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"a degree of success."

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And he said that while the military was originally

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recalcitrant, it had led the charge, and became

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a model for the rest of the country.

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But even with that, when he was asked,

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"Has there been enough progress?"

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he would say, "Never."

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He was a pioneer, he knocked down barriers.

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We've continued to do that.

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We've continued to do that across the Marine Corps,

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across the Navy.

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Every time we've done that, when we integrated

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the armed forces, when we recruited larger numbers

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of women, when we repealed Don't Ask, Don't Tell,

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when we opened up all ground combat positions,

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every time, there were naysayers.

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Just like Frank Petersen's flight instructor

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who told him he would never fly.

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And yet, our Navy and Marine Corps remain

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the most powerful expeditionary fighting force

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the world has ever known.

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We are a stronger force because we are a more diverse force.

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Not diversity for diversity's sake, but diversity

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in thought, diversity of background,

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diversity of experience.

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And for us to fight and win, now and in the future,

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we have to recruit, train, develop, from the whole

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of the American population, reflective of,

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representative of the nation we defend.

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So, we name destroyers after Navy and Marine Corps heroes.

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Destroyers can do a lot of things: undersea warfare,

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surface warfare, air warfare, missile defense.

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They're just like Marines: capable of fighting

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our battles on land, on sea, and in the air.

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We're building a lot of these, and one of the most

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important things that goes with this is the sponsor

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of the ship.

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The sponsor imbues that ship with their spirit,

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and is communication during the lifetime of that ship.

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This ship is going to have very special sponsor:

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D'Arcy Neller, wife of the Commandant of the Marine Corps

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will be the sponsor of our new ship.

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I'm privileged to name the next destroyer,

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DDG-121 USS Frank E. Petersen, Jr.

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(applause and cheers)

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- Ladies and gentlemen, it's my pleasure to introduce

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the Commanding General, 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing,

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Brigadier General Glavy.

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- Mr. Secretary, on behalf of all your Marines,

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sailors here at Cherry Point and across

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2nd Marine Aircraft Wing, I want to say thank you

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for your service to our great nation and her Corps.

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Sir, you have battled on behalf of your Marines

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and sailors for 2,730 days.

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More service time than any other Navy Secretary

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for the past 95 years.

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(applause)

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Sir, during your eight years of service we've seen

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four Secretaries of Defense, four Commandants

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of the Marine Corps, a quadrennial defense review

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times two, sequestration, shutdown of the government,

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and continuing (audio skips) as the norm.

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That is a lot of turmoil and transition.

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And through all of the challenges,

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the Marine Corps is fortunate to have one constant,

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and that was your one hand at the wheel.

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Like all services, the Marine Corps has taken some knocks.

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I was there.

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We've been allowed to keep our head count of over

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182,000 Marines, and as we speak, we're over 184,000.

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And the Marines are the only service to come through

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sequestration with their Aviation Capital Plan intact.

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Sir, you have taken care of your Marines.

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The Marine Corps and the nation are in your debt.

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Thank you so much.

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(applause)

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Dr. Petersen, ma'am, it is so great having you here

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along with Frank the Third, Gayle, Dana and Monique,

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Dr. Nickerson, General Petersen's sisters, nieces

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and nephews, Scott, Edward and Bruce, sisters-in-law,

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Miss Jeniah Petersen, great grand-nieces, Liz and Michaela,

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and dear friends of the Petersen family, Colonel Anthony

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Manning and his wife Marcia.

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And also we have members of Montford Point,

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Mr. Young, thank you so much for being here.

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- [Man in Audience] Sir!

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- Oohrah!

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(applause)

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It's such an honor to have you all here

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for this celebration.

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Today we're naming a transformational ship

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after a transformational man.

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A ship that will be the vanguard for the

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defense of this nation.

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A ship that will be most ready when this nation

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is least ready.

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An extremely capable ship.

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When I think about the legacy of General Petersen,

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I think about a parable in the Old Testament.

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On a fine day like this, the Lord said to Jeremiah,

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"Get up.

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"Go down to the potter's house.

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"You're going to learn a lesson."

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So Jeremiah goes to the potter's house

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and sees the potter working at the potter's wheel.

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The potter pulls a pot off the wheel.

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The pot is twisted and warped.

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So the potter balls the clay up again, puts it back

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on the wheel, works the clay a while, and makes

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a first-class vessel.

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Frank Emmanuel Petersen, Jr. encountered Marine Corps

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warped and twisted by bigotry.

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He, like the potter, thought the raw material

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was salvagable.

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He worked with his own two hands to save the Marine Corps

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from itself.

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He worked with his own two hands to become a gifted aviator,

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flying in the most hazardous conditions against a bitter

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foe in the frigid air of Korea, in the jungle

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humidity of Vietnam.

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Always, always leading from the front.

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In the 80 days he was in Korea, he flew 64 combat

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missions, earned six air medals, and the

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Distinguished Flying Cross.

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All as a Second Lieutenant of Marines.

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In Vietnam, he flew over 290 missions, awarded

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the Purple Heart when he was shot down over the DMZ.

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Again, leading from the front, this time as a

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commanding officer of VMFA 314, the Black Knights.

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We are so blessed to have such a man.

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In my faith, we are taught the importance

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of personal redemption.

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But if there is personal redemption, there must also

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be some form of institutional redemption.

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In our personal lives, and in the lives of our institutions,

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redemption can be a struggle.

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And although we can fall short in our efforts,

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we must continue to try.

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And so our institutions struggle for redemption

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and attempt recourse by naming ships, amazing ships,

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after even more amazing men who succeed despite

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institutional failings.

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It's not enough, but we must continue to try.

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Semper Fidelis, and God bless you all.

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(applause)

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- Ladies and gentlemen, please rise for the playing

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of Anchors Aweigh and the Marines Hymn.

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(band plays Anchors Aweigh)

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(band plays the Marines Hymn)

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Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for attending today's event.

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This concludes our ceremony.

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(applause)