The following speech was delivered by Commander Joel Tiu in July 2010 at Camp Victory-Baghdad,Iraq: BG Perna, COL Sorensen, COL Simonson, ladies and gentlemen, good evening. I would like to thank you all for being here and General, Sir, I am honored by your presence and I want to especially thank you for taking the time out of your extremely busy day to do this for me. The oath taking ceremony you just witnessed is no longer required for promotion in the United States Navy. However, I wanted to do it since this will most likely be my last promotion, and there is no better place to do it than here in Iraq surrounded by real combat troops. Like General Perna, I use motivational quotes all the time. Unlike the General, however, I’m not smart enough to come up with my own, so I rely on the wisdom of the great thinkers to stay motivated. Here are some of them: Growing up in the Philippines, the future was bleak and job opportunities were in short supply. So my happiest moment came in 1984 when I was selected to enlist in the Navy in Subic Bay, considering they only recruit 400 out of 30,000 applicants per year. I consider myself exceedingly lucky then and my luck continued throughout my naval career, but as Seneca said “Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.” In the Navy we like to say “Fair winds and following seas,” but Edward Gibbon went further and said that “The winds and the waves are always on the side of the ablest navigators.” I truly believe that you can’t control the wind, but you can adjust your sails, and actually used that quote at my first reenlistment, back when I was much younger and knew everything! As I grew older though, I’ve come to realize the words of Charles Darwin when he said “It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change.” I equate this to a military career, and after almost 26 years of naval service, I can attribute my continued success and survival to my adaptability, more than anything else. Finally I’d like to say that I love our country and everything she stands for. She is far and away the greatest country in the world. Growing up in a third world country, and having visited many countries around the world since, gives me a greater appreciation for the quality of life, opportunities, and freedom we all enjoy. So I’d like to end with a quote by Stephen Decatur, the hero of the Barbary Wars and the youngest naval officer to attain the rank of Captain, he said, “Our country! In her intercourse with foreign nations, may she always be in the right; but our country, right or wrong.” Once again, thank you, God Bless You, and God Bless America.