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Meet the New NWC President
Coming to the Naval War College from the Ronald Reagan Carrier Strike Group, where he commanded seven thousand people on a Western Pacific deployment, Rear Adm. Phil Wisecup became the Naval War College's 52nd president on Nov. 6, 2008. He spent some time with the Naval War College Public Affairs Office on Nov. 13, to answer some questions to help the faculty, staff and students get to know him better and hear his initial thoughts on the Naval War College. Questions and answers have been edited for clarity and brevity.
Q: How does one get to be the President of the Naval War College?
A: In my case, I answered the telephone, and the CNO's office said we'd like for you to come and do this. I was on the USS Ronald Reagan in charge of Carrier Strike Group 7 out in the Western Pacific, and the phone rang, and that was the call.
Q: Did you say yes right away?
A: Absolutely. This is one of those kinds of things where you serve where the Chief of Naval Operations wants you to serve, and I'm happy to come up here. I'm no stranger to Newport. I'm a student and graduate of the Naval War College. I was a member of the CNO's Strategic Studies Group. So, I'm very familiar with the environment up here and happy to do it.
Q: What is your vision for the Naval War College?
A: I think I still have some work to do myself to understand the current situation before I press outward with any new issues or major changes. Back in the days of sail, the watch officers would never change the cut of the sail until 20 minutes into the watch out of professional courtesy for their predecessors. That's how I'm moving ahead here. Plus, I'm getting situated. I just flew in two weeks ago from Singapore, so I'm trying to get my feet on the ground. I feel almost human now that I'm finished with all my travel.
Q: What do you think you will like the best as President of the Naval War College?
A: I think what I will like the best is interacting with the people. Look, you have a world-class faculty. You have highly motivated professional students. This is professional education. There is a goal that we are trying to achieve by making our students more productive, giving them the education they need to face challenges that we haven't even envisioned yet. We're preparing them to continue serving their nation. That's pretty high quality, frankly, and I'm very honored to be part of this.
Q: Is there any one challenge that you would like to address as an initial priority?
A: Everyone's leadership style is different. We oftentimes give a lot of lip service to the fact that people are most important, but I really believe that. And so what I will try to do is to make sure that the staff, faculty and the people who work here who are trying to produce this product...and our product is the staff officers who come out of here ready to work on bigger issues and succeed...that they have the best of everything we could possibly give them. In the end, the answer to your question is I'm not sure yet, but I want to help the faculty and students succeed because when these students leave here...as I heard somebody say the other day...there's plenty of war out there right now. And a lot of these people are coming right from it. They're going to come in here, and they're going to go right back to it. And that's true of all services. In the end, that gives us a greater sense of urgency to do our mission as best as we can.
Q: Having come from a carrier strike group, how do you envision the work we do here at NWC tying into the operational Navy?
A: Everybody who comes here brings a level of that operational flavor. We have guys coming right off the front lines. In the end, it is just kind of an indelible part of our mission here. As I said in my remarks at the change of command, this is where the academy meets the waterfront. I'm living proof of that because two weeks ago I was commanding a carrier strike group in the Indian Ocean, and today I'm president of the Naval War College. So, in the end, almost by definition this place combines education and the operational...so that when people go back out there, they'll have a better understanding of the complexities of the world. They'll be able to think. I want to provide the opportunity for these people to hone their thinking. The term is "critical thinking." I think you have to be careful with that term because that could imply a certain way of thinking and that's not what I mean at all. When I say "critical thinking," I mean that our students ask questions and challenge assumptions. They look at other ways to do things. They come up with new ideas. And that's what this place has tried to do since the beginning. We look at war and the reasons for war. And that's what our profession is about.
Q: The resident student body is a very diverse mix of multi-service, interagency, and international representatives. Could you tell why this is important?
A: We have students from 48 countries here, and when they leave, they're going to go back to their countries and assume a leadership role. They are part of a very exclusive fraternity and sorority of men and women who have gone through this process, this education and then gone back to senior leadership roles in their navies and armies. Bottom line is they've established a network of people. Arleigh Burke's vision in 1956 was that international students would establish personal and professional relationships, so that if there's a problem out there, they pick up the telephone and call their classmate to work it out.
Q: So aside from the actual education from coursework, they are really ambassadors here?
A: The education part is tremendous, but you have the added extra value of the personal and professional relationships that these guys establish. For example, when I went to Japan on a port visit earlier this summer, before I got to Japan, I called my NWC classmate, now a Japanese flag officer...our families have been friends now over ten years. I called him and told him I was coming to Sasebo, and he called his buddies in Sasebo....but the bottom line is that was a network. So if there's a problem sometime, I can still pick up the phone and call him and say "what should we do about this problem," and he can help. We all become part of the solution, not a part of the problem. When I walked into the international dinner the other night, which was the first thing we did after I took command, and I saw the Indian officer and his spouse talking with the Pakistani officer and his spouse, I saw the Korean officer and his spouse talking with the Japanese officer and his spouse. All those places where there are historic issues...that can be overcome over time with personal relationships. And that's what this is all about.
Q: How does it feel to take the college into its 125th year of service?
A: I think it's pretty cool. I really do. This was the first war college in the United States, and it was the first one in the world. Stephen B. Luce came up with this idea and in the end, as I read the history, he not only started the college, he enrolled himself! So as president he was also a student. The point being that life is a journey with life-long learning involved. And in the end, I know that I will probably learn as much from this tour as I could possibly ever teach or give. So I'm very pleased to be here, to work with this world-class faculty and to meet all the students as I walk around. And I do walk around a lot. That's my nature.
Q: How is the War College and Newport now compared to when you were a student here in 1998?
A: I haven't been around enough to know. I've seen changes in the curriculum. I know that we have enlarged the faculty. I know that we enlarged the student body. But that's just scratching the surface. Come back in a month and a half, and I'll be in a better position to answer.
Q: Is there one special item that you make it a point to display on your wall or your desk when you go to a new command?
A: Normally it's a photo of my kids. That was one thing I was able to bring with me from the Ronald Reagan. The rest had to be shipped. I have two or three gadgets that I keep on my desk. One of which is the top of the champagne bottle from my wedding that I knocked off with my sword when we were married in France. It's a tradition. You knock it off with the back end of your sword. We call it sabering the bottle...We'll be married 26 years.
Q: Do admirals have any downtime, and if so, what do you like to do on your time off?
A: You take it where you can get it. I essentially flew in from Singapore on Oct. 28. Of course, you repeat the day, so I got here on the 28th and started right in on turning over here and took over on the 6th of November. Hopefully, I'll get some time at the holidays. I can only hope this environment will lend itself to a little more time with my family. I've been deployed for over the last six months, so I'm pretty happy to be home.
Q: Have you been up to the New England area before?
A: This is actually our fourth time to living up here. I've been coming up here since I was a midshipman, and I really enjoy it up here. In fact, this was the first place my wife, Anne, and I lived as a married couple in the United States. She's French. I married her when I was in France. And when I brought her here, this was the first place she ever lived in the United States. So there are people here she's known our entire married life.
Q: Did she teach you to speak French?
A: No, I learned French in high school. But Anne's kept me fluent. We speak French all the time.
Q: Looking back on your career, what do you recommend to junior personnel as they progress through their careers?
A: I would encourage them...there's no particular duty station or thing like that...but one thing I would encourage everyone to do is read. I am a voracious reader. I read a lot of different things.
Q: What is your favorite book and why?
A: My favorite book is the one I'm just about to read next. I get very interested and excited to read different things. There's not one particular book where I'd say you've got to read this book. There's an excitement that comes along with reading that I've had since I was a child when I went in to the library and asked to check out a certain book, and the librarian said, "You're just a little kid, you can't read that." Well, that was like a red flag in front of a bull. I just read and read and read. I told the librarian I had already read all the books in the children's section, and there was nothing else.
Q: What are your thoughts on the Navy Professional Reading Program?
A: What I found is, what I encourage my staff to read is most of the books on the list even before the list was developed. The list is very, very good. There's great literature in that. And I would encourage everybody to read great literature.
Q: Do you see yourself putting out your own personal list?
A: I have my own little list, but I think everybody's got reading lists. I do however have a film list because I think there have been films developed and run over the last 15 or 20 years, some of which are really worth watching. I'm not advocating film in the classroom, but I will tell you there are movies that are very helpful, that show examples of leadership. That's just something I think is interesting.
Q: Would you like to mention one title?
A: A French film called "Capitaine Conan." It's in French, but with English subtitles. It's about World War I, and it is a very interesting study in leadership. And the guy who's the officer in question, he's a real maverick, and in fact he drives his superiors nuts, but he gets the job done very, very well. It's very interesting. I found it in the library in our last duty station. That's how I saw it. But there are a lot of films like that, and you have to go looking for them. But I brought my list if anyone wants to see it. (The movie, "Capitaine Conan," is based on the novel by Roger Vercel, first published in 1934 and translated in English as "Captain Conan." The movie was originally released in 1996.)
Q: Who do you like in the upcoming Army-Navy game?
A: The good news is that this is one day a year when the Army and the Navy can agree to disagree. And go at it hammer and all. But I think it's pretty clear that the Navy is on a roll and you never know because there's a lot of emotion involved in that ballgame, so I may eat my words. But it's certainly fun to go and watch that game and watch it on t.v. and hopefully the Navy will win by a substantial margin, and life can go on. It's a lot of fun.
Q: What is the most important thing that the faculty, staff, and students of NWC should know about you?
A: I care deeply about this institution. I think that education of our future leaders is very, very important, and I know it conflicts often with needs of the service and the desire to keep line officers doing command things and keeping their careers on track. But this year at Newport will be what they make of it. In the end, I can only say that they should consider this time battlefield preparation. That they should consider this time preparation for their future jobs. And some of these people coming through here may be destined for jobs of high significance, so use every moment they can to prepare themselves here. I feel very strongly about that. I can look back from my time here as a student, and I now can see areas in which this place changed my thinking. I had certain ideas as a junior officer. I came here after I had command of a destroyer, and I found that I had different ideas beginning to form as I left here. Now looking back 10 years later, I've been an Olmsted scholar, I have my master's degree, I studied in Europe...I thought I knew a lot. I did a tour in the Pentagon, in strategy and policy, and didn't realize there was a lot I didn't know. That's been my discovery at each duty station I go to. That is, I realize there's a lot that I don't know. So, everyone should take advantage of the time, this world-class faculty, and read and reflect. In fact, a very famous professor at Princeton once told the students, "your work looks good...you need to spend more time looking out the window." Looking out the window here, I know exactly what he's talking about. That's when your ideas are going to come to you. That's when you're going to put it all together.
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