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I graduated from "Annapolis" (AKA USNA, "The Boat School") in the 70's. My second career was in high-tech here in Silicon Valley.

Let me state the "quiet part" of the Naval Academy's mission out loud: It aspires to train the Services' future admirals and generals. It is not a vocational school, nor is it really a college. It's something else.

It strikes me that the relationship between flag-rank officers and their civilian (political) leaders is fair game.

Having said that, the selection of this speaker is edgy. But it's the timing of the event that I think puts it in the bad-judgement-or-worse category. We used to call this "poor headwork."

My recommendation would have been to postpone the event until next year, and then reexamine the issue more closely. And to do all of the above quietly.