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Alan W. Dowd is a Senior Fellow with the American Security Council Foundation, where he writes on the full range of topics relating to national defense, foreign policy and international security. Dowd’s commentaries and essays have appeared in Policy Review, Parameters, Military Officer, The American Legion Magazine, The Journal of Diplomacy and International Relations, The Claremont Review of Books, World Politics Review, The Wall Street Journal Europe, The Jerusalem Post, The Financial Times Deutschland, The Washington Times, The Baltimore Sun, The Washington Examiner, The Detroit News, The Sacramento Bee, The Vancouver Sun, The National Post, The Landing Zone, Current, The World & I, The American Enterprise, Fraser Forum, American Outlook, The American and the online editions of Weekly Standard, National Review and American Interest. Beyond his work in opinion journalism, Dowd has served as an adjunct professor and university lecturer; congressional aide; and administrator, researcher and writer at leading think tanks, including the Hudson Institute, Sagamore Institute and Fraser Institute. An award-winning writer, Dowd has been interviewed by Fox News Channel, Cox News Service, The Washington Times, The National Post, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and numerous radio programs across North America. In addition, his work has been quoted by and/or reprinted in The Guardian, CBS News, BBC News and the Council on Foreign Relations. Dowd holds degrees from Butler University and Indiana University. Follow him at twitter.com/alanwdowd.

ASCF News

Scott Tilley is a Senior Fellow at the American Security Council Foundation, where he writes the “Technical Power” column, focusing on the societal and national security implications of advanced technology in cybersecurity, space, and foreign relations.

He is an emeritus professor at the Florida Institute of Technology. Previously, he was with the University of California, Riverside, Carnegie Mellon University’s Software Engineering Institute, and IBM. His research and teaching were in the areas of computer science, software & systems engineering, educational technology, the design of communication, and business information systems.

He is president and founder of the Center for Technology & Society, president and co-founder of Big Data Florida, past president of INCOSE Space Coast, and a Space Coast Writers’ Guild Fellow.

He has authored over 150 academic papers and has published 28 books (technical and non-technical), most recently Systems Analysis & Design (Cengage, 2020), SPACE (Anthology Alliance, 2019), and Technical Justice (CTS Press, 2019). He wrote the “Technology Today” column for FLORIDA TODAY from 2010 to 2018.

He is a popular public speaker, having delivered numerous keynote presentations and “Tech Talks” for a general audience. Recent examples include the role of big data in the space program, a four-part series on machine learning, and a four-part series on fake news.

He holds a Ph.D. in computer science from the University of Victoria (1995).

Contact him at stilley@cts.today.

Navy Birthday, Navy Anniversary

Friday, October 13, 2023

Written by Military.com

Categories: ASCF News

Comments: 0

Navy

The Navy Turns 248

"A good Navy is not a provocation to war. It is the surest guaranty of peace." - Theodore Roosevelt

"I can imagine no more rewarding a career. And any man who may be asked in this century what he did to make his life worthwhile, I think, can respond with a good deal of pride and satisfaction: 'I served in the United States Navy.'" - John F. Kennedy

October 13 marks the birthday of the U.S. Navy, which traces its roots back to the early days of the American Revolution. On October 13, 1775, the Continental Congress established a naval force, hoping that a small fleet of privateers could attack British commerce and offset British sea power.

The early Continental Navy was designed to work with privateers to wage tactical raids against the transports that supplied British forces in North America. To accomplish this mission, the Continental Congress purchased, converted, and constructed a fleet of small ships -- frigates, brigs, sloops, and schooners. These navy ships sailed independently or in pairs, hunting British commerce ships and transports.

Two years after the end of the war, the money-poor Congress sold off the last ship of the Continental Navy, the frigate Alliance. But with the expansion of trade and shipping in the 1790s, the possibility of attacks from European powers and pirates increased, and in March 1794, Congress responded by calling for the construction of a half-dozen frigates The United States Navy was here to stay.

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With thousands of ships and aircraft serving worldwide, the U.S. Navy is a force to be reckoned with. Below are just some of the Navy's notable accomplishments over the past two centuries:

Important Firsts in Naval History
*The first use of submarines: While the Navy's first commissioned designs for a submarine were handed over in 1875, it wasn't until 1898 that the first Holland submarine launched successfully.
*The first use of modern battleships: While America had battleships before the 1908 South Carolina class dreadnought, which started with the USS Michigan and was based on British ships, these were the first in the new era of battleships.
*The first use of Naval aircraft: In 1911, the U.S. Navy bought its first airplane, the Curtiss A-1 Triad.
*The first aircraft carrier: The first flight from the deck of a U.S. Navy cruiser in 1910 led to the 1927 Lexington-class aircraft carriers, the first operational aircraft carriers in the U.S. Navy.
*The first use of Rigid Hull Inflatable Boat: Introduced in 1992, these rubber boats were originally meant for life boats in the 1960s, but the Navy now uses them for SEALs due to their lightweight, high speed, all-weather specifications.

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