By John D. BanusiewiczAmerican Forces Press Service
The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff evoked civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr.’s contention that “everybody can be great, because anyone can serve” in commencement remarks to the Class of 2010 at Florida A&M University.
“Service in uniform is not exactly what I am driving at,” Navy Adm. Mike Mullen told graduates, and others gathered in the Alfred Lawson Gymnasium.
“Although if the Marching 100 seniors feel like taking all that energy and precision to another level,” he joked, “I have some recruiting applications available in the back.”
The Marching 100, Florida A&M’s marching band, has performed at five Super Bowls and has been credited with creating more than 30 techniques that have become standard for high school and college marching bands around the country.
King’s message is great, the admiral said, because it means anybody can serve, and service will make everybody great.
Service and citizenship have changed since he graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1968, the year King was assassinated, Mullen said, but the face of America also has changed.
“The faces of those who influence have become more diverse – more representative of the breadth and the depth of our country,” he said, “and I believe that change represents the best of what’s possible in any democracy.
Mullen told the Class of 2010’s engineering science and technology graduates that their research on sensors and imaging systems will save lives and limbs by helping the military detect and defeat the most lethal threats it faces: roadside bombs and nuclear, chemical and biological attacks.
Mullen praised agriculture, education and health sciences graduates for their commitment to “the most fundamental aspects of global security.”
The admiral gave the graduating class some advice that he said will help them turn challenges into opportunities in whatever careers they pursue.
“Speak truth to power,” he said. “Listen to your juniors. See problems through other people’s eyes, and never be afraid to admit your mistakes.”
Before the commencement ceremony, the chairman met with Florida A&M’s Army ROTC cadets and Navy ROTC midshipmen, and with James Ammons, president of the university.
At the ceremony Mullen administered the oath of office to 12 ROTC graduates who will serve in the Army, Navy and Marine Corps.
He noted that Florida A&M’s ROTC programs have turned out more than 1,500 military officers, including Army 1st Lt. Randolph Powell from the Class of 2008, who is finishing a year-long tour in Iraq, where he has helped to build structures and security stations that will help the Iraqi army provide for their own country’s defense.
Ammons conferred an honorary doctorate of humane letters on Mullen.