The 68th Annual Meeting will be held in Newport, Rhode Island, October 20 - 23, 2019. The theme of the Annual Meeting is "American Maritime Power". Registration is now open. Registration packets were previously provided by email and postal mail. If you cannot locate the registration packet, please find it at the link below.
The post-Cold War international system is under stress and nowhere are the emerging challenges to the United States more critical than those on the world's oceans where the competing national interests of various countries, a rebalancing global military posture, and new technologies on the battlefield all collide. A sustained period of American maritime dominance that serves as the foundation for international peace and security is clearly under pressure. Naval competition with Russia has increased in the North Atlantic. China's aggressive posture in the South China Sea risks freedom of navigation and poses a security worry for U.S. allies and partners. Other nations, such as North Korea and Iran, present their own set of threats to U.S. interests in the maritime domain.
The Annual Meeting will address the challenges and opportunities for the United States in maintaining its maritime dominance through important engagements at the U.S. Naval War College, Naval Submarine Base New London, and the United States Coast Guard Academy. Please consult the registration packet for more information about the Annual Meeting.
|
|
USS North Dakota (SSN 784) transits the Thames River on January 31, 2019, as the Virginia-class attack submarine pulls into homeport at Naval Submarine Base New London after a deployment in the European Command area of responsibility. U.S. Navy photo by Cmdr. Jason M. Geddes.
|
|
Change of Command: DOCA Board Elects a New Secretary-Treasurer
|
|
Recently, J. Tucker Marston, the Secretary-Treasurer of the Defense Orientation Conference Association, decided to retire from his post. Marston, an Air Force veteran, joined DOCA in 1983. Tucker provided DOCA with dedicated service and exemplary advice throughout his tenure as an officer. A three-time DOCA Director, he first assumed the position of Secretary-Treasurer in 2010.
On a conference call of the Board of Directors on August 22, 2019, the Board elected Johnna Grant as the new Secretary-Treasurer of the Association. Grant joined DOCA in 2016 and is currently the Chief Financial Officer of Platinum Storage Group, Inc., in Irvine, California.
|
|
Board of Directors - Committees
|
|
During its August meeting, the Board of Directors adopted a set of recommendations to improve governance of the association and to support the growth of DOCA. The Board established two standing committees and received notification from the President concerning the appointment of a time-limited special committee.
The Finance Committee is a standing committee of the Board of Directors. The committee will assist in the development of DOCA's budget and oversee general financial management. Most importantly, the committee will examine opportunities to increase revenue for the association. Five members of the Board, Cheryl Ball, Linda Hogg, Thomas Kane, Maynard Oliverius, and Robert van Schoonenberg, were appointed to the committee. The Finance Committee is chaired by Linda Hogg.
The Membership Committee is a standing committee of the Board of Directors. The committee will examine initiatives to increase membership in DOCA. Five members of the Board, Leo Bustad, David Kaplan, Jewel Lee Kenley, Stephen Phillipp, and Thomas Roddel, were appointed to the committee. The committee will meet soon to choose a chair.
The Special Committee on the By-Laws and Organization of the Board of Directors is a temporary committee appointed by the President to examine the current by-laws and organizational structure of DOCA. The Special Committee will assess DOCA's governance and recommend changes, if any, to ensure the Board of Directors is an effective organization to move DOCA forward. Two officers, John Caccamo and Garry J.D. Hubert, one director, Rebecca Smith, a former director, Jeffrey Yundt, and a former President, Frank Weinberg, were appointed to the special committee. The Special Committee is chaired by Rebecca Smith.
Each of the committees are keenly interested in ideas and suggestions that members may have to help them in the development of recommendations. Members may provide input to the committees by using the dedicated email listed below established for that purpose.
Finance Committee
Membership Committee
Special Committee on the By-Laws and Organization of the Board of Directors
|
|
Member Spotlight - Marshall Wallach
|
|
The Wallach Family Military Scholarship
|
|
Marshall Wallach, a Vietnam veteran and DOCA member since 1995, and his family have endowed a scholarship for the children of active duty military personnel at The Hill School in Pottstown, Pennsylvania. The Hill School, founded in 1951, is a coeducational residential and day school for grades 9 through 12 located northwest of Philadelphia. With approximately 500 students, The Hill School holds a reputation for a challenging liberal arts curriculum and a highly qualified faculty.
The Wallach family has a long history of military service. Marshall's grandfather was career Army and his father had a 30-year military career, including service under General George S. Patton in World War II and teaching on the faculty of the U.S. Army War College. His brother also served in Vietnam. As a military dependent, Wallach attended 14 different schools before landing at The Hill School. He recalls that he would not have been able to attend without financial aid and the support of others.
Marshall, his wife, Diane, and their three sons endowed the scholarship to honor and support active duty military families. Marshall added that "our motivation for this scholarship is also grounded in a desire to increase understanding between the civilian and military sectors of U.S. society; and by the belief that students who have been exposed to the life-broadening experience of growing up as children of career officers will enrich the entire Hill community."
The scholarship is awarded to children of active duty, commissioned officers with not less than ten years of service and provides up to 100 percent of each student's demonstrated need.
Members may pass on this information to military families they believe may qualify and benefit from the scholarship. For more information about The Hill School and the Wallach Family Military Scholarship, members should contact:
Mr. Tom Eccleston
Director of Admissions
The Hill School
717 East High Street
Pottstown, PA 19464-5791
|
|
Action Item - Member Profiles
|
|
We need your assistance! For DOCA's international conferences, the staff has worked with participating members to develop individual profiles to aid in briefing our hosts overseas about the members with whom they will be engaged. This year, we extended this practice to all conferences. We find that the profiles effectively convey to military and diplomatic leaders, their briefing teams, and independent speakers and experts, the breadth of business expertise, the extensive civic activism, and the military service provided to the country by the membership. Members will be contacted by email in the coming days requesting assistance to either verify an existing profile or to develop a profile.
|
|
The recent fires in the Amazon captured the world's attention, but deforestation in the Amazon is a multi-decade phenomenon with extraordinary scale.
|
|
|
|
|
North Korea continues an extensive series of SRBM (short-range ballistic missile) tests. SRBMs have a range of roughly 1,000 kilometers or 620 miles. Since this chart was produced by the Center for Strategic and International Studies on August 15th, Pyongyang has conducted six additional SRBM tests. The 2019 SRBM tests are one shy of the previous high set in 2014 for that class of missile.
|
|
Recommended from the DOCA Bookshelf
|
|
God’s Spies: The Stasi’s Cold War Espionage Campaign inside the Church
Elisabeth Braw
Nearly thirty years ago, facing popular pressure, the Communist Party in East Germany permitted people to cross the intra-German border freely. That decision was a significant marker on the road to the fall of the Berlin Wall and the reunification, within a year, of Germany. Elisabeth Braw, who spoke to a DOCA conference in London in 2018, offers a superb history of the deep infiltration by the East German secret police into Christian churches. The Church Department (officially known as Department XX/4) knew precisely the inner workings of the mainly Lutheran churches throughout the country. Yet, despite the extensive compromise of innumerable religious figures, East Berlin failed to prevent the church-centered protests beginning in 1989 which were a significant factor in the fall of the Wall and the collapse of the communist system.
|
|
The Logic of American Nuclear Strategy: Why Strategic Superiority Matters
Matthew Kroenig
The modernization of the nuclear deterrent capability of the United States is a key current defense matter. Modernization of the nuclear triad has its own logic. Matthew Kroenig, however, goes further to address fundamental questions concerning the American nuclear deterrent. He assesses how nuclear posture affects a myriad of national security interests. He argues that the United States can, and should, attain meaningful strategic superiority over other nuclear-armed nations and questions consensus deterrence theory that maintaining an assured retaliation capability, after absorbing a first strike, alone is sufficient to deter a first strike by a nuclear-armed adversary. As Russia, China, and North Korea act to alter the nuclear balance, Kroenig makes an essential contribution to the debate over American nuclear strategy.
|
|
|
The World Trade Center. The Pentagon. Shanksville, Pennsylvania. Locations that have a painful meaning this week as the nation remembers 9/11 and the loss of nearly 3,000 lives to terrorism and destruction. In the years since 9/11, the nation has lost brave men and women who responded to the call to defend America. Wounded warriors live with significant physical injuries and emotional scars. First responders on that horrible day are equally in our debt. They have all given their full measure as Americans for our freedom and protection. They are joined by allies of the United States who continue in the fight against terrorism. We acknowledge their collective commitment and honor their sacrifices. We support them whenever and wherever we can. It is our duty to pass their memory and the meaning of their sacrifices to the generations to follow so that we will never forget.
|
|
|
|
Defense Orientation Conference Association
9245 Old Keene Mill Road
Suite 100
Burke, Virginia 22015-4202
Voice: (703) 451-1200
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
