Turner selected for Nimitz award: Getting wins 1999 Michelson honors

Sea Power, Apr 1999 by Hessman, James D

Navy League National President Jack M. Kennedy has announced that James E. Turner Jr., president and chief executive officer of the General Dynamics Corporation, has been selected to receive the Navy League's 1999 Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz Award, and that Dr. Ivan A. Getting of the Office of Naval Research's National Academy of Sciences Committee for Undersea Warfare has been selected to receive the League's 1999 Albert H. Michelson Award for Outstanding Scientific or Technical Achievement.

In keeping with the custom of previous years, the Michelson Award is scheduled to be presented to Getting -by Secretary of the Navy Richard Danzig-during the 30 March Secretary of the Navy Luncheon at the Navy League's 1999 Sea-Air-Space (SAS) Exposition in Washington, D.C.; Danzig will be principal speaker at the luncheon.

The Nimitz Award will be presented to Turner at the 31 March Sea-AirSpace Banquet, at which Under Secretary of Defense (Acquisition & Technology) Jacques S. Gansler is the principal speaker. Turner-described by Kennedy as "one of the giants in the U.S. defense industry"-will be the 19th winner of the Nimitz Award, which was established by the Navy League to recognize "an individual who, or corporation that, has made an exemplary contribution to the enhancement of our nation's maritime strength and, in turn, to our national security."

Turner, who has spent most of his career building nuclear-powered warships for the U.S. Navy, was cited for playing a "key role in ensuring the construction of the [Navy's] three Seawolf-class submarines.. . [and for] directing the development of a design/ build concept for the Virginia-class submarine program." His efforts "have enabled the Navy to maintain its undersea superiority, preserved the industry expertise required for submarine design and construction, and provided a bridge to the Virginiaclass submarine."

The Navy League "is honored indeed," said Kennedy, "to present the 1999 Nimitz Award to an individual with the clear vision and steadfast conviction of James E. Turner Jr.. whose entire career has embodied the same qualities of leadership, statesmanship, and dedication that were exemplified by Admiral Nimitz himself. I am proud to welcome him, on behalf of the Navy League of the United States, into the pantheon of previous Nimitz Award winners. He is an outstanding and most worthy addition to their ranks."

Getting, a Rhodes Scholar and a member of the National Academy of Sciences Committee on Undersea Warfare for over 40 years, was praised by Kennedy for "a lifetime of dedication and service to the Navy and to the nation that started during World War II and continues to the present day." As a "leading member" of the Committee on Undersea Warfare, Kennedy said, "Dr. Getting has been an innovator, an inspiration, and a leader in the design, development, and eventual building of such revolutionary systems and platforms as the USS Albacore [the streamlined hull form of which has been used as the basis of all U.S. Navy combat submarines since the late 1950s], the USS Nautilus [the first nuclearpowered submarine], the global positioning system, numerous space programs, and the Navy's fleet of ballistic-missile submarines that preserved global peace and stability throughout the Cold War. He is a most worthy recipient of the 1999 Michelson Award, and I salute him on behalf of the Navy League."

The Michelson Award is named in honor of Albert H. Michelson, an 1873 graduate of the Naval Academy and the first American to win the Nobel Prize for Science. The award honors "a civilian scientist, technology innovator, or technical organization ... for scientific or technical achievement that has resulted in a significant improvement in the strength of [U.S.] maritime forces."