The US Navy Turns 250 Years Old

Captain Paul Ryan with the Kent County Veterans Coalition joins us to discuss the 250th Birthday of the United States Navy.

More information can be found here: https://allhands.navy.mil/Features/Navy-Birthday/

Kent County Veterans Coalition Website

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Well, the United States Navy turns two hundred and fifty
years old. Last week the President celebrated two day is
the official day. So we brought in the guy. This
is West Michigan's Morning News, Steve Kelly, Brett, Keita, Lawrence
Smith with Kent County Veterans Coalition Armed Forces Thanksgiving. We
don't have time to list everything you do, Captain Paul Ryan,

(00:20):
but thanks for coming in this morning.

Speaker 2 (00:21):
Good morning, Thanks for having me.

Speaker 1 (00:23):
So this thing started before the country started, right, So
talk to us a little bit about the Continental Congress
and how these little boats started to help defend our freedom.

Speaker 2 (00:33):
Well, yeah, let's take you back to seventeen seventy five.
In October of that year, the Revolutionary War was six
months old, and by then the America's leaders that were
fighting the British realized that they had to do something
to keep the Brits from being resupplied in America while
we were fighting them. And so on October thirteenth of
seventeen seventy five, the Continental Congress authorized the outfitting of

(00:57):
two countom two sale vessels with guns, which they didn't
have them. These were merchant vessels that you put cannons
on them to help interdict the British trying to bring
supplies to North America. During the course of the Revolutionary War.
Upwards of about fifty different vessels were part of the

(01:20):
Continental Navy, but they never had more than twenty at
any one time. They captured over two hundred British merchant vessels,
some of them off the British Isles themselves. That helped
to not only demoralize the British military, but it also
diverted resources away from North America to Europe to protect

(01:42):
their own vessels.

Speaker 1 (01:44):
Wow, that's pretty good numbers. Then obviously you've got to
have one of those officially when you become a country, right,
a navy that is.

Speaker 2 (01:52):
Yeah, the Continental Navy was disbanded after the war. It
wasn't until seventeen ninety four that we had six sailing
vessels that were built from the keel up as warships,
and then the Navy was officially established by Congress in

(02:12):
seventeen ninety eight.

Speaker 3 (02:14):
Sorry, I'm a history buff because my mom is a
history teacher. But also it's interesting when you go back
and you research it, because there's only a certain amount
of things that you can kind of put out there
right as far as all this. But John Paul Jones
was an interesting figure, wasn't he.

Speaker 2 (02:27):
John Paul Jones, many books written about him. He is
probably the most famous naval officer of the Revolutionary Warbret.
He is often known as the father of the American Navy.
But he was not the most senior officer in the
navy at the time when the Revolutionary War started. When

(02:48):
the Continental Navy started, there were twenty four captains that
were appointed. He wasn't even the most senior captain, and
that irritated him for the rest of his life, and
it was a sort of source of much irritation for
the entire Navy in the country at that time.

Speaker 1 (03:06):
Talk about our navy today, the continued Service just a
very very important branch of our military.

Speaker 2 (03:11):
Well, yeah, the thinking about the Navy's mission today, which
is protecting trade routes and global force protection, global force projection,
I actually started in the late nineteenth century by a
Navy officer called Alfred Thayer Mahon who wrote a book
at the late nineteenth century about this. The Navy's mission

(03:35):
really pivoted to those activities in World War One, got
really ramped up in World War Two, it was the
United States Navy that won the war in the Pacific,
and even today that mission continues in terms of we
now call it freedom of navigation, operations and power projection.

(03:57):
You see that daily in the South China, see the
Red Sea, and the East Coast of Africa.

Speaker 1 (04:03):
How how can we help celebrate the two hundred and
fiftieth birthday of the Navy? Even today?

Speaker 2 (04:09):
I think the most important way that people can celebrate
the Navy's birthday is to celebrate the people who served
or who are serving in it, especially those Navy veterans
and their families who are in the most need. And
as a representative of armed forces Thanksgiving as you are, Steve,
in partnership with the West Michigan Veterans Coalition, we do

(04:32):
a lot of that, and it's not just limited to
the Navy, it's all the branches. We look for veterans,
service members and families who are in need of general
financial assistance. We have a scholarship program Transportation, Food and
Security learning about those organizations. What is it that you

(04:57):
can do to assist your your neighbor who may be
a veteran and you might not even know it. Find
that out and see what you can do to help them.

Speaker 1 (05:06):
We'll put a link in the podcast section at woodradio
dot com. Captain Paul Ryan always great information. Thank you
for coming in today.

Speaker 2 (05:13):
Have a fine Navy day.