Rear Admiral Kenneth Blackmon

What a privilege to sit down with Rear Admiral Kenneth Blackmon, Vice Commander at US Fleet Forces Command, who was in the Principality for a friendly visit on March 9. At a private cocktail, the officer was welcomed by members and friends of the US Navy League of the French Riviera – Monaco Council, as well as members of the Yacht Club de Monaco, of which the Manhattan Yacht Club is a reciprocal club.

With Sail4th.org, Admiral Blackmon will oversee the largest tall ship gathering from around the world in July 2026. Monaco’s maritime heritage Tuiga (1909) and Viola (1908) will sail to New York to celebrate 250th anniversary of the American Declaration of Independence on July 4. 

Beyond the semiquincentennial, he also talked about the roles that legacy, technology, and women play in the US Navy. And what it means to serve your country.

Nancy Heslin: Can you tell us about your distinguished 37-year career with the US Navy?

Rear Admiral Kenneth Blackmon: I am the Vice Commander at US Fleet Forces Command in Norfolk, Virginia. My boss is responsible for all ships, submarines, and aircraft on the East Coast of the United States. He is also the naval component commander to Northern Command that provides defense support for civil authorities and maritime homeland defense, as well as being the naval component commander for Strategic Command. He’s responsible for all our ballistic missile submarines in the world.

My job is to assist him, and the rest of the staff there, in executing those missions that we’re responsible for. It’s very busy right now and it’s been busy ever since I joined in 2021. We help to generate and train the forces that deploy. So forces that right now are in harm’s way were trained by our team.

You’ve been in the service with the Navy for almost 40 years. When you visit academies where young people want to have a career in the Navy, what is the question you get asked the most?

I get a lot of questions, from midshipmen and cadets about what is life is like at sea, aboard ship. And I share with them how interesting and different it is to be out to sea. It’s a unique experience sailing across the Pacific Ocean, when you’re out in virtually the middle of the ocean. You go out in the evening and look up and you see, you know, a hundred thousand stars or a billion stars or whatever, and it’s just a surreal experience. You’re very minuscule in that big world.

And then there’s the power of the sea. My first ship was a destroyer. When we were cruising on deployment, we hit an area with 40-foot waves. You realize how vulnerable you are even on such a powerful ship, that those seas can be really formidable.

I would imagine that if you are in sea conditions like that but you’re still trying to be that strong Navy sailor, you would not want show your emotions to anyone else on the ship?

I learned very early on that when I was told there were going be rough seas, I always took a pill to keep me from getting seasick. You really need to be on your game when you’re out at sea.

What are some of the other aspects about being in the US Navy that maybe midshipmen don’t think about?

I think right now there is such a focus for the Navy on the professional development of their military, their navy officers, and their sailors, that there’s great opportunities for additional education, for exchange programs, even with corporations. We’ve put Navy sailors into Google and Amazon to see how those operations work and then bring that experience back to the Navy to help us to continue to improve and create efficiencies.

The other aspect is that – certainly as a naval officer, a midshipman coming out of the   Academy or an ROTC program – you’re going to have responsibility for up to 50 or 60 people right away. Immediately you walk on the ship, you’re responsible for this.

What do you mean when you say ROTC?

The Reserve Officer Training Corps are universities where our students also do Navy classes. They get commissioned like they would coming out of the Academy. So, you get a public or a private education and are then commissioned into the Navy out of that program.

Being responsible for 50 people is a lot to put on someone right away. How do you train them?

It is. I think they do a fantastic job at the Naval Academy and through the ROTC programs to get people prepared, but it really is a test that happens in real time. You learn whether you’ve got it or not.

In my case, I did an International Affairs Program at George Washington University and was commissioned. My class started with 229 students and we commissioned 33 of those original students, so there was quite an attrition rate of those students who came in.

I think part of the attrition is that you realize you’re part of an important mission that’s not always safe.

What do you remember as being the toughest part of your training? I’m sure it still sticks in your mind.

The part of the training that was most challenging was being pulled out for six weeks or so of the summer to go out with the fleet and serve with other sailors. That was pretty challenging. I did that in our base out of Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. We would be up at 5 am and come back into port at 10 or 11 pm. Then do it all over again the next day.

If you look at today’s climate, there’s a lot of instability in the world and a people have different feelings about different countries. So how does the US Navy teach someone to serve their country?

It takes a special kind of background or special kind of patriotism. We do see quite a number of Navy personnel that come as part of a legacy, from families that have served. My father was a naval officer and had done the ROTC program at Penn State. He was stationed on the Sixth Fleet flagship and so my parents spent their first year of marriage in Villefranche in 1962. Part of my coming back here has been to be able to celebrate his legacy.

And what role do women now play in the Navy?

I have an opportunity in my role to go to our recruit training center in Great Lakes and interact with the new sailors coming in. And it’s really interesting to hear their stories and hear their questions. A couple things that were really unique was how diverse it is, how many women are coming into the Navy, and all military services, but also minorities, people from foreign countries that come into the Navy. And part of their opportunity is to become citizens of the United States once they’ve served.

If you look back to when you began your studies, does technology now play a different role in education and how we learn?

In the US Navy, we’ve looked at technology as an enabler so that the sailors and the midshipmen are able to utilize technology. We’re really trying to capitalize on that, but it does come back to fundamentals. When the Navy was founded 250 years ago it was a sailing ship navy and we navigated by the stars.

We are teaching these midshipmen how to navigate by the stars because we can’t guarantee that we’re going to have the technology to enable everything that we can do, so we have something called mission command. That’s when we tell our commanders. They have a responsibility to actually execute the mission in the absence of communication. If we can’t communicate from the fleet, then they still know what their mission is and they can execute it.

We are trying, first of all, to build redundancies so that we can continue to maintain communication, but also to be able to look at those what-ifs, you know, those contingencies of losing communications or having challenges at sea.

When you look back over the years, what’s one of the moments that was either the most challenging or just took your breath away in service?

I was in Kuwait three days before Saddam Hussein invaded. Now, when I speak to sailors at various events, I ask, “Who has participated in Desert Storm or Desert Shield?” And there’s usually only one or two hands that go up – or no hands.

That Kuwait experience was really very early in my career and it was the real thing, as in “I am in harm’s way right now.” It was challenging, but coming out of it, I felt that the training that was provided, even in the short time I had been in service, had helped prepare me for that.

And the Navy has provided great opportunities for me. I’ve been to 41 countries. I’ve worked for NATO, I’ve sailed all the oceans. I’ve been really fortunate and I wouldn’t do it any differently, really.

The US Navy League French Riviera and Monaco Council has just been revived. What is the purpose of these associations over time for the US Navy?

It’s really important for our sailors. To understand, a lot of them deploy for 6, 7, 8 or 9 months. That’s a lot of time away from family and friends. And so that support system that the Navy League provides for our sailors’ families back home is critical to the execution of our mission. We don’t want our sailors that are out doing their mission to have concerns with the family back home, and the Navy League is critical to being able to provide that support and that link from communities all over the world. The Navy has had a long history here in the Port of Monaco, that’s for sure.

It’s a big year for the United States celebrating its 250th anniversary and you are a part of organizing the July 4th tall ship event?

I have a team at Fleet Forces Command. They’re responsible for the International Naval Review in New York City for a semi-quincentennial celebration so we’re really just super excited to be able to have so many allies and partners participate with us – with tall ships, with warships – it’s going to be a really fantastic event.

And Monaco’s Tuiga yacht will be in New York for July 4th.

So, July 1st through the 8th will be the full celebration, with the main event on July 4th. It’s going to be phenomenal. And the other thing I’ll mention, just because we’re so close to France here, is that the Statue of Liberty will have a prominent position in the videos and photos of the event.

Article first published March 23, 2026. Image copyright Nancy Heslin.