Former Navy League national president Bernard Bennett awarded medal of distinction by Mexican president Fox

Sea Power, Apr 2003

Bernard Bennett, a former national president of the Navy League, has received one of the highest honors of the Mexican Navy-the Medal of Distinction for Naval Service. The medal, believed to be the first ever awarded to anyone who is not a citizen of Mexico, was presented by Mexican President Vicente Fox in recognition of Bennett's efforts to promote greater friendship and commercial ties between the United States and Mexico, and a closer spirit of cooperation between the U.S.

and Mexican Navies. Bennett, a 1943 graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy who worked in Mexico for many years in the post-WWII era, created and financially supports the annual presentation of a John Paul Jones Award to a graduating student of the Mexican Naval Academy "who has excelled in English studies." Bennett, now a member of the Navy League's Palm Beach Council (Fla.), is the author of two books about Mexico: Mexico From Within, a personal memoir of his own life and work in Mexico; and CACIQUE, described as "a historical novel of monocracy, idealism, oppression, and reverence." Shown here at the awards ceremony, which was attended by 500 guests, are Bennett (second from right); Fox (center); Adm. Marco Peyrot (left) of the Mexican Navy; and, at right, Vera Cruz Gov. Miguel Aleman Velasco. [The identification of the Mexican Naval Academy student, second from left, who received the John Paul Jones Award from Bennett at the same ceremony was not available at presstime.]