This year marks the 74th Anniversary of the Battle of Midway. On June 4th 1942, a vastly outnumbered and outgunned U.S. Fleet defeated the finest of the Imperial Japanese Navy in the waters off a small Pacific Atoll named Midway. Their daring combination of intelligence, tactics, courage and sacrifice forever changed the course of the war and world history.

In 1999 then Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Jay L. Johnson announced that beginning with the 2000 observance, June 4 would become as significant as Oct. 13 — the Navy’s birthday. “Twice a year, we will pause as a Navy to reflect upon our proud heritage and to build in all hands a renewed awareness of our tradition and history,” Johnson said.

For the past 15 years, victory at the Battle of Midway has been celebrated on the battle’s anniversary with a formal dinner in Washington, DC. This dinner is sponsored by a consortium of nonprofit Navy-related Associations and Foundations, listed on the Event Sponsors tab.

One other event being planned to celebrate the Battle of Midway is a ceremony at the U.S. Navy memorial on the morning of 3 June, hosted by the Vice Chief of Naval Operations.

This year’s speaker: David W. Jourdan, Nauticos

David W. Jourdan is the founder and president of Nauticos, a company devoted to the exploration of the deep ocean. He studied physics and engineering at the U.S. Naval Academy and Johns Hopkins University, and served as a U.S. Navy submarine officer during the Cold War. As a physicist at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, and as leader of Nauticos, he became an expert in the exploitation of undersea environmental data, and has supported many scientific, archaeological, and military programs. He has written about diverse technical topics including underwater navigation, oceanographic survey, remote sensing, underwater vehicles, ocean exploration, and ocean renewable energy applications.

Jourdan and his Nauticos team managed ocean operations for The Discovery Channel during the live broadcast from the wreck of the Titanic in 1998. He is responsible for the discovery of the Japanese aircraft carrier Kaga, sunk at the World War II Battle of Midway in the Pacific, and the Japanese World War II submarine I-52 in the Atlantic, both at depths exceeding 17,000 feet. His team discovered the missing Israeli submarine Dakar in the Mediterranean at 10,000 feet and he has led two deep ocean expeditions in search of Amelia Earhart’s lost Lockheed Electra airplane. He has spoken to military, business, and scientific organizations across the country about his major discoveries and has appeared on the National Geographic Channel, The Discovery Channel, and the Today Show.

Jourdan has worked with on projects to develop the use of cold Deep-Ocean Water for fresh water production, cold agriculture, and other renewable energy applications. He is currently working with World View, a company which aims to develop a balloon-launched capsule to send manned and unmanned payloads to the stratosphere for for science, industry, and tourism. Jourdan has published three non-fiction books about his discoveries: Never Forgotten: The Search and Discovery of Israel’s Lost Submarine Dakar, The Deep Sea Quest for Amelia Earhart, and The Search for the Japanese Fleet, chronicling the discovery of Kaga. He is currently working on a book about the history and discovery of the submarine I-52.

Jourdan was named Maryland Small Business Person of the Year in 1999 and is a Fellow of the Explorer’s Club. He has been active in many humanitarian programs, including Rotary International since 1994, and has traveled to Africa to support initiatives to combat AIDS and provide fresh water to rural communities. He currently lives in the coastal Maine village of Cape Porpoise.