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Duffy Delivers the 89th Commencement Address at the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy, Jun. 23, 2025

June 23, 2025 · US Department of Transportation · 1:57:52

Embedded from the source channel — never re-uploaded. Watch on YouTube

What happened

Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy delivered the 89th commencement address at the United States Merchant Marine Academy at Kings Point, New York, in the Department of Transportation’s upload of the full June 23, 2025 ceremony. The department’s announcement, carried in the upload’s description, quotes Superintendent Vice Admiral Joanna Nunan welcoming Duffy back to Kings Point and looking to the prominent role he sees for graduates in the revitalization of America’s shipping and shipbuilding enterprise, as she stated it. The ceremony program as announced named Duffy as the commencement keynote speaker and special guest, alongside the Navy’s Director for Strategic Systems Programs as commissioning officer.

In his address, Duffy told the graduates their frustrations, sacrifices, and call for change had been heard loud and clear — not just by him, he said, but by the President of the United States. Restoring maritime dominance, he said, is critical to America’s national security, and it needs more men and women to sail the ships the nation has now and the great ships it is going to build. He warned the class plainly, as he put it, that the nation stands on the precipice of potential conflict, that rough waters lie ahead from the Suez Canal to the South China Sea, and that they may find themselves in harm’s way in their country’s service. He closed the passage by turning to the parents, crediting them with raising graduates he described as moral, faith-filled, intelligent, and resourceful.

Why it matters

The Kings Point address is Duffy’s maritime-dominance doctrine delivered to the institution that supplies its officers: the academy’s graduates — licensed merchant marine officers and commissioned officers in the armed forces, as the academy’s own description in the upload states — are the workforce the administration’s shipbuilding revival depends on, and the Secretary used their commencement to tell them their institution’s complaints had reached the President.

Sources: U.S. Department of Transportation, “Secretary Duffy Delivers 89th Commencement Address at the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy” (official upload, embedded above). Remarks as delivered by Secretary Duffy at the ceremony; academy description as carried in the upload.