Letter from a concerned citizen regarding Naval Post Graduate School in Monterey California Page: 1 of 3
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JAMES D. WATKINS JUL 2 9 2UJ
Received
July 28, 2005 BRAC Commission
JUL 2 9 zuu
Received
The Honorable Anthony J. Principi
Chairman
Base Realignment and Closure Commission
2521 South Clark Street
Suite 600
Arlington, VA 22202
Dear Tony:
I noted with great interest the Base Realignment and Closure Commission's decision to
explore possible realignment of the Naval Postgraduate (NPS) School in Monterey,
California. NPS is a forward-looking transformational organization that offers unique
educational programs to Navy, Army, Air Force and Coast Guard officers and
international students from allied and friendly countries. Nowhere else in the world do so
many U.S. and international officer and hundreds of expert faculty work together to study
issues of immediate and future national security interest. These young men and women
as well as their families study and live together under ideal conditions for advanced
study, allowing them to forge professional bonds crucial for the coalition strategy of this
nation at a fateful and critical moment in the evolution of war. NPS transfers learning,
science, and technology to officers so that they can apply this knowledge in their jobs,
helping to improve our ability to overcome threats to our security.
For years, people have suggested that it might be possible to privatize NPS by sending
officers to traditional universities. This option has been explored repeatedly, and each
time it has proven to be a red herring. If NPS did not exist, we would have to reinvent it
because it makes a contribution to national security that cannot be met by civilian
institutions.
The only mission of the Naval Postgraduate School is to conduct research and education
in support of U.S. national security interests. No other research university in the country
embraces this mission, which allows NPS to cultivate unique programs and opportunities.
By bringing together government sponsors, dedicated faculty and energetic young
officers, NPS has become a national center of military innovation and transformation.
NPS, for instance, created a program in low intensity conflict that supports U.S. Special
Operations Command long before counterinsurgency dominated headlines. It had the
best area studies program in the nation (which utilizes language training offered across
town by the Defense Language Institute), long before there were calls for officers to
acquire more expertise about foreign lands and peoples. Its Center for Interdisciplinary
Remotely Piloted Aircraft Studies (CIRPAS) officers a place for junior officers andDCN: 5923
BRAC Collmissioll
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Letter from a concerned citizen regarding Naval Post Graduate School in Monterey California, letter, July 30, 2005; (https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc19205/m1/1/: accessed April 25, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.