Now he is serving as the Vice Chairman to the Joint Chiefs of Staff and proving his commitment to jointness in the fighting forces of the United States. He was not able to attend the 1995 MRTT in Washington. But Admiral Owens was with us in spirit. His newly published book was there - among the many books that the Naval Institute was offering in the booth they set up at each MRTT.
We recommend a reading list of books for each candidate in the five-year Engineering Duty Qualification Program. The Naval Institute brings books from that list and a few others. As all NRED's know it takes about five years after you get the first engineering degree before you can achieve full qualification as an ED - the High Tech Brain Trust.
Admiral Owens' book was hot off the presses and it sold well to the attendees. I have read my copy. The book is full of high tech material. That is the only way to look at the future for the Navy or the United States. We have no choice but to ride the tiger of technology.
Admiral Owens makes two jumps into the future: one to the year 2001 and the other to 2021. One of the intriguing ideas he presents is a floating air base with about the same capacity as National Airport in Washington. A long runway could accommodate any aircraft and have none of the problems with someone else's sovereignty. The power projection equation is difficult at best. If you can remove questions of infringing on another country's sovereign territory it becomes a little easier, a little simpler. Three of these floating National Airports could help the United States maintain its cost-effective place in a world where international trade may become even more of an equalizer than it has since World War II.
Implicit in any consideration of the next quarter century are concepts of industrial base and dual use. In the Naval Reserve we are the living embodiment of human dual-use. As members of the virtual gathering-hunting band, the NR High Tech Brain Trust, we work successfully in a high tech job in the private sector and also serve in a high tech calling as Naval officers ready to be mobilized whenever the Navy needs our technical skills.
There is no other group like us in the Department of Defense. We have evolved along a two-hundred year path that makes the NRED Community a close parallel to a very large general practice engineering firm - but with national service rather than profit as our prime inspiration.
When Admiral Owens' visions come into being - there are many visions expressed in his book - we will be among those who tame the technology and put it to work for maintaining peace. It is only twenty-six years to the year 2021. Where were you in 1969? That is the mirror distance into the past.
Admiral Owens, thank you for stimulating a mosaic of interlocking concepts - two columns on one page can only give the mildest hint.