Shoshana Chatfield’s Post

🇸🇪 Sweden became NATO’s newest member upon depositing its instrument of accession to the North Atlantic Treaty in Washington DC. With Sweden’s accession, NATO now counts 32 countries among its members https://lnkd.in/eaRDNHXy

Dateline 3/4/76: After the Navy won't let her fly her helicopter to ships with her squadron — or even hover over a ship to deliver the mail — Ens. Joellen Drag (Oslund) joins a federal class-action lawsuit #WomensHistoryMonth #wingsofgoldbook #navalaviation

It was a beautiful day at the U.S. Naval War College to celebrate the class of 2023! Today’s graduates included 468 students from senior-level leadership and intermediate-level leadership courses, and 1,925 students who completed courses through the College of Distance Education, 121 of whom were in attendance in person. Seventy-eight countries were represented in the graduating class. Congratulations to all of the graduates! We wish you much success in this next phase of your careers. #usnavalwarcollege #usnwc #usnwcalumni #graduation #navalwarcollegefoundation #nwcf #educatetodaysecuretomorrow https://lnkd.in/epp367sC

NWC congratulates our newly selected Master Chief and Senior Chief Petty Officers: CSCM Mike Freitas, ITCS Andrew Hackett, CSCS Brandon Plemons, and NCCS Loribelle Valdez! Superior performance by leaders like this enables NWC to deliver excellence every day. Bravo Zulu, shipmates! #LeadWell #LifeLongLearners

My last boss on Active Duty in the Navy, Rear Admiral John F. Meier frequently encouraged the staff to read as much as possible. An avid reader himself, he was very much a proponent of General Mattis' philosophy on reading: "If you haven't read hundreds of books, you are functionally illiterate, and you will be incompetent, because your personal experiences alone aren't broad enough to sustain you". He would frequently share insights on what book he was currently reading and usually end every staff meeting with a question "Anybody have any good book recommendations?" That being said, in the summer of 2020, I started incorporating "reading" as much as possible again. I put reading in quotation marks simply because most books I consume are audio rather than written print. The first book I read based on Oscar's recommendation was "Boyd", the biography of Colonel John Boyd, an Air Force fighter pilot most famous for creating the OODA loop. Since then, it's been a journey of reading new books on a myriad of topics ranging from politics, contemporary military history and some fiction. The first book of 2023 that I've completed straight off the CNO's reading list is "Ashley's War". It's an excellent book that documents the role of women in the creation of the Cultural Support Teams (CST), vital enablers for the Special Operations Community. It also documents the CST community's first casualty, 1st LT Ashley White Stumpf. If you haven't picked up a book this year, start with "Ashley's War". You won't regret it!

Delighted to receive copies of my new book published by Georgetown University Press. I tell the origin story of the Chinese navy and describe the PLA's earliest island-seizing campaigns.