US Naval Institute: Someone Lied For 1 Million Dollars

Ever since the Naval Institute meeting Friday morning I've had a hard time focusing because something happened I could not quite make sense of at the time. Someone lied for 1 million dollars.

Several months ago I recruited a post command CDR to join the US Naval Institute, before the mission statement change became an issue. The CDR had written articles for my blog and was actively engaged as a writer in other places online, so I kept encouraging him to engage with the Naval Institute. Since joining last year he has been one of several officers who has consulted with several USNI staff offering ideas towards helping facilitate outreach and participation among more of the younger officers in the Navy that folks inside USNI have long recognized they have had a problem reaching.

During the Q&A period of the meeting, this post command CDR held what is best described as a Captains Mast during the meeting with the Board of Directors. He asked a relatively open but specific question:

Was there ever any discussion or money spent towards divesting the US Naval Institute of the Naval Institute Press. He phrased the question multiple ways and asked multiple times. It was the first time I had ever attended a Captain's Mast.

Steve Waters said no, and in Captain's Mast style, the CDR pointed and asked several folks around the room including legal counsel and other Board of Directors present. All of them replied they have never even discussed nor looked at nor funded any effort to divest USNI of the Press. Then CEO Tom Wilkerson chimed in saying that Tom had gone out and raised $1 million from investors towards protecting the Naval Institute Press, with donors including 2 Secretary of the Navy's and Tom Clancy.

I have heard rumors and have seen emails from members stating that the Naval Institute Press was indeed being looked at by the Board of Directors as being outsourced or otherwise sold off. I called Tom later on Friday to confirm exactly what the $1 million was for, and asked him if at any point he told any of these people donating money that the Naval Institute Press was under threat by the Board of Directors while raising money. Tom replied he had done exactly that.

So here is the problem USNI faces. Either Tom Wilkerson has lied to 2 Secretary's of the Navy and important past contributors to USNI like Tom Clancy in an effort to raise 1 million dollars to protect the Naval Institute Press from a threat that never existed, or Steve Waters, legal counsel, Nancy Brown, and Don Brennan all lied to the CDR holding Captain's Mast on the member meeting floor in front of all of the members present when they said they had never even discussed it at any time.

Who is telling a 1 million dollar lie, because this is a serious problem.

I feel very disturbed by this. Someone at the very top of USNI leadership is telling a lie worth a million dollars. It troubled me when I heard the question and actually distracted me badly standing in line waiting to ask my question and quite frankly, I haven't been able to think about much else sense.

I called Tom Wilkerson on Friday with this concern, and he provided me proof that he was being honest about the threat by the Board of Directors to the Naval Institute Press and he was honest with the donors. I'm not going to be his attorney though nor speak for him, so I'll let other members learn the truth and ask for evidence themselves. The important point I will make is simple: Tom feels very comfortable that he is on the right side of this issue.

After this weekend, I will be scaling back my working relationship with USNI considerably, as most of it is volunteer work anyway. I honestly believe Steve Waters, John Morgan, Nancy Brown, and the other Board of Director members are dishonest and potentially deceitful, and I have been provided enough evidence to convince myself that legal counsel flat out lied to the membership today and to the face during a direct question from of one of the very few Naval Officers in attendance at the annual meeting. Until those people are no longer running the organization as members of the Board of Directors, I see no reason to volunteer my time supporting that organization, because USNI isn't going anywhere anyway.

In hindsight I can't recall a single shred of empirical data offered in the meeting to support the claims by Steve Waters on any issue, and now I have evidence he and his legal counsel was being dishonest to members. Without any evidence provided, membership is being asked to trust what Steve Waters is saying about USNI despite evidence a million dollar lie involving former Secretary's of the Navy and important authors like Tom Clancy was told out in the open during the members meeting.

Something is very wrong at USNI. How much money is USNI paying legal counsel to lie to the membership? Some of the other BoD members may want to look into that.