Linda and I are completing a week in Washington speaking with groups of friends about Admiral Rickover and the general subject of leadership. Numerous people have been graciously provided us forums. General Nordy Swartz let us speak to Business Executives for National Security even if he ran off to raise funds in Chicago, leaving us in the capable hands of Henry Hinton (former GAO) and Pat Kane. Our lifelong friend, Mitzi Wortheim’s devoted one of her monthly salon’s to leadership rather than one of the other goals she has pursued since she was the first individual to join the Peace Corps those several years ago. Hugh Howard introduced us to the State Department library for the first time, an area both Linda and I had somehow previously missed. (President Jefferson did us all proud in establishing the first American library).
We were welcomed at the Navy Memorial by Admiral John Totushek, an old friend from Navy and business days, who is again daily demonstrating that leadership principles are transferable to any task or challenge, and we spent as much time as they could afford with Ginger and my brother Tim, who is accomplishing the same thing in his role as the national Executive Director of the Navy League.
No visit to Washington would be complete without visiting our friend Peter Hughes, whom we had dinner with last night at Army Navy (Sherri Goodman was departing as we arrived, still excited about her new job as CEO of the Consortium for Ocean Leadership). His partner and spouse, Mary Rose, was in the UK and did not join us, but several of Peter’s old friends from the Pentagon and the German Embassy did. As we sat there and listened to the conversation flow, Linda and I were reminded again that it is the extraordinary patriots like Peter Hughes that provide the human ties to link us to our allies.
We will finish us today by speaking at the Center for Naval Analysis, a Federally Funded Research organization. I have always been emotionally more fond of this group than I probably should be (the men and women who labored there have were some of the earliest users of operations analysis to warfare problems and subsequently had some of the greatest insights to modern warfare). If the forecasted snow does not close down the airports while we are talking about Admiral Rickover, Linda and I will return to California late tonight.