'We Who Love History Need to Bring It Alive'

摘要

Mills: Mr. Secretary, it's an honor speaking with you today. What is your favorite period of U.S. naval history, if there is one? Braithwaite: I've been greatly influenced by the history of the formation of the U.S. Navy. I go back and I read about the early years of our Navy being created in the 1790s and the efforts at creating the first six frigates-I'm a huge fan of those ships. As you probably know, I recently named the new class of frigates after one of the original six [the Constellation]. So that's a period of interest to me, including the formation of the young naval officer corps, people like Stephen Decatur and Oliver Hazard Perry. Their biographies are very interesting to me.