NEWPORT NEWS, Va. Out my window at Huntington Ingalls Industries, I can see the USS Enterprise, the first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier ever built.
She is the eighth United States naval vessel to bear that name, dating back to the Continental Navy sloop-of-war that served in Lake Champlains Battle of Quebec in 1775.
Even the Star Trek Enterprise was named for her. She is decommissioned now, but for a half-century, she was Americas sharpest spear at the Cuban Missile Crisis, in Vietnam, in the Persian Gulf.
Behind her on historic Hampton Roads, I see the outline of our newest carrier the USS Gerald R. Ford, which will soon go to sea and become a symbol of American strength and resolve for the next half-century.
Seeing them together the Enterprise and the Ford is an astonishing convergence, 100 years of our nations history in one place.
An aircraft carrier represents the best of America in every way. Think for a moment about the vision, the imagination, the technology, the skill, the will and the tens of millions of labor hours required to build a ship that will be at sea for 50 years.
The hallowed purpose: never to sail on a mission of conquest, but always to keep the seas open and the world stable.
An aircraft carrier represents our commitment to invest in, believe in and prepare for the national security future of America.
This is the very commitment we need to make for the future of our children.
We have fallen desperately behind in teaching our children the most basic skill: the love of learning.
Study after study shows that the most powerful and cost-effective way to make our children lifelong learners is to start them on that path before school when they are 2 and 3 and 4 years old.
The United States ranks third from the bottom among 36 industrialized countries in preschool enrollment.
I have been touched by early education in the most personal way. My wife, Nancy, has been a passionate preschool educator for many years, and I have seen up close how she unlocks the love of learning inside children.
That is the word she uses unlocks and it is astonishing to watch. Each child requires their own key. And once that love for learning is unlocked, all things become possible.
An aircraft carrier is an engineering marvel, but its power is not embedded in technology or weaponry.
The power of USS Gerald R. Ford, like the power of the Enterprise, will come from our best people, particularly the 5,000 average age of 19 who will take her around the world, wherever needed.
