TE US NAVY IS THE SECURITY O F THE EMPIRE. 1/4: Vectors: Heroes, Villains, and Heartbreak on the Bridge of the U.S. Navy by Thomas B. Modly (Author)
The John Batchelor Show
John Batchelor
4.5 • 2.8K Ratings
🗓️ 30 June 2025
⏱️ 10 minutes
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Summary
https://www.amazon.com/Vectors-Heroes-Villains-Heartbreak-Bridge/dp/1642257036
Thomas Modly had an eclectic career in the military, academia, business, and government when he answered the call to service in 2017 and returned to the Navy where his career began. His experience, as chronicled in these pages, tells the story of Secretary Modly’s quest to advance the Department of the Navy’s preparedness for the challenges of this century. As Acting Secretary of the Navy he held fast to the mantra of “acting, not pretending,” and thus advocated aggressively for the Navy and Marine Corps’ future ― a future he believed would be defined by uncertainty and unpredictability. Every Friday he wrote a personal message to the entire Department regardless of rank. Those messages were called SECNAV Vectors. Each Vector was intended to clearly communicate his priorities and to establish a rapport with all levels of the organization. The subject of each Vector was inspired by real events that occurred in real time. As these events unfolded , the Secretary’s unyielding emphasis on being prepared for unpredictable events are proven to be prescient as the Navy found itself, unintentionally, in the center of COVID-19 crisis.
JAMUARY 1, 1905 RECEPTION AT THE WHITE HOUSE. LED BY ADMIRAL DEWEY.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is CBS Eye on the World. Here's John Batchelor. It is Thanksgiving time, 1979. The class of |
| 0:15.6 | 1983 at Annapolis is gathered to cheer on Navy over Army. I welcome a member of the class of 83, |
| 0:24.0 | remembering that cold November day. Thomas Modley, his new book about his time in the Navy, |
| 0:31.8 | both as a midshipman, serving aviator, and later an official at the DoD is entitled Vectors, Heroes, Villains, and Heartbreak |
| 0:42.5 | on the bridge of the U.S. Navy. Tom, you were a young man in 1979. Can you remember that game? |
| 0:50.3 | What was it like to be a member of all those wonderful young people? |
| 0:59.0 | Well, thank you, John, for having me on to talk about the book and to talk about my experiences. |
| 1:02.2 | 79 was very memorable for me. |
| 1:08.2 | I had grown up in Cleveland, Ohio, and decided to go to the Naval Academy at that particular point in our nation's history. |
| 1:10.5 | It wasn't one of the most popular |
| 1:11.9 | things to be doing. We were still in somewhat of a Vietnam hangover to some extent in certain |
| 1:17.7 | parts of the country. And so it was very honored to be selected to go there and always look |
| 1:24.2 | forward to attending that First Army Navy game. When we get there as a plebe's at first Plebe summer, |
| 1:30.4 | they teach us four important phrases. |
| 1:33.9 | The first one is yes, sir, then no, sir, and then no excuse, sir, |
| 1:37.8 | and then the final one is beat Army, sir. |
| 1:40.1 | And everything that you do as a plebe drives towards that important game that comes in November. |
| 1:48.0 | Now it comes in December, but at that time I used to come in November around Thanksgiving weekend. |
| 1:53.0 | And so it's an incredibly important event, I think, in the evolution of your time as in midshipment, |
| 2:00.0 | because it's really the first time you feel like you're part of something much, much bigger than yourself. |
| 2:04.8 | And I remember marching into that stadium along with 44,000 or so other midshipment and standing there and doing the hat trick that we do at the beginning of the game and just watching that game that had been played for so many decades before |
| 2:19.1 | and just really get in an appreciation for what I had become a part of. |
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