ANNAPOLIS, MD. – Vice President JD Vance addressed the US Naval Academy’s graduation and commissioning ceremony in Annapolis, Maryland.
Vance enlisted in the Marine Corps after high school where he served as a military journalist for four years, attaining the rank of corporal. His decorations included the Marine Corps Good Conduct Medal and the Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal.
Founded in 1845, the U.S. Naval Academy is a four-year service academy that prepares midshipmen morally, mentally and physically to be professional officers in the naval service.
More than 4,400 men and women representing every state in the U.S. and several foreign countries make up the student body, known as the Brigade of Midshipmen.
“It will be you, the graduates gathered here today, who will lead the way for the rest of us. Your service will bring new challenges and environments, including ones unfamiliar even to those who have served before you. You will deploy new equipment, new systems and new technology and through those experiences it is you who will learn, who will teach others and will help our services, and our entire country adapt to the future we’re confronting,” Vance said.
“So, while President Trump and I congratulate you on this incredible achievement, I also thought it would be appropriate to tell you about how the president and I think of you mission in this new and very dangerous era of our country.”
Vance spoke out President Trump’s recent visit to the middle east, saying it signified the end of a decades long approach in foreign policy.
“No more undefined missions, no more open-ended conflicts. Returning to a strategy grounded in realism and protecting our core national interests. This doesn’t mean we ignore threats, but it means we approach them with discipline and when we send you to war, we do it with a very specific set of goals set in mind.”
Vance said the conflict between the US Military and the Houthis was a prime example, when the US forced the Houthis to stop attacking American ships in the Red Sea.