It's hard to keep that in mind when we are at peace after winning the Cold War. But it is a Warm Peace. When will the next war arrive? Will it be in five years? In 10 years? In 20 years? Never? Who knows?

When it does come will the Navy be able to win it? The next major war will not be like the last ones. The next one may have a mixture of terrorism, globally dispersed yet networked enemies, and information-intensive warfare.

Who is best prepared to fight that kind of war? It is the high-tech warrior. The engineering duty officer of today is in transition from restricted line to e-warrior. We are electronic warriors. Cyberspace may be the next battle field and the weapons will be electronic. The fight will be to disrupt the ability of the enemy to communicate.

In our present era of quick cost-cutting with only a nod to long-range consequence we are engaged in a deadly game. It is critical to fight in the administrative battles of today to assure our existence to fight the high-tech battles of the future. You need to be sure that your gaining command can not do without you.

Part of our peace-time problem lies in the inability of a billet to accurately describe the skills and abilities of the officer in it. The billet is a least common denominator concept. But the person who fills it, a member of the high-tech brain trust, has a wide ranging and deeply won set of interlocking technical skills. It takes five years to develop an engineering duty officer. This includes becoming an able Naval officer first and then an NRED in parallel with a successful civilian career.

That is why I strongly support all of our NRED billets and why Rear Admiral (Select) Steve Israel will be fighting for our place to stand, NRED billets. RADM (Sel) Israel is doing a superb job in this sensitive task. He will officially become the Senior Naval Reserve Engineering Duty Officer on February the 1st.

I wish you and him and all of the Engineering Duty Community both Reserve and Regular the best of luck in retaining critical mass for the future.

FAIR WINDS AND FOLLOWING SEAS

This is my last column - I have been the Senior Engineering Duty Officer in the Naval Reserve for about 2,200 days. I value each of those days - they have vanished too quickly.

My permanent e-mail address is:

RADM@RogerGilbertson.com

Drop me a line.

I would like to hear from you!

How are you doing?

What are you doing?

I am not "retired" - that is civilization's word.

Instead I am realigned!

Thank you for the good work you've done for each gaining command, for the Navy, for the people of United States, and for yourself.

I will miss you all.