Eric Tuwalski: Philadelphia can help provide for the common defense

President Trump recently mentioned in his joint session to Congress this past March the need to build up our military defense and naval shipbuilding. The United States has fallen way behind naval shipbuilding and our adversaries know it. China, our number one adversary, is building up its naval dominance in the Pacific Region and setting its eyes on maritime dominance into our hemisphere. 

I hope I am not getting the impression citizens in our region do not know or are playing naivete in the thinking all will be okay and lost in translation. Our local television media outlets in Philadelphia focused on consumer prices rising and employee 401ks ready to take a nose dive on retirement benefits on the local 6 o’clock news due to the effect of President Trump’s reciprocal tariffs towards nations practicing unfair trade conditions with the United States. The reciprocal tariffs have been at the forefront of news media making us all believe we are in for a far worse economic downward spiral than the one President Trump inherited from former President Biden’s failed “Build Back Better” plan, which was supposed to kick the economy into high gear during the Covid-19 lockdown. 

China’s plan for global economic and military dominance over the United States through their naval build up is more worrying than a small hiccup in my retirement savings. I am going back to our foundation as a nation to our Preamble of the United States Constitution. The fifty-two-word concise paragraph is the essence of our republic — specifically the words “to provide for the common defense.” 

I recall in school and through my naval training studying President Reagan’s naval defense build-up against the former Soviet Union calling for a “Six Hundred Ship Navy,” the answer to counter Soviet threats on a global scale in the open waters. President Reagan had full support of his Navy Secretary, John Lehman, a Navy veteran and Philadelphia native. Lehman took up the mantle to help fulfill Reagan’s policy to ensure peace through strength. The Reagan administration authorized more naval shipbuilding infused with recommissioning warships from the reserve fleet, including the battleship New Jersey (BB-62), which was recommissioned in Long Beach Naval Shipyard is now sitting across the Delaware River on the Camden waterfront. From time to time, I still reference Lehman’s book, On Seas of Glory, in my lesson plans to students as a reminder we still live in an unpredictable world where hostilities can occur at a moment’s notice. Trump is also taking a page from Reagan practicing peace through strength with this defense warship building initiative. 

During the winter, we witnessed the USS John F. Kennedy (CV 67), the last conventional carrier built leaving the Philadelphia Navy Yard in tug and tow making her way down to Brownsville, Texas ready to be dismantled and recycled for future parts for new warships. I recall seeing the JFK while on active duty during a port visit to Naval Station Mayport outside Jacksonville, Florida almost twenty-two years ago. I even had the opportunity to show the carrier a few years ago in the Philadelphia Navy Yard to my daughter while we drove around the area taking in Philadelphia History. When the JFK made her final trek down the Delaware River, the local media was in awe and wonder. I had another take on the whole experience: our need for an increase in our national defense. Since the end of the Cold War, I have been appalled over the lack of planning and strategic initiatives, as we see less U.S. warships on the high seas. 

The Philadelphia Navy Yard area can be refitted again for naval shipbuilding. I recently read and reviewed two reports from Michael Purzycki, an analyst writer for the Center for Maritime Strategy and Wilson Beaver, a senior policy advisor for the Allison Center for National Security from. They both wrote respectfully during the summer and fall of 2024 the value of the Philadelphia Navy Yard being used again for commercial naval shipbuilding. The Hanwha Ocean Company out of South Korea made a $100 million investment in buying the navy yard. They plan to build ships and maintenance on current ships at the South Philadelphia site. According to Beaver, Hanwha secured an annual maintenance contract with the United States to perform maintenance work on currently commissioned naval warships. 

If one of our closest allies is willing to help support our shipbuilding efforts, I say let this be done for the purpose of our national security. An additional shipyard would benefit our nation’s Navy and reduce the logjam of shipbuilding and procurement orders on hold. Marinette Marine in Wisconsin will be building the new Constellation-class frigates according to Beaver and the Philadelphia Navy Yard could be another suitable location for more of this new class of frigates to be built, making a positive impact on the local economy in the process. Philadelphia is an ideal location compared to the current location at Marinette, due to the amount of time the ships will take leaving the Great Lakes, Saint Lawrence River, Saint Lawrence Seaway, and finally to open water. 

“We the People” have a voice. We need the support from a strong naval force to thwart off our adversaries on the high seas such as China. Our elected officials in the Philadelphia region need to get on board to support new naval shipbuilding in South Philadelphia. We the People must support the common defense. The awe and wonder will come if we see new naval warships transiting down the Delaware River ready to defend our great nation and not an old decommissioned warship on its way for scrap. 

Eric Tuwalski, Ed.D. is the Social Studies Department Chair at Archbishop John Carroll High School.