{"id":12014,"date":"2025-06-24T20:02:45","date_gmt":"2025-06-24T20:02:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/krogragg.com\/?p=12014"},"modified":"2025-06-24T20:02:45","modified_gmt":"2025-06-24T20:02:45","slug":"video-sean-duffy-addresses-usmma-class-of-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/krogragg.com\/?p=12014","title":{"rendered":"VIDEO: Sean Duffy addresses USMMA Class of 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>    VIDEO: Sean Duffy addresses USMMA Class of 2025<br \/>\n \t<BR><br \/>\n<BR><\/BR><br \/>\n    <!-- no image --><br \/>\n \t<BR><br \/>\n<BR><\/BR><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>\u201cIt truly is an honor to be here today and celebrate some of America\u2019s strongest, finest, and best-looking graduates our great country has to offer,\u201d U.S. Transportation Secretary <a href=\"https:\/\/www.marinelog.com\/?s=%22Sean+Duffy%22\">Sean P. Duffy<\/a> said yesterday as he delivered the keynote address to the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy\u2019s (USMMA) Class of 2025.<\/p>\n<p>At yesterday\u2019s event at the USMMA\u2019s Kings Point, N.Y., campus, the 207 U.S. Merchant Marine and Military Officers in the USMMA Class of 2025 were honored before more than 3,000 friends and family in a formal ceremony recognizing both their academic achievements and commitment to service. Superintendent, Vice Admiral Joanna M. Nunan, United States Maritime Service, and Distinguished UMMA Alumnus Shane Dowling, CEO of TMMG, from Class of \u201996, also spoke at the ceremony.<\/p>\n<p>Eighty-four graduates were sworn in as active-duty officers in the Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, Air Force Reserve and Coast Guard. The remaining graduates will serve as Navy reservists in the Strategic Sealift Officer Program while working as United States Coast Guard-Licensed Mariners aboard deep-sea vessels, offshore supply vessels, tugs, and towing vessels.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Secretary Duffy Delivers 89th Commencement Address at the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy\" width=\"900\" height=\"506\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/djzR77UVp0Q?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p>\u201cI want to start by acknowledging the strength and commitment you all have displayed to get to this moment,\u201d said Secretary Duffy. \u201cYou all have faced so many challenges over the last four years. And that\u2019s a polite way of putting it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAllow me to be a little blunter,\u201d he continued. \u201cFor years, this institution has been neglected by Congress and mismanaged. The campus has been allowed to fall into disrepair.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s unbecoming of a national service academy. It\u2019s unfair given the depth of the sacrifices you have made, and it\u2019s unworthy of the greatest country in the world.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLater I\u2019ll be sharing some life lessons I\u2019ve picked up along the way, but here\u2019s one lesson you all have clearly already learned perseverance.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou all are the class of stupid COVID rules, including shutdowns for Sea Year.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou all are the class of no hot water for months.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018\u2019You are the class of not enough food.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou all are the class of paper plates and plastic forks.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou all are the class of dorms with mold and a dilapidated, falling apart library.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSeveral months ago, I saw this for myself. I saw the old tar dripping from the ceilings. I saw the dorms rotting with mold. I saw the rusty showers with no hot water. I also saw no work from the previous administration to bring your campus to the standard of a United States service academy. Worst of all, I saw Jesus stuffed away in the basement.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWith all those issues, a lot of people would just give up. With so many challenges, you might expect to see spirits dampened.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut what I saw when I first came to the Academy in April for the Battle Standard Dinner shocked me.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cInstead, I found before me the most remarkable group of men and women whose spirts simply could not be broken.\u201d<\/p>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>You can read the full transcript of Secretary Duffy\u2019s remarks  to the USMMA Class of 2025 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.transportation.gov\/briefing-room\/us-transportation-secretary-sean-p-duffy-addresses-merchant-marine-academy-class-2025\">HERE<\/a>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The post <a href=\"https:\/\/www.marinelog.com\/news\/video-sean-duffy-addresses-usmma-class-of-2025\/\">VIDEO: Sean Duffy addresses USMMA Class of 2025<\/a> appeared first on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.marinelog.com\/\">Marine Log<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p> \t<BR><br \/>\n <BR><\/BR><br \/>\n    Nick Blenkey<br \/>\n \t<BR><br \/>\n<BR><\/BR><br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.marinelog.com\/news\/video-sean-duffy-addresses-usmma-class-of-2025\/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=video-sean-duffy-addresses-usmma-class-of-2025\">Go to marinelog<\/a><br \/>\n \t<BR><br \/>\n <BR><\/BR><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>VIDEO: Sean Duffy addresses USMMA Class of 2025 \u201cIt truly is an honor to be here today and celebrate some of America\u2019s strongest, finest, and best-looking graduates our great country has to offer,\u201d U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy said yesterday as he delivered the keynote address to the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy\u2019s (USMMA) Class [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[218,192,199,2103,223,4977,216],"tags":[193],"class_list":["post-12014","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-kings-point","category-marinelog","category-news","category-sean-duffy","category-usmma","category-usmma-class-of-2025","category-video","tag-marinelog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/krogragg.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12014"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/krogragg.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/krogragg.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/krogragg.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/krogragg.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12014"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/krogragg.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12014\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/krogragg.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12014"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/krogragg.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12014"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/krogragg.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12014"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}