Commencement Week is here.  Our Naval Academy midshipmen will be commissioned Friday morning and head off to begin their Navy and Marine Corps careers.  Proud parents and family members are in town to celebrate with them.

Graduation is always a time for reflection and prediction.  For our midshipmen, this holds true in a special way because the Navy and Marine Corps are all about tradition.  Commissioning Week happens the same way each year - the Blue Angels fly in on Tuesday, they do their flight demonstration on Wednesday, graduation is Friday.  Even the rain plan stays the same from year to year.

After more than two decades of Navy life, I think I'm qualified to say that these traditions, which begin with enlistment and commissioning ceremonies and end with retirement, help tie us - the people with no permanent homes and no set-in-stone futures - together in a much-needed way.  Those who say that military ceremonies and traditions are useless and outdated miss the point entirely.

We do need tradition.  Everyone needs an ideal, something to strive for.  In a faith community, the ideal might be the Ten Commandments, the Beatitudes or the Five Pillars of Islam.  For military folks, tradition ties us to the heroes of the past and tells us that our efforts, too, will be remembered.  At the annual Navy Ball, the Two Bell Ceremony honors shipmates who have made the ultimate sacrifice.  As sailors retire, they are piped ashore, walking past rows of saluting shipmates.  These traditions and others like them honor the hard work and sacrifices all military members and their families make in order to serve their country.

As our newest officers, the Class of 2009, are commissioned, let's join with their families and friends in congratulating these young men and women and wish them the best as they begin their careers.

Class of 2009, I wish you fair winds and following seas.  Congratulations - and let those hats fly!