Vice President Mike Pence To Give Naval Academy Graduation Speech

ANNAPOLIS, MD – Vice President Mike Pence will speak at the graduation and commissioning ceremony for the U.S. Naval Academy’s Class of 2017, Friday, May 26, at 10 a.m. This event is not open to the public, the school said in the announcement on Monday.

Pence, a native of Columbus, Ind., is a graduate of Hanover College and Indiana University School of Law. At the age of 40, he was elected to the United States Congress. Pence has served as Chairman of the House Republican Study Committee and House Republican Conference Chairman. In 2013, he was elected as the 50th Governor of Indiana. Pence was sworn in as the 48th U.S. Vice President on Jan. 20.

For those who will not be attending the event, the 2017 Graduation and Commissioning ceremony may be viewed beginning at 8:45 a.m. that day via a livestream.

Commissioning Week events begin May 19 and run through the next week. Highlights include the arrival of the Blue Angels squad on May 23 and its practice later that day, its flight demonstration on May 24, and the fly-over at the start of the graduation ceremony on May 26.

Founded in 1845, the U.S. Naval Academy is a prestigious four-year service academy that prepares midshipmen morally, mentally and physically to be professional officers in the naval service. More than 4,400 men and women representing every state in the U.S. and several foreign countries make up the student body, known as the Brigade of Midshipmen, according to the school.

U.S. News and World Reports has recognized the Naval Academy as a top five undergraduate engineering school and a top 20 best liberal arts college. Midshipmen learn from military and civilian instructors and participate in intercollegiate varsity sports and extracurricular activities. They also study subjects such as leadership, ethics, small arms, drill, seamanship and navigation, tactics, naval engineering and weapons, cyber security, and military law.

Upon graduation, midshipmen earn a Bachelor of Science degree in a choice of 25 different subject majors and go on to serve at least five years of exciting and rewarding service as commissioned officers in the U.S. Navy or U.S. Marine Corps.

For more information about the Naval Academy, visit: www.usna.edu or our Facebook page. For more information about Commissioning Week events at the Naval Academy, visit http://www.usna.edu/CommissioningWeek/.

»Patch file photo of Vice President Mike Pence